With her massive late ’80s hits “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” and their parent albums, Suzanne Vega (1985) and Solitude Standing (1987), singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega returned folk rock to the mainstream, opening the door for up-and-coming artists like Tracy Chapman, Edie Brickell, and Ani DiFranco. Vega visits Levon Helm Studios on April 23 at 8pm.

The 6th annual Love Rocks NY took place Thursday night at the Beacon Theater in NYC lasting nearly four hours. The event featured a stellar lineup of artists including the reunion of Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos, Mavis Staples, baseball legend Bernie Williams, Hozier, Anders Osborne, and Larkin Poe as well as several celebrity speakers.

The Weight Band, an ensemble featuring former members of The Band and The Levon Helm Band, will release a new record titled Shines Like Gold on Friday, April 1. Shines Like Gold is the second album from the group, and was previewed with a video for “Out of the Wilderness”.

Cocaine, violence... and who the fuck is Neil Diamond ?

Persistence pays off. Singer-songwriter Mike Younger began this project now titled, Burning the Bigtop Down, in January of 2001, over 20 years ago. The original tracks, the same nine Younger originals represented herein, were recorded alongside the departed icons Levon Helm and Jim Dickinson. For reasons which remain inexplicable to us, maybe even to Younger, his label called at the time and told him to shut the project down. Yet, through endless battles with lawyers and a will to win Younger is now able to present the project some twenty years later.

On February 12, 2021, Capitol/UMe will celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Band’s classic third album, Stage Fright, with a suite of newly remixed, remastered and expanded 50th Anniversary Edition packages, including a multi-format Super Deluxe 2CD/Blu-ray/1LP/7-inch vinyl box set photo booklet; digital, 2CD, 180-gram black vinyl, and limited edition 180-gram color vinyl packages. All the Anniversary Edition releases were overseen by principal songwriter Robbie Robertson and boast a new stereo mix by Bob Clearmountain from the original multi-track masters.

Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, and Martin Scorsese praise the Band in the new trailer for Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, an upcoming authorized documentary about the group.

Fifty years on, it’s difficult to convey just how much The Band changed the game. As psychedelia and acid rock were exploding, they were mentally and musically galaxies away, sequestered in Woodstock, creating their earthy, rickety fusion of folk, blues, country, old-school rock and soul.

Five years ago today Levon Helm, a founding member of The Band, died at the age of 71 after a long battle with cancer. Helm’s emotion-filled vocals and swinging drum style were at the heart of many of The Band’s most beloved songs including “The Weight,” “Up On Cripple Creek,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “Ophelia.”

The storied, original Fillmore in San Francisco played host to “Ramble on Rose,” an elegant Rex Foundation benefit on December 3 that featured the Midnight Ramble Band along with a bunch of renowned local guest players. The group, which over the years recorded three “Midnight Ramble Sessions” live CDs with The Band’s co-founder Levon Helm, and was Helm’s final music ensemble before his passing in 2012, rarely performs and even more rarely comes to the West Coast.

From Bob Dylan’s near-drowning to an affair with Carly Simon, revelations from guitarist/songwriter’s tell-all ‘Testimony’