Recorded live in May, 1998, at what sounds like a great party for a few dozen friends near Woodstock, NY, Rick Danko, The Band's venerable bass player and vocalist, leads a nine-piece group. It's thick with horns, including Tom "Bones" Malone (the Letterman show) on trombone and baritone sax, Lenny Picket (Saturday Night Live band) on tenor sax and clarinet, and Garth Hudson, who alternates among soprano and tenor saxes, accordion and keyboards. Without Robbie and Levon Helm, of course, it may not sound exactly like The Band, but it comes pretty damn close. More important, it feels like The Band.
Spiced with old chestnuts like "Stage Fright" and "The Shape I'm In," this album distinguishes itself more via the less familiar. The ballad "Twilight" has a hauntingly beautiful horn intro that is followed by some of Danko's most impassioned singing. And "Caldonia Mission" and "Crazy Mama" deliver with all of the punch and bounce one might expect from a bunch of old pros doing what they love at such a loose, relaxed and freewheeling gig. The addition of "Ophelia," originally recorded in the mid '70s on Southern Nights/Northern Cross, and "Blaze of Glory" (recorded in the early '90s in Norway as part of an obscure but wonderful collaboration between Danko, Eric Anderson and Jonas Fjeld) keeps the overall groove vital and inspired. "Chest Fever," hardly a Band hit, and a bonus studio version of "Sip the Wine," originally heard on The Last Waltz, stretch this outing in still more directions, all of them good.
Even with The Band on the decline, his health failing and body expanding (he was bigger than Jerry Garcia when he died), Rick Danko had always a song, always a smile. This album, released as a benefit for Greenpeace, captures both.
