Band Northern Lights, Southern Cross CD

Digitally remastered by Larry Walsh (Capitol Recording Studios).

When this album was released in 1975 it was The Band's first album of new material in four years. Though the intervening period had brought forth the brilliant ROCK OF AGES live album and an exuberant set of covers, MOONDOG MATINEE, nay-sayers feared The Band were buying time and that their creative well had perhaps run dry.

NORTHERN LIGHTS, SOUTHERN CROSS was greeted as a triumph and a return to form after the less focused CAHOOTS. With only eight songs, they let the mood of each find its true and proper length. From the sly "Ophelia" to the evocative "Acadian Driftwood," the songs embrace character and a sense of place in the best possible ways. "It Makes No Difference" shows their perfect sense of knowing which of their three fine singers to use for each type of song. And the playing is, as always, exemplary.

The first studio album of Band originals in four years; in many respects Northern Lights-Southern Cross was viewed as a comeback. It also can be seen as a swan song, in that its recording marked the last time the five members would work together in the studio as a permanent group, with a commitment to making a record that they would tour behind and build on as a working band. The album was also, ironically enough, the Band's finest since their self-titled sophomore effort, even outdoing Stage Fright. It was spawned after a series of battery-recharging events -- the move of all five members out of Woodstock, New York and to Malibu, California, and to a new, state-of-the-art 24-track studio that not only felt right but offered them (especially Garth Hudson, working with Moog synthesizers and other new instruments, as well as brass and reeds) a bigger creative and sonic canvas than they'd ever known before; and the decision to finally let the other shoe drop on their early career, accompanying Bob Dylan on their first-ever studio album together (Planet Waves) which, in turn, had led to an eight-week tour together, this time captured for posterity and, unlike their mid-'60s Dylan tour, rushed out midway through the work on the album at hand. Between all of that, their own live album (Rock of Ages), and the Moondog Matinee album of rock & roll and R&B covers, the group found itself with more music in print at one time than they'd ever dreamed possible, despite the four-year gap in new material, and in several genres and modes, and blossoming in some unexpected directions -- just prior to the start of the sessions for this album, Levon Helm and Garth Hudson had fulfilled another milestone, the goal of doing an honest-to-God blues album (which dated from the group's tragically brief liaison with Sonny Boy Williamson in 1965), producing and/or playing on what ended up being a Grammy-winning LP by Muddy Waters, the Woodstock Album. It was time to make some o

2 Bonus Tracks

Recorded at Shangri-La Studio, Zuma Beach, California. Originally released on Capitol.

Personnel: Robbie Robertson (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, melodica, piano, Clavinet, keyboards); Levon Helm (vocals, guitar, drums); Rick Danko (vocals, electric guitar, violin, harmonica); Richard Manuel (vocals, piano, electric piano, Clavinet, keyboards, drums, congas); Garth Hudson (chant, piccolo, accordion, woodwinds, saxophone, soprano saxophone, brass, organ, keyboards, synthesizer); Byron Berline (violin, fiddle).

Audio Mixers: Nat Jeffrey; Garth Hudson; Rick Danko; Rob Fraboni; Robbie Robertson.

Audio Remasterer: Larry Walsh.

Liner Note Authors: Christopher Morris; Chris Morris.

Recording information: Shangri-La Studios, Zuma Beach, CA.

Photographer: Reid Miles.

Unknown Contributor Role: Garth Hudson.

The Band: Robbie Robertson (vocals, guitar); Richard Manuel (vocals, piano, organ, Clavinet); Rick Danko (vocals, bass); Levon Helm (vocals, drums); Garth Hudson (soprano saxophone, woodwinds, piccolo, accordion, organ, synthesizer, brass).

Engineers include: Ed AndersEntertainment Weekly (5/25/01, p.81) - "...Their last great album before their 1976 breakup...featuring Robbie Robertson's most tender love songs..." - Rating: A-
Down Beat (10/01, p.66) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...The Band placed their star high up in the rock firmament again with this album in '75..."
Mojo (Publisher) (6/01, p.123) - "...Proved their artistic swansong, with Robbie Robertson once more composing material equal to Dylan's: 'Ophelia'; 'Acadian Driftwood' and the heartbreaking 'It Makes No Difference'..."