"Passing the torch" is a phrase that certainly could describe the late Levon Helm's relationship with his daughter, Amy Helm. She is now more than determined to follow in the musical footsteps of her legendary Arkansas-born and raised father.
Amy Helm had performed and recorded with her father -- going back to the late 1980s when she was one of the members of the group, Levon Helm & the Barn Burners, which performed at Little Rock's Cajun's Wharf. And she made three albums with a critically acclaimed group, Ollabelle. But she recently completed work on Didn't It Rain, her debut solo album, and is on tour to introduce those songs and herself in the process.
Amy Helm and The Handsome Strangers
Opening act: Trey Johnson
7 p.m. Wednesday, Another Round Pub, 12111 W. Markham St., Little Rock
Tickets: $15 advance, $20 day of show
(501) 313-2612
"The album is in the can and will come out on July 24," she says -- a proud tone in her voice -- from her home in New York. "It's about three-fourths original, written by my bassist, Byron Isaacs, who also produced the album, and me. Some of them are recent and some have been around for a while, like the ones my Dad played drums on. One of the covers, 'Spend Our Last Dime,' is by this great singer, Martha Scanlon, who recorded her first album at Dad's studio and he and I played on it."
Her sets, like the one she'll perform Wednesday at Another Round Pub, include new songs and some older material. She adds that she always does some songs written or sung by her father, including songs by his legendary group, The Band.
"I know my audience is people who loved his music," she says.
Her band, known as The Handsome Strangers, includes Isaacs (also an Ollabelle member) and two others: Daniel Littleton on acoustic guitar and Dave Burger on drums. Littleton, who has also played for Natalie Merchant, has an unusual, Jimi Hendrix-like technique on guitar, Helm says.
"I play mandolin a little bit, but mainly I'm singing," she adds.
As for Ollabelle, Helm promises that that group of roots rock, Americana singers is not defunct, but merely on hiatus.
"Everybody's had babies, and it's hard to make a living playing rootsy music," she says with a laugh. "So Ollabelle is on the back burner, but I'm sure there will be some performances or recordings in the future. We're just on sabbatical these days."
Helm is a contributor in the baby department. She has two boys, ages 7 and 3. They will not accompany her on the tour that brings her to Little Rock, but when she spends most of July on the road, opening shows for Mavis Staples and Patty Griffin, they will be with her.
"I can't stand to be away from them for very long," she says. She can recall the days when she went with her dad on the road, and the big attraction was not the music but the backstage M&Ms, junk food and movies being shown to entertain the kids.
"I just enjoyed the scene backstage," she says. "I always knew that was what I wanted to do, but it wasn't until I was in my late 20s and early 30s that I got serious. I had gone to college, to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and gotten a psychology degree. Dad knew music was my love and that was what I should be working on, and he pushed me a bit.
"He didn't want me fooling around with other stuff."
She grew up in New York, Los Angeles and Woodstock. Her mother, Libby Titus, has had her own musical career, singing and writing songs, the most famous of which, "Love Has No Pride," was famously recorded by Linda Ronstadt and Bonnie Raitt. When Helm was in her 20s, Titus married Donald Fagen of Steely Dan.
"Mom's ear and her taste has had a huge influence on me," Helm says. "She introduced me to the music of folks like Laura Nyro and Joni Mitchell, which rounded out Dad introducing me to the sounds of Muddy Waters. And Donald Fagen showed me a completely other universe. He taught me a lot about music and got me deeper into The Band. I discovered a lot of Band music through him."
Fagen occasionally performed or sat in for Levon Helm at the acclaimed Midnight Rambles at Helm's barn in Woodstock.
Amy Helm reports the Rambles are still happening: "All is well there. I try to get to as many as I can. We'll be having a big celebration of Dad's birthday on May 29. He would have been 75 on the 26th. We've had a lot of standard shows there also, so that local teenagers and 20-somethings can have a place to play. My guitar player's wife, Elizabeth Mitchell, has been helping me as we curate a lot of the shows."
Style on 05/12/2015