Dirt Farmer

1	False Hearted Lover Blues 3:29
2	Poor Old Dirt Farmer 3:52
3	The Mountain 3:35
4	Little Birds 4:41
5	The Girl I Left Behind 3:36
6	Calvary 4:52
7	Anna Lee 3:42
8	Got Me a Woman 3:12
9	A Train Robbery 5:28
10	Single Girl, Married Girl 3:19
11	The Blind Child 3:26
12	Feelin' Good 3:31
13	Wide River to Cross 4:51

Barnes & Noble

Since his previous solo album in 1982, Levon Helm's Woodstock studio burned to the ground, his Band mates Richard Manuel and Rick Danko died, and Helm survived a throat cancer that nearly silenced his burly tenor. And yet you'd never guess at these troubles from the opening notes of Dirt Farmer. Sure, Helm's voice is haggard, but he bites into the traditional "False Hearted Lover Blues" with gusto that few 67-year-old rock 'n' roll vets can muster. And as that song and others on the album -- every one a winner -- prove, Helm's molasses-thick accent and deeply rhythmic phrasing are none the worse for wear. Recorded with his daughter Amy and musician friends including Buddy and Julie Miller, guitarist Larry Campbell, and keysmen Glenn Patscha and Brian Mitchell, among others, Dirt Farmer visits songs from Helm's Arkansas childhood. The lion's share are traditional numbers, performed acoustically albeit with robust rock and country grooves. The standout "Single Girl, Married Girl" is an A. P. Carter tune; Steve Earle's "The Mountain" gets an impassioned reading; and Paul Kennerley's Frank and Jesse James ballad "A Train Robbery" gets a gutsy treatment and a wicked resonator guitar arrangement. Both the material and the worn timbre of Helm's vocals suggest the high-lonesome wail of Ralph Stanley -- but where that Clinch Mountain man has plied the Grim Reaper's route on his most recent recordings, Helm is all joy and thankfulness. "Feelin' Good," a jaunty duet with his daughter, proves the former; the majestic closer, "Wide River to Cross," testifies to the latter. Music making doesn't come more thrillingly honest than this. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

During the Band's original run (from 1968 to 1976), Robbie Robertson may have been the group's strongest songwriter and the idea man behind most of their best work, but Levon Helm was truly the group's heart and soul with his tough, sinewy Arkansas vocals and his indomitable, loosely tight drumming. Robertson' solo work since leaving the Band has been the product of a man whose lofty ambitions outstrip his ability to make them interesting, but Helm's music has been the greater disappointment; with the exception of 1980's American Son, most of his solo recordings have been thoroughly disposable, offering plenty of good-time boogie but none of the gravity one might hope for from the man who made "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" come to such compelling life years ago. Which is why Dirt Farmer is such a pleasant surprise; it's easily Helm's best recorded work since American Son, and an absorbing look back at his roots as the son of a farm family in the rural South. Dirt Farmer was produced by Larry Campbell, a session guitarist and member of Bob Dylan's road band, in collaboration with Amy Helm, Levon's daughter, and they've assembled a solid but clutter-free acoustic band for these sessions, and the simple but iron-strong backdrops and superb songs are just what was needed to bring out the best in Levon. Helm survived a bout with throat cancer that was diagnosed in 1998, and his voice is noticeably more weathered than it once was, but in many respects the additional nooks and crannies suit this material beautifully; his interpretations of traditional rural folk songs like "Poor Old Dirt Farmer," "Little Birds," and "False Hearted Lover Blues" sound thoroughly authentic but with a bracing sense of force and commitment in Helm's vocals, and if Steve Earle's "The Mountain" and Buddy & Julie Miller's "Wide River to Cross" aren't venerable classics, they sound like they should be once Levon's done with them. Though Helm adds a touch of boogie to "Got Me a Woman" and a jumped-up interpretation of the Carter Family's "Single Girl, Married Girl," in this context they add some welcome spice to the stew, and Helm's drumming remains superb. Dirt Farmer is a hard-edged but compassionate and full-hearted set of roots music from a master of the form, and it's a welcome, inspiring return to form for Levon Helm after a long stretch of professional and personal setbacks. Mark Deming