THE BEAT
And The Band plays on....
by Seth Rogovoy(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Dec. 12, 1996) -- When the members of The Band take the stage at The Studio in downtown Pittsfield on Saturday night, it will mark yet another phase in the long-standing relationship between the legendary rockers and Studio founder Mort Cooperman.
The relationship dates back to the late-'70s and early-'80s when, in the wake of The Last Waltz -- The Band's famed, star-studded farewell concert whose 20th anniversary just passed this last Thanksgiving -- Rick Danko, Levon Helm and Richard Manuel performed as individuals, as duos and with other groups at Cooperman's New York City nightclub, the Lone Star Cafe.
"The first time any of them played the Lone Star was when Danko hooked up with Paul Butterfield," said Cooperman, referring to the late, great Chicago blues harpist, in a recent phone interview from his home in North Pownal, Vt. "That was then followed by Levon playing with the Cate Brothers from Arkansas, then in various configurations, with Levon and Rick occasionally together. And then Manuel came in."
As chance would have it, this critic was at two of those early-'80s shows: one with Helm and Danko playing "unplugged" style as a duo way before that was fashionable, and another with Danko and Manuel fronting a band with other musicians, including Blondie Chaplin. Both times the club was packed to the rafters and there was a feeling in the place of history being made.
Cooperman remembers one night in particular, when Helm and Danko were holding forth on stage at the downtown nightspot. Across from them, seated at the bar only a few feet from the stage, was a figure shrouded in a fur caftan with a scarf wrapped around his or her face, Middle Eastern-style.
"All of a sudden, Levon says, `Bobby D, Bobby D, come on up here,'" recalled Cooperman, "and with that Bob Dylan bounded up on the stage, unwrapped his scarf, picked up a guitar and began to sing. The ones who had been seated next to him at the bar were in a state of shock -- they probably didn't wash their elbows for weeks.
"They opened with a Hank Williams tune and took it to town for another two sets. I remember Steve Forbert tried to get on stage with them, and the bouncer had him at his waist, and he was flailing in the air, because the bouncer didn't know who he was. I think Steve Winwood was there that night too. Those guys don't really jam, they play their songs, but with Dylan it was sort of a trip home, a magic moment, as Doc Pomus would say."
Helm and Danko, of course, were used to playing with Dylan. Before they formed The Band, they toured and recorded with him as The Hawks, and in the mid-'70s they reunited with him for the "Planet Waves" studio album and the "Before the Flood" tour captured on an historic, two-volume live recording of the same name.
In the group's new press bio, The Band gives credit to those early- '80s gigs at the Lone Star as the impetus behind re-forming in 1983 without lead guitarist and chief songwriter Robbie Robertson. With Jim Weider, the group's current guitarist, signed on as Robertson's replacement, Helm, Danko, Manuel and organist Garth Hudson hit the road again as The Band. They toured with that lineup until 1986, when just a week or two after playing a gig at Williams College, pianist Richard Manuel took his own life. In the last few years, they have been touring and recording with Richard Bell on piano and Randy Ciarlante on drums alongside Helm.
This is the lineup expected at The Studio on Saturday night, in a show that begins at 8 with opening act Lord Hill, the long-running local band formerly known as Xavier. According to reports on the Internet newsgroup devoted to The Band, the group has recently been sporting a seventh member at some of its gigs, when actor Steven Seagal has sat in on guitar, bass and drums. Helm recently finished filming the Seagal vehicle "Fire Down Below," in which the Arkansas native plays a preacher, and apparently Seagal and Helm have become fast buddies. With filming completed, Seagal has been following the group around on its current tour. There is no word on whether Seagal will show at The Studio this weekend.
For Cooperman, booking The Band to play at The Studio -- the group played twice at the Night Shift Cafe in North Adams, including the very first show at that venue -- is more than just another day's work. "I can't say it's ritualistic, but it's a way of sharing new things both with the people and with friends. It's like, `hey guys, come put your brand on this, make it real, and meanwhile, let's show the people what you can do.' I want to show them the place. I think they'll like it. I think they'll want to come back."
Backstage bits
One part Big Brother and the Holding Company and one part Grateful Dead, Electric Blue and the Kozmik Truth, fronted by Pittsfield native Callie Katsounakis, makes its Berkshire debut on Friday, Dec. 13, at Brodie Mountain ski area in New Ashford. Pittsfield High graduate Katsounakis, a sort of latter-day Grace Slick or Janis Joplin, is the lead vocalist of the six-piece, rootsy, bluesy, jam outfit, based in the Northampton/Amherst area....North Adams is shaping up as a hot-spot of contemporary folk music this winter, centered around Milltown Studios, where Bernice Lewis will kick off a winter folk series on Jan. 12. One Night In Cambridge, a Boston-based, singer-songwriter's collective, will be represented on Feb. 2, followed by eastern Massachusetts' Jim Henry on Feb. 23, New Hampshire's Cormac McCarthy on March 9, and Northampton's Jaime Morton -- whose CD, like Bernice Lewis's, was produced by Pittsfield native Adam Rothberg -- on March 23. Then in April, the Appalachian Bean Cafe will host Bostonians Vance Gilbert on April 6 and Barbara Kessler on April 20. The force behind all these shows is David Nickerson, a budding concert promoter and North Adams State College student who is fast becoming a presence on the thriving, New England, contemporary-folk scene....
Abe Guthrie and Randy Cormier, founding and former members of Xavier (now Lord Hill), are teaming up to form a new band, Earth Circle....
Reunited pop-soulsters New Edition are at Albany's Knickerbocker Arena on Dec. 26....
What were your favorite albums of 1996? Pearl Jam or Portishead? Suzanne Vega or Smashing Pumpkins? For an upcoming column highlighting readers' picks of the best albums of 1996, please send or E-mail your choices ASAP.....
[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Dec. 12, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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