CD CHOICE: LEVON HELM. Electric Dirt. Vanguard Records ****

It’s the age of the dinosaur. Every week some legend or other comes to town laden down with a glorious past and a painful ticket price. Some are still active; Springsteen brushing 60 remains an awesome force, while Cohen’s 2008 Dublin shows were the stuff of legend. Others simply go through the motions, pocketing the cheque and moving on.

Levon Helm is not one of those. While the name may not prompt instant recognition, Helm’s gnarled voice remains one of the great signatures of rock. And his story is pretty vivid as well. Born to poor cotton farmers in Arkansas 69 years ago, he learned to play drums and other instruments and joined rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins’s band The Hawks when he left school. In time, that band recruited four Canadians and became Bob Dylan’s backing band before striking out on their own as The Band.

The Band enjoyed a long period in the sun before calling it a day with the 1976 concert/movie The Last Waltz. Helm and guitarist Robbie Robertson then began a feud over songwriting credits and both strong wills went their separate ways, with Helm augmenting his musical forays with occasional movie roles (most notably in Coal Miner's Daughterand The Right Stuff). In 1999, Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer; his studio and home burned down a few years later.

Helm has overcome these setbacks. His 2007 comeback album, Dirt Farmer, won a Grammy for best traditional folk album, and this collection, somewhat bluesier and no harm in that, continues to show that there is great life in the old dog yet.

His voice, never the prettiest of things, has regained much of its power, and the fine support of daughter Amy and an impressive cast of musicians (such as producer/guitarist Larry Campbell) make light of any shortcomings. The brass charts are hugely exuberant, as is the playing generally, on a range of material, from Randy Newman's Kingfishto a pair of Muddy Waters songs, including the deliciously suggestive Stuff You Gotta Watch. The closing gospel climax of I Wish I Knew How It Feels to Be Freeprovides a resounding finish to an album that proves age really is no barrier to life-affirming expression. www.levonhelm.com

Download tracks: Stuff You Gotta Watch, I Wish I Knew How It Feels to Be Free, Tennessee Jed