Bittersweet, it is.
It almost seems a little too poetically fitting that this local writer’s first piece for the first issue of a new Woodstock-based publication, would be a remembrance of Garth Hudson, the last living member of the town’s most famous musical ensemble and one of its most beloved community figures. But here we are.
Garth was, of course, the wizened wizard and polymath organist/multi-instrumentalist of The Band, a group that changed the very path of rock ’n’ roll and essentially forged the genre that came to be called Americana—leaving in their wake some of the most enduring and moving music ever recorded. And so much of what makes The Band’s timeless sound so unique is down to Garth’s contributions: the way his keyboards, accordion, and saxophone weave in, out, over, and around the playing of his pre-deceased band mates Richard Manuel, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Robbie Robertson, whose rich compositions created the perfect playing field for Garth’s experimental flights and stately, ghostly lines.
“For Garth everything was about music,” says Woodstock producer Aaron “Professor Louie” Hurwitz about the famously introverted and cerebral musician. “He didn’t really have much of what you’d call a personal life. When he wasn’t playing, he took refuge in studying and listening to music.”
Born Eric Garth Hudson on August 2, 1937, in Windsor, Ontario, Garth was The Band’s most senior member. His father was a farm inspector and brass band drummer and his mother sang and played piano and accordion. He studied classical music as a very young boy, joined a swing/dance band when he was 12, and as a teen had a job playing dirges and hymns at his uncle’s funeral parlor. While in high school he fell in love with R&B, bebop, and a wild new music called rock ’n’ roll, which he played in local groups like the Melodines, the Silhouettes, and Paul London and the Capers. In 1963 Garth joined his famed future collaborators, then known as Levon and the Hawks, after they’d left rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins, convincing them to hire him as their “music teacher” and pay him slightly more to assuage his parents, who’d been wary of their son’s signing on with a road-dogging rock ’n’ roll band.
Two years later, the Hawks were suddenly lifted out of the barroom circuit and into the international limelight when Bob Dylan tapped them to accompany him for the controversial new electrified sound he’d begun pursuing. By 1967, Dylan and the Hawks were hiding out in the Woodstock-Saugerties area, informally playing low-key, acoustic-dominated roots music at a house they called Big Pink; recordings of these sessions would eventually emerge as “The Basement Tapes,” the acknowledged Rosetta Stone of Americana music.
He was a beautiful guy and the real driving force behind The Band. Just listen to the original recording of “The Weight” and you’ll see.
Bob Dylan
With Dylan continuing to lay low after his 1966 motorcycle accident, the Hawks formalized the generic handle the townspeople had given them—simply, “The Band”—after signing with Capitol Records. Their debut album, “Music from Big Pink,” appeared in July 1968 and drifted like magical mist through the pop world, quietly but greatly reshaping it and moving the Beatles, Cream’s Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, and many others to rethink and rein in their own precipice-approaching psychedelic music.
Among its staggering sonic riches are “Chest Fever,” which commences with the tour-de-force pronouncement by Hudson that the organist would preface on stage with his epic improvisation “The Genetic Method.” 1969’s “The Band” was likewise culturally impactful, boasting, among other well-known classics, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Up on Cripple Creek,” and “Rag Mama Rag.” Following up were 1970’s “Stage Fright,” 1971’s “Cahoots,” and the 1973 rock ’n’ roll covers set “Moondog Matinee”; The Band reunited with Dylan for his 1973 “Planet Waves” album and subsequent tour and relocated to Malibu, California, where they recorded 1975’s acclaimed “Northern Lights—Southern Cross,” although Garth and his late wife Maud held onto their Glenford house.
The Band bowed out in 1976 with the guest star-packed San Francisco concert documented in Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz,” a film widely considered the greatest concert movie ever made. A final studio album, “Islands,” appeared in 1977, and, although Robbie remained in California, Garth, Rick, Levon, and Richard all resettled in the Woodstock area they so loved. The group reunited in 1983 with local great Jim Weider on guitar and made three more albums before Richard and Rick passed (in 1986 and 1999, respectively) and Garth and Levon decided to close the book on The Band. Although they each continued to make music with others, with Levon’s death in 2012, Robbie’s in 2023, and now Garth’s, on January 21, that closure is final. Garth didn’t go out much, so I’m thankful I had the chance to see him sit in with visiting acts the Sadies and Heavy Trash at, respectively, Club Helsinki and the Bearsville Theater.
The Band’s music lives on, of course, and through it so does Garth, who led the 12-piece collective the Best!; released two solo albums, “Music for Our Lady Queen of the Angels” (1980) and “The Sea to the North” (2001), and an album with Maud, “Live at the Wolf” (2005); and worked as an in-demand soundtrack composer and sideman and session player for the likes of Marianne Faithfull, Muddy Waters, Ringo Starr, Leonard Cohen, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, the Call, Neko Case, Norah Jones, Camper Van Beethoven, the Cowboy Junkies, the Lemonheads, Teddy Thompson, Martha Wainwright, Blue Rodeo, and dozens more. The recordings he made with The Band continue to be played, their songs performed as well by others, and through those recordings and songs, and his direct interactions with younger artists, Garth’s spirit and deep love of music and its transcendental power have been passed to the next generation of flame keepers.
“What an honor to call him my friend and teacher,” says musician Sarah Power, a long-time student of the Canadian expat, in a social media post paying tribute to Garth following his death. “To spoon feed him a big piece of chocolate cake on his last birthday and to host his last performance on the piano in my living room. I sure will miss you.”
As will we all.
Peter Aaron is the author of “The Band FAQ,” published in 2019 by Backbeat Books. Send correspondence to reporting@theoverlooknews.com