Love For Levon Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Love For Levon Blu-ray Movie Review

A touching concert may have a fatal flaw.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 26, 2013

We live in a music world dominated by Fame by Lottery, courtesy of such shows as American Idol and The Voice, with “instant winners” who disappear almost as quickly as they achieve overnight “superstardom”. It seems like the days of journeymen musicians are long passed, or at the very least largely unheralded. Does anyone even read the credits on CD insert booklets anymore, that is if they even bother to buy a CD in the first place? It’s so much easier to download or to stream, making any in depth reflection or analysis of who exactly is making the music much harder, if not downright impossible. Though my teenage sons are only too happy to inform me of my incipient “geezerhood”, I’m actually happy I grew up when there were actual long playing albums (soon to be supplanted by CDs), where I became accustomed to, and in fact loved to, pore over the fine print on the covers or the insert booklets to see who exactly had played, produced, arranged, orchestrated—you name it, I wanted to know it. I frankly can’t recall now if I stumbled across Levon Helm’s name on a Bob Dylan album or with The Band, but both the inherent unusualness of his first name at least, coupled with his instantly recognizable drumming style really intrigued me as a youngster, even though I wasn’t particularly enamored of either folk, or roots, or whatever exactly you’d want to call Helm’s work in those days. I was frankly more interested in mainstream pop and rock in terms of popular music (my true tastes always ran more toward jazz and classical), and so I had always assumed that Elton John’s “Levon” was in some way connected to Helm, which in fact it is, albeit rather tangentially. But Helm, aside from the perhaps reflected glory he received from John’s Top 40 tune, tended to stay pretty much in the background, even if his distinctive vocals were prominently featured on a number of Band recordings. Helm was first and foremost a player rather than a star, and perhaps that’s why he was so deeply loved during his lifetime and so very fondly remembered by so many after his sad parting from cancer in 2012. Love for Levon is a heartfelt assemblage of musicians, some of them bonafide stars, others accomplished journeymen, who joined together to honor the memory of Levon in a really remarkable set of concert performances. While the general ambience here might be termed roots rock, there’s a startling variety of styles and influences running rampant through the many offerings, proving that Levon’s spirit touched a huge gamut of musicians in a variety of different genres and idioms.

There’s a touching remembrance of Levon by Keith Wortman included in the insert booklet accompanying this release, and it makes clear just what an influence Levon was to so many. What’s perhaps most important, though, at least to Wortman (who helped organize this concert) is how Levon used to open up his own home for what were called Midnight Rambles, basically “come as you are” jam sessions that were attended by the general public. As Wortman rather piquantly asks, “Know any other music legends that would do that?” Wortman and crew sought to recreate the “we are family” vibe of the Midnight Rambles with this concert, and to a very large degree, they’ve succeeded admirably. There’s an obvious camaraderie between all the musicians on tap here, including those who have probably had little to no prior contact with each other.

In an evening this diverse, it’s hard to really single out individual moments as “best”. What ties the evening together so miraculously is the fantastic work of both The All Star Band (Kenny Aronoff, Drums; Larry Campbell, Guitars, Mandolin, Fiddle, Vocals; Amy Helm, Vocals; Greg Leisz, Vocals; Brian Mitchell, Keyboards, Accordion; Don Was, Bass; Teresa Williams, Vocals) and The Levon Helm Band (Larry Campbell; Justin Guip, Drums; Amy Helm; Byron Isaacs, Bass, Vocals; Brian Mitchell; Jim Weider, Guitars; Teresa Williams), as well as an ace horn section (Steven Bernstein, Trumpet; Jay Collins, Saxophones; Clark Gayton, Trombone, Tuba; Howard Johnson, Tuba; Erik Lawrence, Saxophone). Despite the huge disparity of basic styles some of these artists bring to the stage, there’s a homogeneity of sound here that speaks directly to Levon’s own love for Americana and so-called Roots Music. Love obviously brought these folks together and love emanates from their performances out to the live audience as well as the virtual audience tuning in courtesy of this splendid Blu-ray set.

Love for Levon includes the following songs and performers:

