Word: mandolines
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...Dylan and their parents, the group had paid respects to two of the major forces in their musical lives. All five took to music young, and they were brought up singing and playing hymns and folk songs with their families. The only American, Levon, was playing mandolin, drums and guitar in his early teens, and once won first prize at a county fair, accompanied by his sister on a homemade washtub bass. Rick Danko, whose father is a Simcoe tobacco farmer, was given a mandolin at five and soon joined his three brothers at Saturday night musicales...
...seems that these days, after the myth of the possibility of a congenial and happy world has been ripped from our grasp by the mandolin and ranting politicos, that maybe the spirit of the Beats is the only viable one for those of us who are tired of waiting around for a fight we don't want, who agree with Kerouac that stupidity is prolific, who are just not naive enough any longer to be hip, who just want to live. and stop playing magician with the realities of our lives, pulling revolutions out of thin air, pulling our personalities...
Stylistically, The Band is Country and Western rock, with mandolin, jew's harp, and some very funky ragtime piano to hint at the down home atmosphere, while drums, organ, and electric guitar give the music a drive which CandW does not possess. The album is technically sound and it is the kind of music you can hum in your mind when you're falling asleep in lecture. Each cut is very professionally arranged and performed to project the atmosphere which the Lyrics describe. As a unit then, the Band works. But judged according to standards set by people like Cream...
...music which forms the baseline for the record is best typefied by Bill Munroe, who coined the term "bluegrass." (Actually a sub-division of Country & Western, Appalachia as opposed to Texas.) It is instrumentally dependent on banjo and guitar, with an occasional mandolin or harmonica. The nasal vocals revolve around lost love and mother, both topics being kept quite separate...
...record sets high instrumental standards, avoiding banjo-picking contests, but showing absolute competence. The songs are carried by guitar, banjo and mandolin, with some very nice blues harp (Gene Clark) and electric harpsichord (Andy Belling) mellowing down the strings...