Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm is best known as the drummer and sometimes lead vocalist of The Band. He joined Ronnie Hawkins' group The Hawks and moved to Canada where most of the musicians who were to become known as The Band were recruited (Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson). Ronnie left and a few years later, when Bob Dylan decided to try his hand at electric music, he asked them to be his backing band. Levon left for a couple of years but returned for Woodstock in 1967 at which point The Hawks became known as The Band and released their debut album Music from Big Pink which included the classic The Weight on which Levon had the lead vocal. The Band broke up in 1976 after their farewell concert which featured in the Martin Scorcese film The Last Waltz. Levon released a few solo albums, and reunited with his former Band members, except Robbie Robertson, in 1983. Richard Manuel committed suicide in 1986, but the other members continued touring and released albums until 1998.

The Band

In the late 90s Levon was diagnosed with throat cancer and was unable to sing for a number of years. He began hosting concerts known as the Midnight Ramble from his home in Woodstock New York with musical friends, the proceeds of which helped pay his medical bills. By 2004 he was able to sing again and released his Grammy Award winning album Dirt Farmer in 2007, followed by Electric Dirt which won the very first Americana Album award at the Grammys in 2010.

In 2008 I was fortunate enough to witness first hand Ramble at the Ryman, which launched the Americana Music festival in Nashville. In a packed Ryman Auditorium (a venue in which you can almost feel the ghosts of the country music legends who have graced the stage here over the years), Levon and his musical friends including band leader Larry Campbell, Buddy Miller, Allison Moorer, Steve Earle, Sheryl Crow, Delbert McClinton, Billy Bob Thornton and John Hiatt entertained us with renditions of The Band and Dirt Farmer songs, culminating in an emotional encore featuring a performance of The Weight. It was the highlight of my Nashville trip. Levon looked older than his 68 years but sat behind his drum kit, grinning from ear to ear obviously enjoying the evening as much as the audience. I knew then that I was in the presence of a legend, one that I was unlikely to see perform again (although admittedly I saw him the following evening when he appeared at the AMA Awards show!).

Levon Helm at the 2008 Americana Music Awards in Nashville.

The next day I purchased a copy of his autobiography to find out more about the great man - it's well worth reading if you're at all interested. The Ramble at The Ryman show was filmed and has since appeared as a CD and DVD. The CD was yet another Grammy Award winner for Levon.

Levon's memory will live on through the great songs he's written and performed on and the many musicians he's influenced, but the world of Americana music won't be the same without him.

The Plastikman himself emerges for the encore (Photo: MJSFerrier)

Saturday 3rd December, Glasgow Barrowlands

For techno lovers of a certain age, the Plastikman Live 1.5 visit to the Barrowlands Ballroom seems like a chance to travel back in time. I last saw Plastikman play here at one of the legendary Pure nights in 1994. The sense of time-warp is heightened by the presence of just about everyone who was in the crowd at that gig, and also because this most atmospheric of venues hasn't changed a jot in the intervening years, bless it.

But I've been primed to expect great things from tonight's show. Richie Hawtin's love of technology means he has made a determined effort to reinvent his minimal Plastikman alter-ego for the 21st century (beware strobing) - hence the 1.5, which suggests further upgrades to come.

By half eight there is already a healthy gathering of dancers whooping it up down the front - that Glasgow determination to get down, despite the early start and the challenging December weather - and there are just as many young faces as veterans. The music is reminding me of my recent visit to Berlin - underground, smooth and minimal. Nothing nostalgic, thankfully: techno is about the future, so the cliché goes. The hall is dark, and lurking centre stage is an ominous black curtain.

The support DJs from Hawtin's M_nus label get the whole crowd properly moving with a decent selection as the famous sprung floor fills up, but finally bring the atmosphere down a few notches to increase the impact of the headline act's entrance. The curtain drops, minimal blips pop out of the massive sound system and we are blinded by the light. This big cylindrical cage is the brightest TV in the world. I've never been particularly impressed by the abstract pattern school of VJing, but the stuff that's happening here takes it to a new level. Hawtin has an army of techies helping him to do it all truly live - everything wired together so he can trigger mega-strobes, patterns and sounds in unison - definitely not just pressing play on a laptop and miming at a mixing desk. Only when the screen goes dark for a second and he's backlit do you catch a glimpse of the wizard at the controls, firing off sequences from his banks of classic analogue and modern digital kit.

