Levon, Sandra B. Tooze
3 Rating(s)
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Levon
From Down in the Delta to the Birth of The Band and Beyond

Narrator: Rosemary Benson

Unabridged: 13 hr 27 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HighBridge

Published: 01/26/2021


Synopsis

A dazzling, epic biography of Levon Helm—the beloved, legendary drummer and singer of the Band. He sang the anthems of a generation: "The Weight," "Up on Cripple Creek," and "Life Is a Carnival." Levon Helm's story—told here through sweeping research and interviews with close friends and fellow musicians—is the rollicking story of American popular music itself. In the Arkansas Delta, a young Levon witnessed "blues, country, and gospel hit in a head-on collision," as he put it. The result was rock 'n' roll. As a teenager, he joined the raucous Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, then helped merge a hard-driving electric sound with Bob Dylan's folk roots, and revolutionized American rock with the Band. Helm not only provided perfect "in the pocket" rhythm and unforgettable vocals, he was the Band's soul. Levon traces a rebellious life on the road, from being booed with Bob Dylan to the creative cauldron of Big Pink, the Woodstock Festival, world tours, The Last Waltz, and beyond with the man Dylan called "one of the last true great spirits of my or any other generation."

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Anthony on 2023-05-04 00:57:08

I haven't gotten all the way through the book (no complaints so far) but I'm far enough to say that this narrator is tremendous. She's got a normal very feminine woman's narrator voice that works really well for the text, but when one of the characters is speaking she can totally sound like a crusty old southern dude. It's uncanny. It's not over the top - she just slides into Levon or Ronny Hawkins and then slides right back to the narrator voice without missing a beat.