Ties That Bind: The Best of Levon Helm 1975-1996

Performer: Levon Helm
Producer: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; Donald "Duck" Dunn; Jim Tullo; RCO All Stars; Fred Carter, Jr.; Ralph Shuckett; Aaron Hurwitz; Jim Nipar; Jimmy Johnson; Joe Walsh; Levon Helm; Matt Butler; Randy Scruggs; Rick Chertoff; The Band; Barry Beckett; John Simon
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Contains recordings with The Band, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John Martyn, and Ringo Starr's All Star Band as well as solo tracks. Liner Note Author: Terry Reilly. Arrangers: Donald "Duck" Dunn; Levon Helm. Thank heaven for Australia's Raven Records, who with this release have managed to pick up the best odds and ends of Levon Helm's solo career, and by shrewdly mixing in some select tracks by the latter-era version of the Band, have made a suitable portrait of this affecting musician. Helm was arguably the heart and soul of the Band, and his back porch Arkansas drawl gave many of the Band's best songs their strong sense of history and character. Unfortunately, his solo career has been decidedly hit or miss, and with the highlights of that career gleaned and preserved on this disc, it is possible to imagine what could have been. Tracks that seemed dead in the water in their original album settings pick up a contextual glow here, and Helm's versions of songs like "Take Me to the River" and "Willie and the Hand Jive" don't sound quite so tired and lifeless in this sequence, while the opener, "Milk Cow Boogie," sounds like the Band never broke up at all (which in a way they didn't, they simply collapsed like a tent without enough poles). The two songs that close the disc, "Hurricane" and "Watermelon Time in Georgia," take on a wise and assured air in this context, and The Ties That Bind ends up sounding like the album that Helm should have been making all along. Again, kudos should be given to Raven Records for this wonderful reclamation. ~ Steve Leggett

Primarily known for playing drums and singing with 1960s phenomenon the Band, Levon Helm has, in the intervening years, never fallen fallow or rested on his laurels. The distinctive singer and songwriter made the rare successful musician-to-actor crossover with memorable appearances in over a dozen feature films. He has released excellent solo albums that mine the country end of the Band's spectrum, and in recent years has made musical news by hosting (and sometimes recording) his sprawling, guest-star-laden "Midnight Ramble" concerts at his home in Woodstock, New York. Helm battled and won a bout with throat cancer, which modified his singing style but didn't dampen his artistic spirit.

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