Last Waltz: The Full Story of the Band

Music historian Harris expands on his 2014 book The Band with this meticulous account of the pioneering roots-rock group. Drawing on new and previously unpublished interviews, he traces how band members Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Garth Hudson began playing together in 1957 for the Hawks, Ronnie Hawkins’s backing band, before going on to back Bob Dylan and setting out in 1967 to create their own material. The golden age of the group arrived with their eponymous sophomore album featuring such hits as “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” Later, 1970’s Stage Fright introduced a darker and more melancholy tone that reflected the band’s growing rifts over songwriting credits, their descent into drug addiction, and the challenges of making music that excited them after they’d achieved success. By 1976, tired of the road and with each member struggling with substance use, the Band called it quits following a final concert that was filmed by Martin Scorsese and released as the documentary The Last Waltz. The author hews closely to his many interviews, crafting a cogent narrative that lacks flourishes but makes a convincing case that the Band gave rise to the roots-rock movement by taking “gospel, blues, mountain music, sacred harp singing, Anglican hymns” and “put[ting] everything in our big pot of gumbo,” as Robertson once said. Fans will find this worth a look. (July)