Tellus 360 and The Ware to Host Levon Helm Film & Jam Tribute, 10/7

The Central PA music community will come together October 7 to celebrate the music and legacy of Levon Helm; drummer, singer, actor, and concert innovator whose voice and larger than life personality influenced three generations. Helm - who played a variety of places here in Lancaster ---died following a long battle with cancer in April 2012 at age 71.

The night begins with an exclusive screening of "Ain't in it For My Health: A Film about Levon Helm" presented by the Ware Center (42 North Prince Street, Lancaster) at 7:30 p.m. Following the film will be an after party and tribute jam at the newly expanded Tellus 360 (24 East King Street, Lancaster) beginning at 9:30 p.m.

Tickets for the film are $10 for adults and $5 for students with valid ID. Entry to the after party (21 and over only; ID required) is $7; only $5 with film stub.

ABOUT THE FILM:

"Ain't in it For My Health," directed by Jacob Hatley and distributed by Kino Lorber, follows Helm at home and on the road as he records his first solo album in nearly a quarter century, only a few years after regaining the voice he lost to aggressive cancer treatment. The album, Dirt Farmer (2007; Vanguard), would go on to win a Grammy Award and spark a popular and critical reappraisal of Helm's legacy.

The film touches on the health and financial issues that Helm fought against in the final prolific decade of his life, and captures the singer in intimate moments with friends and family. It shows Helm as fans and family knew him best; fun, gregarious, dedicated, and uncompromising. "Ain't in it For My Health" made its debut at both the South by Southwest Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival in 2010. It saw theatrical release this past April and is being shown for the first time in high-definition/surround sound on the big screen at the Ware Center.

ABOUT THE JAM TRIBUTE:

Performers so far scheduled to appear include Slimfit, Mike McMonagle, Bob Esbenshade, Vinegar Creek Constituency, members of The Slackwater News, The Ogham Stones, and Dave Lefever and others. Corty Byron and his band will serve as hosts and musical directors for the evening. Net proceeds from the Tellus 360 after party will benefit the American Cancer Society. The event is being presented by filmmaker/game developer Allen Clements and music journalist John Duffy with the kind assistance and cooperation of Tellus 360 and The Ware Center Film Series | Millersville University.

ABOUT LEVON HELM:

Mark Lavon Helm grew up in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas at a time when rock and roll was just being born. It was a birth the cotton farmers' son witnessed firsthand, catching Elvis Presley and his trio on the back of a truck, blues harmonica icon Sonny Boy Williamson at a local radio station, and the last of the old touring Medicine Shows as they crossed the south at harvest time.

As a teenager in 1959, "Levon" joined rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins' group, The Hawks, operating out of Canada. Jumping ship in 1963, they performed as Levon and the Hawks before being drafted by Bob Dylan to tour the world as his first backing band. Helm and the rest of the Hawks-Robbie Robertson (guitar, vocals), Rick Danko (bass, vocals), Garth Hudson (organ), and Richard Manuel (piano, vocals)-then relocated with Dylan to bucolic Woodstock, New York.

In the process, the Hawks (who began being known around town simply as "the band") reinvented their own sound, crossing rock with country, folk, R&B, gospel, and a variety of older influences; vaudeville, string-band, parlor music. It was a sound writer Greil Marcus later wrote came from tapping into the essence of "the old, weird America...the invisible republic."

On their debut album Music from Big Pink (1968; Capitol), the group virtually invented the sound known today as Americana. In doing so they showed a generation of Americans hungry for radical change that there were indeed lessons from the past to be carried forward.The Band (1969; Capitol) and later works would only solidify the group's impact.

The lone American in a band of Canadians, Helm's southern perspective brought authenticity and authority to songs like "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," "W.S. Walcott's Medicine Show," "Rag Mama Rag," and "Up on Cripple Creek." His sharp, economical, yet emotive drumming style led writer Jon Carroll to call Levon "the only drummer who can make you cry."

Though the Band split in 1976 (their final concert immortalized in Martin Scorsese's "The Last Waltz"), Levon and the others (minus Robertson) reunited in the 1980s to tour. They released three critically acclaimed studio albums in the 1990s. Along the way, Helm turned to acting, putting in acclaimed performances in "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1980) and "The Right Stuff" (1983) among nearly two dozen other films. He last appeared on film in "Shooter," (2007).

A lifelong smoker, Levon was diagnosed with cancer of the vocal chords in 1998. Rather than undergo a laryngectomy, he chose radiation treatment, which silenced his voice for several years. When he became well enough to perform and sing again in the mid-2000s, he launched the Midnight Ramble, a regular series of rollicking, intimate shows at his barn studio in Woodstock.

Originally conceived to help cover his medical bills and mortgage, the events continued bi-weekly for several years, and combined with the success of his new recordings allowed Helm to finish his career at peak creative and critical form.

Only the re-emergence of Helm's cancer brought an end to the ride. He died in April 2012. It brought to an end a period Bill Flannagan speaking on CBS Sunday Morning called "Levon Helm's miraculous encore," adding that "it was as if heaven decided to give Levon an extra decade just so we could all hear his songs one more time."

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