Another music legend has left us.  I came thisclose to seeing Levon Helm this month at the Calvin Theatre but sadly it was canceled as his health declined.  I'm sorry I didn't get to see him in person.  But I'm glad he made his music.

It's OK, if you're not up on Levon or The Band, that's him playing drums and singing lead.  Watch some videos, buy some songs from iTunes and get to know him.

For roughly half a decade, from 1968 through 1975, the Band was one of the most popular and influential rock groups in the world, their music embraced by critics (and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the public) as seriously as the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Their albums were analyzed and reviewed as intensely as any records by their one-time employer and sometime mentor Bob Dylan. Although the Band retired from touring after The Last Waltz and disbanded several years later, their legacy thrived for decades, perpetuated by the bandmates' respective solo careers as well as the enduring strength of the Band's catalog.