"Levon Helm, who helped to forge a deep-rooted American music as the drummer and singer for the Band..."

"... died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 71 and lived in Woodstock, N.Y."

Mr. Helm gave his drums a muffled, bottom-heavy sound that placed them in the foundation of the arrangements, and his tom-toms were tuned so that their pitch would bend downward as the tone faded. Mr. Helm didn’t call attention to himself. Three bass-drum thumps at the start of one of the Band’s anthems, “The Weight,” were all that he needed to establish the song’s gravity.

Beautiful. So sorry to lose this man.