Full Show Friday: Levon Helm Band Newport Festival 2008

We search the murky back waters of youtube to find full concerts and post them to the site weekly, come back every seven days to help us celebrate Full Show Friday's.  These shows are of varying quality and may not be here for long so enjoy them while you can...As always, please support the artist every which way, but especially by seeing them live (if they are still playing)...This week...Levon Helm Band!

Ok this one may not be as mainstream popular as others this month, but we wanted to bring it home a bit. We were honored to catch the first show Levon Helm played outside of his house in decades when we caught the Levon Helm Band live. It was March 16th 2007 and Helm along with a kick ass band and guests were on fire. It was something I never thought I would see but Helm toured until his death with various stages of vocal chords and I ended up catching him a bunch.

You can watch a documentary on him here, but honestly I found it a bit depressing and think the best way to remember the man is to enjoy one of his shows. This was a joyous one from Newport Folk Festival in 2008. Levon's voice isn't perfect but he does sing a lot and honestly that is just fine, let the past be the past this band was a joy themselves. In fact it is really the first time I ever saw Larry Campbell step out and lead a band, he should do it more then just be the consummate sideman/behind the scenes band leader.    

This is the full show, but I am not sure it is in the same order from the original show. All the songs are pretty much highlights, but we enjoyed "Got Me A Woman" "Long Black Veil" "Chest Fever" and "Deep Elem Blues" particularly. Setlist and the amazing group of players at this show is below. Enjoy:

Ophelia
Deep Elem Blues
Ashes of Love
Anna Lee
Chest Fever
Love Played A Game
Long Black Veil
Got Me A Woman
Rag Mama Rag
Fannie Mae
The Same Thing (Cut)
The Shape I'm In
The Weight

Levon Helm - vocals, drums, mandolin
Jimmy Vivino - guitar, vocals
Larry Campbell - guitar, mandolin, fiddle
Brian Mitchell - keyboards, vocals
Amy Helm - vocals, guitar, drums
Little Sammy Davis - harmonica, vocals
Theresa Williams - vocals
Katherine Russell - vocals
Clark Gayton - trombone
Steven Bernstein - trumpet
Eric Lawrence - saxophone
Howard Johnson - tuba, saxophone
Lincoln Schluyfur - electric bass
Shawn Payton - drums

Guests:
Jake Shimabukuro - ukulele
Gillian Welch - vocals
David Rawlings - guitar, vocals