Levon Helm is known today as a country proselytizer, an inventive interpreter and a one-of-a-kind drummer. It all started right here.

This, quite clearly, is a labor of love, and every element speaks to Amy Helm’s steely focus on making the album she always wanted to make.

‘Ramble at the Ryman,’ released on May 17, 2011, reminded us that Levon Helm was the Band’s loamy voiced, rhythmic center point. And something more.

“Don’t Wait” first reveals itself as one of their last era’s very best moments – and then as one of the Band’s very best, period.

Rick Danko was the first to start a solo career, but this involving duet with his former Band mate Levon Helm shows a sense of community remained.

‘The Last Waltz,’ released as a triple album on April 7, 1978, chronicled a guest-packed Band concert that overcame one complication after another.

This is a setting, like the measured context of the Band’s early work, that perfectly suits – even as it amplifies – Levon Helm’s voice.

After a series of solo records that tended toward blues- and R&B-soaked fun, Levon Helm’s ‘Dirt Farmer’ goes deeper, experiences more.

Left to his own devices after the dissolution of the Band, Levon Helm returned to the things that had been his strengths, his succor, and his joy.

The Band simply stole “Back to Memphis” from Chuck Berry, who tended to wink his way through it. Levon Helm, however, found something darker.