INTERVIEW: Carrying on the legacy of the Band
Photo: On Jan. 26, the Weight Band will bring their rock ‘n’ roll music to the Brooklyn Bowl. Photo courtesy of Michael Bram / Provided by Michael J. Media Group with permission.
The Band was one of the most important rock acts of the 20th century. The members of the original outfit, including Levon Helm, helped create a bluesy soundtrack for legions of fans. Whether it was “The Weight” or “Up on Cripple Creek,” the hits were numerous and dominated the charts for years.
Jim Weider joined the Band a couple decades into its existence and helped contribute to the group’s legacy. After Helm’s death a few years ago, the players by his side took some time off and then ventured into different projects. Weider kept playing the Band’s material with his former bandmates, and that eventually led to the founding of the Weight Band.
Today, Weider (guitar and mandolin) is joined by Michael Bram on drums, Brian Mitchell on keyboards, Matt Zeiner on keyboards, and Albert Rogers on bass. They all share vocals.
When they play live, the Weight Band combines the Band’s classic tunes with songs off their original debut album, World Gone Mad. They bring their act Saturday, Jan. 26 to the Brooklyn Bowl in New York City and other cities around the United States.
“[Helm] wanted us to keep the music going, and all of us that were in the Band with Levon Helm have done that our own way,” Weider said in a recent phone interview. “I wanted to keep the music going, and that’s how this kind of started. It started with me and Garth Hudson and Jimmy Vivino. We did a couple of shows with songs of the Band, and it went over so great that when those guys went on to do what they were doing, I put the Weight Band together. It was always in the back of my head, and what we’ll do down at the Brooklyn Bowl is not only the classic Band tunes and some cool [Bob] Dylan stuff. I always had it in the back of my head, I wanted to make an original album with this group because it was so great.”
The Weight Band came together to record World Gone Mad in between their world tours. They recorded the album at Clubhouse Studio in Rhinebeck, New York, not far from Weider’s hometown and the Band’s old stomping ground.
“We’d set up live and have the vocals live and the guitars live, the amps bleeding and try to get everything as live as possible,” he said. “That’s the way we would record with the Band, and that gets that natural feel. If you listen to the Dylan tune [‘Day of the Locusts’], it’s very live, or ‘Big Legged Sadie.’ That’s all live leads. That’s the vibe. That way we would sound like we sound like when people come to see us, so it’s not some fabricated record with a million overdubs.”
Playing the Band’s material for this many years never grows tiresome for Weider. He has been playing these tunes for almost four decades, and they are still fun.
“‘The Weight’ is such an iconic song, and every time it goes by, it reminds me of times on the road with the guys with the Band,” he said. “It just brings back certain feelings of playing with them, and the song is a coming together of the ages to me.”
Weider first became interested in music when he was 13 or 14 years old in high school. Like today, he played guitar back then, and the local groups he was a member of were interested in “different stuff” like the Seeds, the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead.
“Everybody had bands,” he said. “It was a great time, and you were inspired by so many people to learn music. And I think it was a great thing, and it’s been my whole life.”
Upstate New York was a fertile ground for young musicians like Weider.
“I didn’t really go to New York City to the Village and see all these people, or the Fillmore when it was there,” he said. “I didn’t go down there. I had Paul Butterfield and his bandmates, Dave Sanborn … Van Morrison up here, the Band, and all these people would sit and jam.”
He added: “Those guys were my inspirations. They were all great musicians and some of them, of course, groundbreaking musicians. That’s who inspired me. … In this little town, it was five or six nightclubs going seven nights a week. It was a great period for me. I would go out and soak up as much as I could and listen to people play, not only guitar but pedal steel and saxophone and keyboards, organ. It was great.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Weight Band will play Saturday, Jan. 26 at the Brooklyn Bowl in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
