The Band - The Band
(Numbered 180G Vinyl LP)
Track List
1. Across the Great Divide
2. Rag Mama Rag
3. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
4. When You Awake
5. Up on Cripple Creek
6. Whispering Pines
7. Jemima Surrender
8. Rockin’ Chair
9. Lookout Cleveland
10. Jawbone
11. The Unfaithful Servant
12. King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
The BandThe Bandon Numbered-Edition 180g LP from Mobile Fidelity
Incalculably Influential: The Band’s Self-Titled Sophomore Release a Country- and Folk-Rock Benchmark
Includes Staples “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” “Across the Great Divide,” “Up On Cripple Creek”
Stunning Sound: LP Mastered on Mobile Fidelity’s World-Class Mastering System and Pressed at RTI
Many believe it’s the most perfect Americana album ever made. The 1969 touchstone very well may be. Advancing the chemistry and cohesion of the group’s ground-shifting debut,The Bandis an inimitable distillation of compelling storytelling, cosmic divinity, loose country-rock tunefulness, and superbly crafted songwriting. Warm, literate, poignant, and intimate, the record established new standards for seemingly effortless telepathic interplay among first-class musicians whose creations are as much about feeling as they are about sound.
Mastered on Mobile Fidelity’s world-renowned mastering system and pressed at RTI, this collectible LP burrows into the sonic heart of hearth-rich fare that balances Appalachia’s mountain flavors, the Old West’s rollicking free spiritedness, Canada’s limitless vast folk sprawl, and the Deep South’s whiskey-soaked drawl. Arkansas nativeLevonHelmblends his rural roots with guitaristRobbie Robertson’s allegorical narratives, the pair meeting at a crossroads that, on this pressing, reveals textures as organic as cotton and tonalities as timeless as the look of classic filmstrips. Notes hover and naturally decay; cascading harmonies waft and reverberate; soundstages open up and extend, providing generous spaces for each member’s invaluable contributions to relax, settle, and enter into a wholesome communion.
Indeed, a force normally associated with higher powers appears to guide each one of the 12 tracks, honed to perfection by co-writerRobertsonand his simpatico mates. Sensitive, graceful, magnetic, entirely genuine: Whether focusing onRichard Manuel’s spiritual piano chords and evocative tenor,Rick Danko’s simple albeit direct bass lines and melancholy deliveries,Robertson’s pull-no-punches leads,Garth Hudson’s majestically tuckpointed organ runs, orHelm’s percussive rhythms, a sense of astonishment and truth dignifies arrangements steeped in meditative properties and barn-dance rawness.
From the swampy bayou grooves, jaw-harp-mimicking clavinet passages, and traditional yodels found on “Up on Cripple Creek” to the jubilant dance persuasion of “Rag Mama Rag,”The Band blends mythological devices with authentic melodies, rustic acoustic properties with haunting harmonies. Universally identifiable, the characters in the songs are people well-versed in hardship, depression, working-class struggle, and Skid Row trouble.Musically, the group balances sweetness and edginess on all of its foundational material, capturing the essence of American music and culture like no band before or since.