Passing away in 2012, Levon Helm spent the last decade or so of his life as a Saturday-night party host, inviting friends and musicians to jam in the converted barn at his Woodstock home. This third compilation of high times and happy tunes (fourth if you include Ramble At The Ryman, where all and sundry decamped to the famed Nashville auditorium) is the first to be released since his passing.
With a crack unit including such luminaries as Larry Campbell, Jimmy Vivino and Jay Collins behind him, Helm is an ebullient master of ceremonies, bringing a soulful holler to Willie Dixon’s The Same Thing and Al Green’s Take Me To The River. Daughter Amy, meanwhile, plays the saloon chanteuse to perfection on one of Carl Perkins’ earlier, more countrified cuts, Turn Around.
The big hitters arrive in the shape of Allen Toussaint and Elvis Costello, squaring up on the New Orleans bounce of the former’s A Certain Girl, while The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson roars like a lion on Elmore James’ Shake Your Money Maker. Presumably, there’s still plenty of stuff in the vaults – further volumes will be most welcome.