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Comeback of the year.
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Dirt Farmer is an iconic album, this year’s "Time Out of Mind" or "Freedom." Just give him a Grammy.
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As wonderful as it is unexpected, Dirt Farmer is a strong candidate for comeback of the year.
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Fans of old-time music, that vague notion of a genre called Americana, and bedrock artists like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard should find Dirt Farmer, Helm’s first solo disc in 25 years, appropriately haunting.
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Entertainment WeeklyThe Band's Levon Helm turns in a modestly charming album of 13 cover songs. [30 Nov 2007, p.131]
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Helm takes material from a variety of sources and makes it all his own.
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Helm’s voice is still poignant even if it’s nowhere near as strong as it once was.
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It’s Mr. Helm who holds the spotlight, playing drums as well as mandolin and acoustic guitar, and singing the lyrics--however bleak or jubilant--with a steady ardor.
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The result is a collection that sounds like nothing so much as a modern-day Dock Boggs signed to the Lost Highway label.
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MojoEarthy, reassuringly calloused country and bluegrass is its currency. [Dec 2007, p.110]
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This collection sees Levon return to his roots to reinterpret classic songs from his childhood and pay homage to those who influenced him along the way.
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Dirt Farmer thus proves a revelation, not only through Helm's amazingly rich vocals but also in the return to his Arkansas roots with a perspective and emotion that testifies to perseverance and faith.
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Traditionals such as 'False Hearted Lover Blues' and 'Poor Old Dirt Farmer' go right to the core of music as expression of primal human experience.
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Dirt Farmer is a hard-edged but compassionate and full-hearted set of roots music from a master of the form, and it's a welcome, inspiring return to form for Levon Helm after a long stretch of professional and personal setbacks.
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On Dirt Farmer, Helm works primarily with Amy Helm and Larry Campbell (recently of Bob Dylan’s touring band) to create new arrangements for these pieces that not only fit the songs' original ideas, but also give the album a unified feel.
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The older songs blend well with the more recent numbers; Helm and his menagerie of backing musicians use bluegrass instrumentation throughout the album and ably blur the lines between traditional pieces and modern songs by the likes of Steve Earle and Paul Kennerley.
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His victory over throat cancer cost him some of his old soulful weight. But in 'Poor Old Dirt Farmer,' a Cajun waltz about a man left with only stones for harvest, Helm's drawling howl is heavy with the outrage and sorrow of someone with a deep connection to the land and those who live by it.
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His gently driving percussion work, so important for the Band's success, is still there, and his singing is helped by the impressive harmony work of his daughter Amy.
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Q MagazineWhether reworking Steve Earle's 'The Mountain' or the traditional heart-tugger 'The Blind Child,' it represents a small yet very real personal triumph. [Dec 2007, p.121]
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 11 out of 13
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Mixed: 0 out of 13
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Negative: 2 out of 13
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ByronLJJul 5, 2009
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PaulFMar 6, 2008Best Album in the last few years. Great to hear him again. This album needs to be un your music collection.
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DEJan 31, 2008A fine albumn in the Americana style; listening to Levon's singing takes me back to his vocals with The Band.