PAPER TRAILS
Burden of the weight finally lifts
As many Arkansans were saddened to learn last week, native son Levon Helm, former drummer and singer for The Band, succumbed to cancer Thursday at age 71.
Helm, beset by throat cancer in 1998, won his first battle with it and even recovered his voice, initially lost to radiation treatments.
Helm, who grew up in Turkey Scratch near Marvell, lived fully in the ensuing years, reviving his career and being honored with four Grammys (a lifetime achievement award for his work with The Band and Best Americana and Best Traditional Folk awards for his recent recordings Dirt Farmer, Electric Dirt and Ramble at the Ryman).
He hosted countless Midnight Ramble shows in the studio of his Woodstock, N.Y., farmhouse with his only child, Amy, on stage with him, and welcomed his first two grandchildren into the world.
During that time, it seems Helm also found some measure of peace with his musical past, marred by bitterness toward former bandmate Robbie Robertson regarding who was — and wasn’t — given song-writing credit.
There was a time when he wouldn’t perform some of the group’s iconic songs, including “The Weight.”
After meeting him in Little Rock in 2005 at a private post-show party, I asked Helm why he didn’t play them.
“Those songs have already been sung,” he demurred. “It’s my daughter Amy’s time now. I’m looking to the future.” Undeterred, I persisted. “You may not own the rights to ‘The Weight’ and ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ but you were the lead singer. They are yours. You should own them and embrace them.”
Did what I say have any effect? Who knows? I’m sure others made the same appeal through the years.
But soon after that encounter, Helm began playing “The Weight.”
Recently, the third verse was all his tattered voice could manage, but the intense joy and passion on his face made up for any weakness in his voice.
To see Helm playing “The Weight” with his friends at his home studio in February, visit tinyurl.com/745zp9m.
HIS DAY IN COURT: Late English playwright William Shakespeare (baptized April 26, 1564; died April 23, 1616) soon goes to trial in Little Rock.
Tomorrow from 6 to 7 p.m., a mock trial is set for the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock.
The trial, presented by the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, looks at whether Shakespeare wrote the plays attributed to him with Shakespeare bringing suit, some of the state’s top attorneys serving as prosecution and defense, and U.S. Judge Joe Volpe presiding.
For reservations, call (501) 683-5239 or e-mail public programs@clintonschool. uasys.edu.
IN GOOD COMPANY: Who gave authors Roy Blount Jr. and Ian Frazier a tour of Little Rock after they appeared at the Arkansas Literary Festival? Former New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly editor Bill Whitworth.