• 01. “The Shape I’m In”, Warren Haynes with The All Star Band and Rami Jaffe
• 02. “Long Black Veil,” Gregg Allman with Warren Haynes and The All Star Band
• 03. “Trouble in Mind,” Jorma Kaukonen and Barry Mitterhoff with Larry Campbell, Justin Guip, Bryan Isaacs and Jaimoe
• 04. “This Wheel’s on Fire,” The Levon Helm Band with Shawn Pelton
• 05. “Little Birds,” Larry Campbell, Justin Guip, Amy Helm, Bryan Isaacs and Teresa Williams
• 06. “Listening to Levon,” Marc Cohn with The Levon Helm Band and Greg Leisz
• 07. “Move Along Train,” Mavis Staples with The Levon Helm Band
• 08. “Life is a Carnival,” Allen Toussaint with The Levon Helm Bend and Jaimoe
• 09. “When I Paint My Masterpiece,” John Prine and Garth Hudson with The Levon Helm Band and Joan Osborne
• 10. “Anna Lee,” Bruce Hornsby with Larry Campbell, Amy Helm and Teresa Williams
• 11. “Ain’t Got No Home,” Jakob Dylan with The All Star Band and Rami Jaffee
• 12. “Whispering Pines,” Lucinda Williams with The All Star Band and Rami Jaffee
• 13. “Rag Mama Rag,”John Hiatt with The All Star Band and Mike Gordon
• 14. “Don’t Do It,” David Bromberg and Joan Osborne with The All Star Band
• 15. “I Shall Be Released*,” Grace Potter with Don Was and Matt Burr
• 16. “Tears of Rage,” Ray LaMontagne and John Mayer with The All Star Band
• 17. “Rockin’ Chair,” Dierks Bentley with The All Star Band, Jessi Alexander and John Randall
• 18. ”Chest Fever,” Dierks Bentley and Garth Hudson with The All Star Band, Jessi Alexander and John Randall
• 19. “A Train Robbery,” Eric Church with The All Star Band
• 20. ”Get Up Jake,” Eric Church with The All Star Band
• 21. “Tennessee Jed,” John Mayer with The All Star Band and Steve Jordan
• 22. “Up on Cripple Creek,” Joe Walsh and Robert Randolph with The All Star Band
• 23. “Ophelia,” My Morning Jacket
• 24. ”It Makes No Difference,” My Morning Jacket
• 25. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” Roger Waters, My Morning Jacket and G.E. Smith
• 26. “Wide River to Cross,” Roger Waters and G.E. Smith with The All Star Band
• 27. “The Weight,” All

Love For Levon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Love for Levon is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Time Life and Star Vista with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. The bulk of this live concert video looks very nicely sharp and well detailed, with close-ups offering sometimes excellent levels of fine detail (see the screenshot of Marc Cohn in profile for a fairly good example). What hobbles this release at times is that old bugaboo of blue stage lighting. It's occasionally overly aggressive here, leading to a definite diminution of fine detail, and leaving some of even midrange shots in a quasi-fuzzy territory. The concert is extremely well filmed and edited, however, and best of all doesn't resort to the "quick cut" ethos that seems to inform far too many live performance videos these days, meaning there's actually time to see the performers. Contrast and black levels are solid and consistent throughout this high definition presentation.

Love For Levon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

One step forward, two (or more) steps back. Maybe Time Life hasn't gotten the memo yet about Blu-ray consumers preferring (if not outright demanding) lossless audio, but rather bafflingly Love for Levon comes with only lossy audio options, Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0. (This is especially odd considering the fact that some previous Time Life Blu-ray releases have had lossless audio.) This just seems like a kind of boneheaded decision for a Blu-ray set that is all about the music. The 5.1 mix sounds fine within its lossy confines, but perhaps surprisingly, I actually ended up liking the 2.0 mix more, as it offers a less diffuse rendering of the music and tends to focus things in a much sharper way, with little if any "crowding" of the various elements. Fidelity is fine, if never overwhelmingly brilliant, but even under the best of lossy circumstances, most fans are going to wonder why this set doesn't offer lossless audio.

Love For Levon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The second Blu-ray disc of this two disc set contains all of the bonus material (with the obvious exception of the two CDs):

• Interviews (1080i; 1:41:00) includes segments with Allen Toussaint, Amy Helm, Byron Isaacs, David Bromberg, Dierks Bentley, Don Was, Eric Church, Grace Potter, Gregg Allman, Jaimoe (Johnny Johnson), Jakob Dylan, Jim James, Joan Osborne, Joe Walsh, John Hiatt, John Prine, Jorma Kaukonen, Keith Wortman, Larry Campbell, Lucinda Williams, Marc Cohn, Mavis Staples, Mike Gordon, and Ray LaMontagne.


• Rehearsal Footage includes:

  Eric Church Rehearsing "Get Up Jake" (1080i; 3:32)

  My Morning Jacket Rehearsing "It Makes No Difference" (1080i; 6:14)

Love For Levon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In all but one way Love for Levon is a resounding success. Unfortunately that one way is fairly important: the audio options here are lossy Dolby outings. If you can get past that dunderheaded decision (which will be a deal killer for many), this set is simply a wonderful compendium of some amazing musicians performing some fantastic material. This deluxe 2 BD/2CD set offers some really heart felt music and it's obvious from the first moment just how inspired this rather eclectic cast is to be celebrating the life and legend of Levon Helm. The lossy audio issue is a major setback, and some may simply refuse to buy this release due to it, but for those who are willing to overlook this admittedly head scratching decision, Love for Levon comes Recommended.