Levon Helm: Levon Helm

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Levon Helm's second album for ABC was cut in the summer of 1977, at Cherokee Studios in Hollywood and Muscle Shoals Sound in Alabama. Produced by master bassman Donald "Duck" Dunn (from the Blues Brothers Band and Booker T. Jones' MGs), the album ended up as a mixture of New Orleans funk, like Allen Toussaint's "Play Something Sweet" and country-soul balladry as in the version of Tony Joe White's "I Came Here To Party". The overall impression of the album is that there are too many songs unsuitable for Helm's distinctive vocal style, the exception beeing the wonderful version of the Cate Brothers song "Standing on a Mountain Top", with Earl and Ernie Cate howling soulfully along with Levon.

Re-released on CD in Japan by MCA and in the UK on the Acadia label in 2002, then again in Australia in 2011 as a 2-on-1 titled Take me to the River, paired with Levon Helm (1982), with "Summertime Blues" as bonus track.

Tracks

1.	Ain't No Way to Forget You (Quillen/Smith)	(331K)
2.	Driving at Night (D. Moore)	(331K)
3.	Play Something Sweet (A. Toussaint)	(331K)
4.	Sweet Johanna (J.&J. Hall)	(331K)
5.	I Came Here to Party (T.J. White)	(331K)
6.	Take Me to the River (Green/Hodges)	(331K)	(3.8MB)
7.	Standing on a Mountaintop (E.&E. Cate)	(331K)
8.	Let's Do It in Slow Motion (Latimore)	(331K)
9.	Audience For My Pain (Goffin/Goldberg)	(331K)

Sidemen

• Steve Cropper, guitar/percussion
• Tom Malone, trombone/horn
• Howard Johnson, horn/sax
• Barry Beckett, keyboards
• Mary Berry, background vocal
• Larry Byrom, guitar
• Earl Cate, background vocal
• Ernie Cate, background vocal
• Louis Del Gatto, saxophone
• Donald "Duck" Dunn, producer
• Scott Edwards, bass
• Dan Ferguson, guitar
• Willie Hall, percussion/drums
• Gregg Hamm, engineer
• Roger Hawkins, drums
• David Hood, bass
• Jimmy Johnson, guitar
• Lou Marini, saxophones
• Randy McCormick, keyboards
• Steve Melton, engineer
• Bruce Robb, engineer
• Alan Rubin, trumpet
• Barry Rudolph, engineer

Levon Helm - Levon Helm - (35:21) - 1978 - ABC AA-1089
Single sleeve LP
Also released in 1978 as picture disk (ABC SPPD-45)
Original Master Recording LP relased in 1978 (Mobile Fidelity MFCD10-00759)
Mobile Fidelity aluminum CD, MFCD 759
Japan CD, MCA
UK CD, Acadia ACA 8037, 2002
2-on-1 CD Levon Helm (1978)/Levon Helm (1982), Take me to the River, Raven Records, 2011

AMG Rating: 3 (out of 9)