Garth Hudson

Garth Hudson was the secret weapon — the oldest member, the trained musician, and the one whose swirling organ, reedy saxophone and inventive textures made The Band sound like no one else. If Robertson wrote the songs and Helm, Danko and Manuel sang them, Hudson coloured every inch of the canvas.

The trained one

Classically educated and steeped in church organ, jazz and the avant-garde, Hudson was so respected that — the story goes — he only agreed to join the Hawks if the others paid him ten dollars a week each for “music lessons,” to reassure his parents he wasn't simply joining a rock band. His unaccompanied organ fantasia “The Genetic Method,” which led into “Chest Fever” live, showcased a musician operating on another plane.

The sound-painter

It was Hudson who put the wah-wah clavinet quack into “Up on Cripple Creek,” the soulful Lowrey organ under “Dixie Down,” the saxophones across the catalogue. He treated the keyboard as an orchestra, and his fingerprints are on every great Band recording.

The last man standing

Hudson outlived all his bandmates, performing and guesting into his later years, a beloved elder statesman of the Woodstock scene. He died peacefully in January 2025, aged 87 — the last surviving founding member of The Band, and the close of an era.