Levon Helm

If The Band had a heart, it was Levon Helm. The only American and the only Southerner in the group, he sang lead on its most enduring songs — “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” — in a voice that carried the dust of the Arkansas Delta where he grew up, near a place called Turkey Scratch.

Drummer who sang

Helm was a rare thing: a drummer who sang lead, and beautifully, at the same time. His feel — loose, behind the beat, deeply funky — gave the group its swing. He'd joined Ronnie Hawkins' Hawks as a teenager and was the senior figure the Canadian players gathered around.

The rift

Helm's later years with the legacy of The Band were soured by a long, bitter dispute over songwriting credits, which went almost entirely to Robbie Robertson. Helm felt the songs had been built collectively and never forgave what he saw as Robertson taking the lion's share of the credit — and the royalties. He told his side of it in his fierce, funny 1993 memoir, This Wheel's on Fire.

A second act

After throat cancer nearly silenced him, Helm fought his way back, hosting the celebrated Midnight Ramble concerts at his barn in Woodstock and winning Grammy Awards for his late solo albums, including Dirt Farmer (2007). He died in 2012, his voice recovered and his standing as one of America's great roots musicians secure.