CD of the Week

THE BAND A Musical History Capitol ****

Thirty-six years after it was released, The Band, or The Brown Album, as this seminal American band's second album was known, continues to amaze. It leads an array of lesser classics, notably its predecessor, Music from the Big Pink, and its follow-up, The Rumour. The Brown Album's key tracks are the centrepiece of this very impressive five-CD collection of well-known songs, out-takes, live tracks and rareities, 102 cuts in all, plus a DVD of live performances which conveys something of the chaotic mood of the era. All this is packaged in a large hardback book of 108 pages, with text by leading rock musicologist Rob Bowman, along with copious notes, discographies and photographs.

Guitarist and songwriter Robbie Robertson is the executive producer, and his editing of the material is generally sound (although the inclusion of "song sketches", basically rough demos, could be challenged). The music ranges from the earliest days as backing band for rock'n'roller Ronnie Hawkins to the alliance with Bob Dylan, and The Band's emergence as a major force in their own right. At their peak in the early 1970s they were the definition of classic American rock: music of passion, history and tradition, played with furious intensity.

Even today, the vocals of Levon Helm and Rick Danko, the brilliantly incisive and economical guitar of Robertson (his solos on Ophelia and King Harvest Has Surely Come remain classics), the whirling keyboards of Garth Hudson and the melancholic piano of Richard Manuel can raise a thrill. http://theband.hiof.no/