Band Music From Big Pink CD

The Band emerged from months of seclusion with this enthralling debut album. It followed a lengthy spell accompanying Bob Dylan, which culminated in sessions known as THE BASEMENT TAPES. Three songs herein were revived from those recordings, and the remainder showed a similar pastoral spirit. Where contemporaries sought expression in progressive music, the Band were largely reflective, creating atmosphere from traditional forms and distilling the results in an economic style. Their ensemble playing and rural voices were best captured on "The Weight," an elliptical composition which displayed their craft to perfection. Americana of every hue can be gleaned from this collection, the depth of which left a marked impression on audiences and musicians alike.

Although the five musicians who came together in the late '50s and early '60s to back up Canadian rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins probably had played thousands of shows and had made numerous recordings, none of these public appearances gave much of a clue about how they would sound when they released their first album as the Band in July 1968. If people at that time had heard the 1967 sessions later dubbed The Basement Tapes that the musicians ...