The distinctive Southern drawl of Arkansas native Levon Helm was silenced Thursday, some 15 years after throat cancer first threatened to steal it away.
Helm, who was born in the hamlet of Turkey Scratch but forged many ties to Northwest Arkansas over the years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City after a renewed battle against cancer. Helm was 71.
Although Helm would find success through The Band, his association with Bob Dylan and noted acting roles in movies such as “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” he never forgot his home state or the connections he made in this corner of the state, his friends said. The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
“He was just a good old boy from Arkansas who loved people, loved music and loved people who loved music,” said Archie Schaffer, Tyson Food’s executive vice president for corporate affairs. Schaffer first met Helm in the mid-1970s when Helm was touring with The Band. “He treated everybody the same. That’s what made him so beloved.”
Helm is survived by his wife, Sandy, and daughter, Amy.
Helm left his boyhood in the Delta to join a band, The Hawks, formed by Ronnie Hawkins, the legendary rockabilly artist from Huntsville. Ronnie Hawkins and The Hawks earned a reputation playing at various clubs in Fayetteville, notably at the long defunct Rockwood Club, south of town on U.S. 71.
It was at the Rockwood in the early 1960s Helm met Springdale’s twin brother duo of Ernie and Earl Cate. They formed a friendship and musical partnership that continued until Helm’s death.
Earl Cate said his own early band was just a replica of the music created by The Hawks, and there were many others who tried the exact same thing, creating a Fayetteville sound. Cate remembers taking his band 80 miles north to Joplin, Mo., to perform in those early days. The crowd was awed at the new sounds from bands such as The Hawks and The Cate Brothers.
“There was a certain kind of music,” Cate said. “That band (The Hawks) was kind of our mentor. It was amazing what they were doing.”
Helm took The Cate Brothers with him on a tour of Japan in the late 1970s as part of the RCO All-Star tour and then again in the early 1980s with a reunited version of The Band, minus Robbie Robertson, who was replaced by Earl Cate.
Earl Cate last saw Helm in April 2010, the last time Helm and his band performed in Northwest Arkansas. The Cates joined Helm onstage for that show, just as they did so many times during their 50-year partnership.
“He’s one of the greatest drummers ever,” said Cate, who has shared the stage with many during his career. “There’s something about how he played. He’s a real rhythmic guy.”
Cate credits part of that ability to Helm’s other talents, particularly his skill on the mandolin and behind the microphone. Although The Band traded vocalists between tracks, it was always easy to discern Helm’s voice, a rich, Southern tenor that sounded like hot butter and whiskey washing over gravel. Many of the songs Helm took lead vocals on for The Band would become the group’s biggest hits, including “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”
After The Band dissolved for the first time in 1976, Helm worked on several solo projects and joined the cast of several movies, notably “The Right Stuff” and “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
Randy Stratton, a local entertainment agent who first met Helm when he was a boy, said Helm’s onstage ability came from his affable demeanor.
“He just had this personality. I can’t tell you how many people met Levon and walked away feeling like they were his best friend,” Stratton said.
Stratton’s father, Dayton Stratton, co-owned the Rockwood Club with Hawkins and booked shows for Helm and The Band until a plane crash took the elder Stratton’s life in 1974. Helm kept in contact with Randy Stratton since that time, including taking him on several tour dates and inviting him to watch the taping of “The Last Waltz,” the Martin Scorsese-directed documentary of The Band’s final concert.
Randy Stratton helped book several concerts at the turn of the century for Helm with a blues group known as The Barn Burners, which featured the legendary drummer behind a kit but not singing. Having already been stricken with cancer, he was unable to sing. Through radiation and therapy, Helm’s voice returned and he recorded three comeback albums — 2007’s “Dirt Farmer,” 2009’s “Electric Dirt” and the 2011 live album “Ramble at the Ryman.”
Helm also hosted barn parties near his Woodstock home called “Rambles,” featuring high-caliber guest musicians in an intimate setting. Helm first talked about those rambles in the mid-’70s, Stratton said, and after fighting back cancer and finding his voice again, the concerts made him all the more proud.
“He was able to realize all the hard work he did,” Stratton said. “He was on cloud nine. He was as happy as he’d ever been.”
All of it, from The Band to his solo efforts, left a mark.
“Levon’s voice and his drumming were so distinct and so easy to recognize,” Schaffer said.
And, according to those who knew him best, so was his humanity.