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Music CD - Levon Helm: Dirt Farmer
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Music CD: Dirt Farmer
Artist: Levon Helm
List Price: $16.98
Our Price: $9.95
Your Save: $ 7.03 ( 41% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Vanguard Records
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. False Hearted Lover Blues (Traditional)
2. Poor Old Dirt Farmer (Traditional)
3. The Mountain (Steve Earle)
4. Little Birds (Traditional)
5. The Girl I Left Behind (Traditional)
6. Calvary (Byron Isaacs)
7. Anna Lee (Laurelyn Dossett)
8. Got Me A Woman (Paul Kennerley)
9. A Train Robbery (Paul Kennerley)
10. Single Girl, Married Girl (A. P. Carter)
11. The Blind Child (Traditional)
12. Feelin Good (J. B. Lenoir)
13. Wide River To Cross (Buddy Miller, Julie Miller)
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0015707984423
Label: Vanguard Records
Manufacturer: Vanguard Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Vanguard Records
Release Date: 2007-10-30
Studio: Vanguard Records
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Levon Helm's voice carries grit
Comment: Like a Kansas dust storm, Levon Helm's voice is pure grit. With the backing of many of the original Band folks and a lot of Blue Grass sounds this may be the purest folk album of the new century. Songs from Helm's childhood roll along as if they were alway meant to be sung (and heard) this way. There is no pretense only a wood plank porch and friends rejoicing in the sound of their own music, singing and happy to be alive.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An utterly delightful album
Comment: I've always loved Levon Helm, not least because he is from my home state of Arkansas. I felt that his presence in the Band gave that great band a credibility that it would otherwise have lacked (the other members being from Canada). His voice brought to life many of their greatest songs. Who else could have sung "The Night They Burned Old Dixie Down" with such authenticity (contrast their original version with the horrific version by Joan Baez, in which she not only prettifies the song, but inconceivably turns an icon of the Old South from a distinguished general to a riverboat, transforming Helm's "Here comes Robert E. Lee" into her "Here comes the Robert E. Lee," a change that utterly alters the meaning of the song)?
I have to confess, however, that I avoided this album for ages. I had read great reviews, but I had heard Helm interviewed on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. The man has no voice left. He almost literally can't talk, being left with a harsh rasp following throat cancer. I thought the great reviews might stem from sympathy for his condition and for how tough things had been for him in recent years. But I was wrong. The great reviews were based on the album just being flat out great. Unbelievably, although he truly is almost completely unable to talk, the man can still sing. His voice no longer has the ability to soar like it did on his best work with The Band, but he remains a splendidly musical performer.
Helm famously declined to participate in the recording sessions with Bob Dylan in the sixties that resulted in THE BASEMENT TAPES, but interestingly this album is co-produced by Larry Campbell, a member of Dylan's road band in recent years. The other co-producer is Helm's daughter Amy. Many of the album's finest moments result from the wonderful harmonies provided by Amy singing with her father. The band that Campbell and Amy assembled for the album is absolutely first rate and the group of songs selected are utterly brilliant.
This is simply one of the most delightful albums I've listened to in a long time. If you like Helm or roots music or neotraditional folk or alt country or however you want to characterize this music, you will find this irresistibly fine music. This is without any question Helm's finest album since his superb AMERICAN SON and truly stands comparison with his best work.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Refreshing Album
Comment: Starting with the first track, "False Hearted Lover" I enjoyed this CD right from the start. Listeng to, "Feeling Good" does exactly that, it makes you feel good as well as a number of other tracks on the album.
Good job Levon!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Music for the Times
Comment: This is music for the times. And it's no coincidence that it harkens back to the country music of the 20's and 30's, a time of great depression. Perhaps like Levon the country will get back to it's roots, or else wither in it's parched fields like the old dirt farmers' corn.
Customer Rating:
Summary: l found the dirt farmer's corn....lN MY D0ODY!!!
Comment: So let me get this straight, the dirt farmer lost his corn? lf Levon said that once, he'd get the point across. He didn't have to say it over and over and over and over again. lt got to the point where l no longer felt sorry for the dirt farmer who lost all his cororororororn.
Did you notice in the video that one of the farmers looks like Sam the butcher from the Brady Bunch?
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Editorial Reviews:
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Levon Helm's early solo albums, made in the 1970s after the Band initially broke up, were hit-and-miss affairs, but his first solo studio release in 25 years represents a rich return to his Southern roots. With co-production and musical support from daughter Amy (of Ollabelle) and multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell (long a mainstay of Bob Dylan's band), Helm gives organic unity and rough-hewn vitality to a selection of Cajun fiddle waltzes, country blues, hardscrabble folk, and some more contemporary material (from the likes of Steve Earle and Buddy and Julie Miller). Following his recovery from throat cancer, Helm's voice has a slightly different timbre, but his phrasing is unmistakable as the same vocalist who sang "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Rag Mama Rag." With Amy providing harmony and duet vocals and Levon's drumming evoking his signature work with the Band, Helm takes material from a variety of sources and makes it all his own. --Don McLeese
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