It’s almost midnight and Rick Hart is looking to the radio to find company. The coffee is wearing off and he’s got to see his girl in Carrollton, USA. He won’t be home for eight hours but maybe you just want to keep him company and ride along through the Texas night.
Hart may be from Australia but he fits right into the American landscape he uses as a backdrop for his new EPLevon Helm. When you listen to “Carrollton,” it’s like hanging out with an old friend. Hart evokes the classic homespun feel and vocal intonations of the great late Texan storyteller Townes Van Zandt. When you find yourself tapping along to the rollicking “Favourite Skin” or the classic honky tonk piano line in “Carrollton,” you might feel the familiarity of Bob Dylan’s “It Takes a Lot To Laugh, It Takes a Train To Cry” seeping in.
Hart is a refreshing counterpart to the plethora of male singers who have gone awry of country tradition. Hart’s new EP is a perfect antidote to whatever bro-hangover still looms over us and has the same refreshing appeal that Sam Outlaw’s debut album had last year.
In the title track “Levon Helm,” Hart tells the story of a woman whose lover grapples with alcohol addiction and succumbs to death from drinking. As she reminisces about fighting watching him fade away, Hart conveys the character’s likeness to the ruggedness and “delicate state of mind” of the great late Levon Helm. Helm provides a reference and anchor to the story and the imposing image of the singer lingers in the song. The realization that even love can’t save a dying soul is intertwined with the aftermath and her ongoing struggle to overcome faded memories. The song is earnest and heartbreakingly told. The subtle nuances of the fiddle underscore the ruefulness of the track.
It’s an ambitious approach to emblazon the song and your EP cover with big black letters that spell the name of such an icon. Helm is the prototypical Americana singer who defined the genre as much as anyone and long before it had its name. Helm’s timeworn vocals framed The Band’s landmark “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” In his later years Buddy Miller paid perhaps the greatest compliment of the song “Wide River To Cross” that he wrote with his wife Julie. Once Levon Helm sang it, Miller said it forever became Levon Helm’s song.
Other artists have named other artists in the titles of their songs. Miles Davis devoted a thirty-minute instrumental named “Willie Nelson.” Lydia Loveless wrote “Chris Isaak” to tell the story of a heartbreak and unrequited love. Both Isaak and the song “Forever Blue,” the song that the two then-lovers played together, became their own characters in the song, And Eric Church centered time and place in the song “Springsteen” and how a “melody feels like a memory.”
Levon Helm is more like a ghost that pervades the narration of the song that bears his name. We know he’s there and sense the enormity of his presence but we wish we could get a little closer to understand the character’s connection. Whether we get a sense of Helm is somewhat of an issue but doesn’t detract from the story of the grieving and the pain that is realized. It’s a song that is beautifully played and a memory respectfully honored and memorialized over repeated playings.
The main issue perhaps is that the EP is only three songs long.
I look forward to seeing Hart and know you will too.
Editor’s Note: As part of the Levon Helm release, Rick has partnered with Melbourne based, not for profit organisation First Step. First Step’s aim is to support and work with people to help them overcome drug and alcohol addiction and associated mental health and social issues. With Levon Helm being a song about loving and losing someone to alcohol addiction, Rick is delighted and very proud that through this connection, the song will have a greater purpose in helping such a worthwhile cause. 50% from all digital sales of the three track release will be donated to First Step and the tireless and great work they do. To find out more about First Step visit their website
Originally posted here.
