She wiggled, she bopped, she rocked and she certainly did roll, and she would have made her pappy proud. Amy Helm showed her Arkansas friends and relations that she learned a thing or two or three from her father and his musician pals.
Back for her third headlining show in central Arkansas, Helm, daughter of the late and legendary Levon Helm, blew away a packed house in a 90-minute show Thursday night at South on Main and left the crowd, shall we say, slack-jawed in amazement. Not only did Helm excel in the presentation of her own songs off her debut recording, but she also had a thing for choosing tasteful covers.
And since her debut album from a year ago was Didn't It Rain, and it actually did, at least a bit, it made sense for her to open with her title track. Backed by her power trio, whom she calls the Handsome Strangers, the band certainly held up their end of the bargain. With guitarist Daniel Littleton, who was seated most of the time, but sounding like a deranged student of Jimi Hendrix, Helm was able to concentrate on her vocals, albeit with some attention to her mandolin playing.
Some of the highlights were "Rescue Me" (not to be confused with the Fontella Bass hit song of the same name), along with "Deep Water," "Gentling Me," "Sing to Me" and "Heat Lightning," all from her debut album. Then there were the versions of Sam Cooke's "(Ain't That) Good News," along with a couple of songs by New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint, plus stunning versions of songs made famous by her father: "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down" and "The Weight," along with a surprise full-tilt boogie encore version of Dave Mason's "Only You Know and I Know."
Drummer David Berger pulled double duty on a strange squeezebox device, and bassist Adam Minkoff, the newest band member, played a bit of acoustic guitar at times. It was a pleasure to hear Helm take on in the middle of the show her dad's arrangement of Bruce Springsteen's "Atlantic City," as she certainly out-did her dad, who had out-done The Boss. And so it goes, as they say.
Metro on 08/26/2016