The Band

The Band was a Canadian-American rock group made up of Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm. They first came together backing rockabilly performer Ronnie Hawkins as «The Hawks» before striking out on their own, and gained a pivotal early reputation as Bob Dylan's backing band during his controversial electric tours of 1965-66, which introduced them to a wider audience and connected them deeply with Dylan's songwriting circle.

That relationship led the group to upstate New York, where their informal sessions with Dylan produced material that would later surface as The Basement Tapes, among the most legendary bootlegs in rock history. The Band's own 1968 debut, Music from Big Pink, marked a deliberate turn away from the psychedelic excess of the era toward a warmer, more rustic sound rooted in Americana, country, R&B and gospel, with rotating lead vocals and richly textured arrangements built around Hudson's organ and Robertson's guitar work.

Songs like «The Weight» and «The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down» became genre-defining, influencing the roots-rock and Americana movements for decades afterward. The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, with Rolling Stone ranking them among the greatest artists in rock history.