The Weight -The Ballads of the Band -Andy Baylor with the Chicken Skin Orchestra

Presenting .....The Weight – Ballads of The Band
Memo Music Hall , Sunday August 23rd ,4-6pm
Roots music maestro, Andy Baylor, brings together the Chicken Skin Orchestra
with an imaginative re-casting of the marvellous, mysterious songs of The Band.
With their classic albums in the late 60’s and early 70s, The Band helped redefine rock music.
They drew from everywhere:-folk, country, blues, gospel and 50s rock’n’roll and tied-it together with an Old-Timey bow. In their day they defied styles and trends and these days their music is called “Americana”. They backed Bob Dylan, led him down the garden path into his electric rock’n’ roll period and emerged in the late ‘60’s in their own right with Music from Big Pink and the self-titled Band albums. Who can forget the defiant opening sounds of the Dylan/Manuel song -Tears of Rage? It was different - literary, authorative and full of a new kind of feeling. Their most famous and well-loved song, The Weight, is a ‘trippy’, obscure folk, gospel song that people still sing along with. Who really knows what it means? They’ve written books about it. Another magnificent song is “The Night They Drove Ol Dixie Down”, a brilliant, bitter-sweet story-song about the fall of the South that has become part of American folklore. Theres the humorous "truckie-hillbilly' song Up On Cripple Creek , the nostalgic ,Rockin Chair- ballads, blues and rock . For this show Andy has got the band back together! The fabulous Chicken Skin Orchestra. Many music fans will remember their exhilarating performances of Ry Cooder’s songs in the “Across The Border” show. The Orchestra features Professor Ed Bates on pedal Steel, Sam Lemann on guitars and mandolin, the mighty Rick Plant on bass, Jack O’ Dell on drums, Steven Grant on accordion with special guests Kelly Auty, Suzannah Espie, Sarah Carroll, the great Van Walker plus the Whispering Strings with Sophie Dunn and Kate Connor.
The Weight -Ballads of the Band …
As Andy says:- “Over the last few years I have been reliving and rediscovering the music of my younger days and finally figuring out where everything came from and maybe even where its going. I have re-imagined artists as diverse as Bob Wills, Hank Williams, Ry Cooder, Bob Dylan, and I’ve explored the back roads of the Rock Era -old blues, western swing, gospel, jazz and country, ragtime, jug bands, Cajun, funk and New Orleans Jazz. It seems only fitting to be singing and playing the great songs of The Band.”
Memo Music Hall, Sunday August 23rd, matinee show 4-6pm