Discover Top Posts Tagged with #jim weider

The Band - Chest Fever

Album Review: The Weight Band - World Gone Mad

Imagine if a latter-day member of the Band (Robbie Robertson stand-in Jim Weider) teamed with former associates of Levon Helm (keyboardist Brian Mitchell) and Rick Danko (keys-and-sax man Marty Grebb) and a rhythm section, drummer Michael Bram and bassist Albert Rogers, named themselves the Weight Band and released an album full of songs on which they imitate Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan’s former backing group.

Scratch that; it already happened.

And the resulting World Gone Mad is about what you’d expect, a record full of retreads like “Fire in the Hole,” “Big Legged Sadie” and “Heat of the Moment,” that find the Weight Band musicians tugging at strings of the Band’s music and winding up with frayed strands of fluff, as the vocalists attempt to imitate Helm and Danko; thankfully, they’re too wise to try to ape Richard Manuel.

Meanwhile, “I Wish You Were Here Tonight” and “You’re Never too Old (To Rock and ‘N Roll)” are as clichéd as their titles suggest.

Jackie Greene appears on a musically unrecognizable remake of the Grateful Dead’s “Deal” and there’s a live version of the Weider-era Band track “Remedy.” But instead of providing highlights, these numbers only serve to illuminate the album’s - and the (lower-case) band’s - shortcomings.

Grade card: The Weight Band - World Gone Mad - D-

3/21/18

#the weight band #the band #robbie robertson #jim weider #michael bram #brian mitchell #marty grebb #albert rogers #rick danko #levon helm #richard manuel #garth hudson #ronnie hawkins #bob dylan #jackie greene #the grateful dead #world gone mad

The Messiah Will Come Again / Roy Buchanan Tribute

#johnny hiland #ge smith #jim weider #john jeorgnson #telecaster #fender

Jim Weider of The Weight (and The Band) - 11.25.14 - The Hartford Courant

Only two original members of the Band are still alive today: guitarist Robbie Robertson and organist Garth Hudson. But after famously calling it quits in 1976, as documented in "The Last Waltz," the group reunited in 1983 without Robertson. Woodstock, N.Y.-based guitarist Jim Weider stepped up to fill his slot. Today, Weider is keeping the original thread of the Band's music alive with his tribute group, The Weight.

Drummer Levon Helm was Weider's entry point into the storied band.

"I met Levon way back in the '60s when he was in town," says Weider. "I was working at a stereo shop and all the guys in the Band came in, but I was just in high school. They had their first album out, 'Big Pink,' and Levon came in. I went over to his house in 1970 or so and showed him my Telecaster."

In the early '80s, Weider began playing in a group with Helm. One by one, former members of the Band returned to town and it became clear that a reunion was immanent.

"It was pretty great," Weider says of the phone call he received to join the reunion tour in 1985. "And it was Levon doin' it. I owe it to him. He had a lot of confidence. I had been playing with them and they were going to play this bar called the Getaway in Woodstock. Levon said, 'Well, we're all getting together here, and were going to go out on the road with Crosby, Stills and Nash… why don't you come down and sit in?' I played the whole night. They went out on the road for a week and then they called me up and asked me to fly out."

Weider was in the Band for a decade in a half, until bassist Rick Danko's death in 1999 effectively ended it once and for all. He continued to play with Levon Helm in various projects until Helm's death in 2012.

The Weight features Weider's Bandmate drummer Randy Ciarlante, keyboardist Brian Mitchell and bassist Byron Isaacs of the Levon Helm Band, and keyboardist Marty Grebb, who worked with the Rick Danko Group in the '70s, wrote songs with Richard Manuel, and wrote songs for the Band's "Jericho" album from 1993.

"Everybody in the band has either worked with guys who were in the Band or were in the Band," says Weider. "And It shows when we play. They really know how to play the music properly. Everybody in the group has a real deep reverence for it."

There are many songs the rebooted '80s and '90s Band simply didn't play. The Weight gives Weider and company the opportunity to revisit more obscure tunes like "Forbidden Fruit" and "Lookout Cleveland."

"That keeps it interesting, when we keep changing up the show," he says.

Weider had been participating in Helm's Midnight Rambles — weekly Saturday night shows at the drummer's home/barn/studio — up until soon before his death. Helm's manager, Barbara O'Brien, was largely responsible for the success of the Rambles, and now she manages the Weight. (The Weight will be playing a Midnight Ramble at Helm's former studio on Dec. 27, in fact.)

Weider still lives in Woodstock.

"It's changed a lot," he says. "You don't see the locals as much, and there's not a music scene the way there was. There's still a lot of great musicians tucked away, but there's no place to play as much anymore. It used to be a really cool music scene, but it's like that in every town. Thank god for Infinity opening two great music venues. This one in Hartford I haven't played yet but I hear it's beautiful. They really do a great job, class act all the way."

THE WEIGHT performs on Friday, Nov. 28, at Infinity in Hartford. Showtime is 8 p.m. Information: infinityhall.com, theweightband.com

#sembos #the weight #jim weider #hartford courant

See The Weight playing the music of The Band at The Newton Theatre, on Saturday, April18!

Replicating the music of The Band is a tall order. But interpreting the music of The Band is an art. Songs that have reverberated across history for decades continue to speak to millions of us. And The Weight, a five-piece ensemble featuring Jim Weider and Randy Ciarlante from The Band, Brian Mitchell and Byron Isaacs of the Levon Helm Band and Marty Grebb, who worked with Rick Danko and Richard Manuel of The Band, remains a vehicle through which we can continue to share those stories and dance to those back beats.

#the weight #the band #jim weider #randy ciarlante #brian mitchell #byron issacs #marty grebb #rick danko #richard manuel #levon helm band #midnight ramble band #newton #newton nj #new jersey #the newton theatre

David Sancious & Jim Weider - Sittin On Top Of The World (2010)

#David Sancious #Jim Weider #Video

The Band - The High Price of Love - 1996

#The Band #Rick Danko #Levon Helm #Jim Weider #Richard Bell #Randy Ciarlante #Garth Hudson

The Band Live at the New Orleans Jazz Festival performing W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

Good way to start the day if you ask me!

- Joey

#Levon Helm #The Band #Rick Danko #Jim Weider #Randy Ciarlante #Richard Bell #Rick Bell #Garth Hudson