Music from Big Pink

The story is the stuff of rock music legend: five relatively young but seasoned musicians—who had learned their chops playing for years with rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins and then Bob Dylan—enter seclusion in upstate New York to woodshed music.

The quintet (four Canadians and one Arkansan) find a rather modest house in the middle of the woods of West Saugerties, notable only for its hot pink siding. The house becomes known as “Big Pink,” and the five musicians change their group name from The Hawks to The Band.

From that remote pink house, The Band planted the seeds for the sound that would later be referred to as “Americana” with their debut 1968 album "Music From Big Pink."

 

Songs like “Tears of Rage” (co-written by Bob Dylan), “Lonesome Suzie,” and “The Weight” seamlessly stitch together threads of country, folk, rock, and a little soul to create a sound that defies categorization.

Keyboardist, organist, multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson was once described  as The Band’s “secret weapon” and his imaginative keyboard work drives the propulsive “Chest Fever” and the every-so-slightly manic “This Wheel’s On Fire.”

 

The Band’s travels throughout the United States and Canada, along with principal songwriter Robbie Robertson’s obsession with arthouse cinema, informed the colorful characters and situations described in The Band’s songs. “The Weight,” in particular, features “Crazy Chester,” “Fanny,” and “Miss Moses” in a rollicking whimsical tale inspired by filmmaker Luis Bunuel.

So, if you’re a fan of, say, Wilco, Uncle Tupelo, Mumford & Sons, or Jason Isbell (among others) and want to delve deeper into the roots of Americana, check out The Band’s “Music From Big Pink.” I think you'll be glad you did.