Bob Dylan Basement Tapes

For roughly half a decade, from 1968 through 1975, the Band was one of the most popular and influential rock groups in the world, their music embraced by critics (and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the public) as seriously as the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Their albums were analyzed and reviewed as intensely as any records by their one-time employer and sometime mentor Bob Dylan.

Initially associated with Bob Dylan with whom they toured and recorded, The Band were soon to be acknowledged as as a truly seminal band in their own right. The Band's eponymously-titled 1969 album reached number 9 in the billboard chart, secured 24 weeks in the Top 40, and was their second million seller. It is now regarded as a rock classic, emphasising their brilliant abilities to merge various musical influences including black, country, rockabilly and rock and roll music. The story of The Band and their classic album is told here in vivid words, pictures and music. Rock legends Eric Clapton and George Harrison, lyricist Bernie Taupin and music producer Don Was pay tribute to The Band and give reasons why their album is top of their classic album list.

For roughly half a decade, from 1968 through 1975, the Band was one of the most popular and influential rock groups in the world, their music embraced by critics (and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the public) as seriously as the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Their albums were analyzed and reviewed as intensely as any records by their one-time employer and sometime mentor Bob Dylan. Although the Band retired from touring after The Last Waltz and disbanded several years later, their legacy thrived for decades, perpetuated by the bandmates' respective solo careers as well as the enduring strength of the Band's catalog…

A Musical History is the second box set to anthologize Canadian-American rock group The Band. Released by Capitol Records on September 27, 2005 it features 111 tracks spread over five Compact Discs and one DVD. Roughly spanning the group's journey from 1961 to 1977, from their days behind Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan through the departure of Robbie Robertson and the first disbanding of the group. The set includes highlights from each of the group's first seven studio albums and both major live recordings and nearly forty rare or previously-unreleased performances…

Anyone who saw the Wallflowers perform live in the early '90s surely could tell the band had a good shot at making it big. With their folk-rock tunes led by the vocals of Jakob Dylan and Rami Jaffee's swelling Hammond organ, they sounded like nothing so much as the Band playing with Jakob's dad, Bob. The songs on their self-titled debut weren't quite there, however, so the Wallflowers breakout was deferred until 1996, when they released Bringing Down the Horse. Still, there are some fine moments on The Wallflowers, including "Shy of the Moon," the rocking "Ashes to Ashes," and the rambling "Sidewalk Annie."

On July 1, 1968, The Band's landmark debut album, Music from Big Pink, seemed to spring from nowhere and everywhere. Drawing from the American roots music panoply of country, blues, R&B, gospel, soul, rockabilly, the honking tenor sax tradition, hymns, funeral dirges, brass band music, folk, and rock 'n' roll, The Band forged a timeless new style that forever changed the course of popular music. Fifty years later, the mythology surrounding Music from Big Pink lives on through the evocative storytelling of its songs including "The Weight," "This Wheel's On Fire," "Tears of Rage," and "To Kingdom Come," its enigmatic cover art painted by Bob Dylan, the salmon-colored upstate New York house – 'Big Pink' – where The Band wrote the songs, and in myriad descendant legends carried forth since the album's stunning arrival.

Peter Laughner was a singer songwriter from Cleveland like no other. Before his untimely death in 1977, he played in numerous bands, most notably Rocket From The Tombs and Pere Ubu, and also as a solo performer. He wrote for a variety of weekly newspapers and Creem, where he was a contemporary of Lester Bangs. He famously told Jane Scott of the Cleveland Plain Dealer that he wanted to do for Cleveland what “…Brian Wilson did for California and Lou Reed did for New York.” In many ways, Peter did in fact put the Cleveland underground on the map.