High on the Hog

The greatest country blues singer alive, Levon Helm just gets better with time. As for the other founding graybeards of The Band, on High On the Hog, Rick Danko is a husk of his former antic self, and Garth Hudson’s once-magisterial contributions are now occasionally inspired noodlings. Ex-member Robbie Robertson claims he held out an olive branch a few years ago and Helm batted it away. Now we’ll never know if the Band could’ve been an epochal ensemble again, instead of good roadhouse rockers with one unforgettable singer and a storied past. B