The hall is packed, and looking back at the faces lit by the screen, thoughts of nostalgia evaporate. In 1994 people danced with each other. In 2011, we're all watching a giant TV and filming it on our smartphones. Not that the experience is inferior- just modern. It's a spectacle. The screen is so bright that at times it's almost unbearable, like staring at the sun - meaning it actually looks good on a phone (beware extreme strobing in those Youtube clips).

The recently released complete Arkives box set contains hours of back catalogue, but unlike the current crop of cheesy superstar DJs Hawtin doesn't take the easy route of mixing hits together in the obvious breakdown/build-up/4-to-the-floor format. He picks and chooses snippets, remixing as he goes - again, the live element prevents it from being a nostalgiathon. It's impressive that a heaving dancefloor of 2000 people can be satisfied by such an experimental collection of sounds. There are plenty of pounding moments, though, all the more powerful for taking us by surprise.

The huge cage/screen in action

He has been teasing throughout with snatches of his biggest tune, Spastik, and finally emerges from his cage for the encore with a little table of gadgets right at the front of the stage. The crowd swarm, phones aloft, and the trademark 606 machine gun percussion gets a massive roar as Hawtin strikes rock star poses in front of the Plastikman symbol - plenty of fans go home with their phones full of pictures of their hero.

I leave looking forward to version 2.

For those lucky enough to snatch a ticket for the Usher Hall gig, though, it soon becomes clear that there is nothing disappointing about these songs at all. Bon Iver has moved on and grown into a powerful live force, thanks in part to a gang of embarrassingly talented multi-instrumentalists. On stage are two drummers, a one man brass section, two guitarists, violin, percussionist and a vast array of pedals. Vernon himself has transformed a little too, slimming down, trimming the beard and donning a tie, more off duty geography teacher than wild mountain man.

From the opening blast of Perth the audience is enraptured. The band stick with the new material until well into the gig and it becomes obvious that these songs are as good as the first album. The standard of playing on display is impressive, but despite the dense orchestration Vernon's vocal always shines through. Though often hiding behind the falsetto that made his name on the first album, it's when he sings in his natural, deep baritone that you realise that it's not just the songwriting that makes this work - he is an unusually powerful singer.

This gig is a masterclass in light and shade, in tenderness and crescendo, catchy pop hooks combined with avant-garde weirdness. Re:Stacks provides one of the most powerful moments when Justin sits down at the mic alone with his guitar, making me think I would love to hear him sing a small bar...but then when the full band blast in with the encore and try their damnedest to lift the roof off the Usher Hall I'm just happy to be here. Cod emotion-peddlers like Coldplay wish they sounded this epic.

With the final predictable but perfect encore of Skinny Love, I'm struck by the incongruity that such an intimate breakup song should have come to this point, inspiring joyous chanting from a huge crowd. Judging by his easy banter and his beaming face at the end, this is a role which reluctant hero Mr Vernon is getting used to.

He came to prominence during the sixties folk revival, and as part of the jazz-folk supergroup Pentangle with another guitar maestro, John Renbourn. His distinctive technique of finger-picking and string bending won him admirers from Jimmy Page to Johnny Marr and has been hugely influential. As recently as 2010 he was touring with Neil Young.

We have trawled the BBC Scotland archive for this lovely clip of him playing his own composition, Running From Home, filmed at Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket during Celtic Connections in 2008.

• Bert Jansch offical site
• BBC 6 Music - Gideon Coe pays tribute
• BBC Radio 2 pays tribute
• Guardian article on 2010 tour with Neil Young
• BBC News story


• BBC Music Showcase - Mary Ann Kennedy Collection

Gil Scott-Heron. Photograph copyright Mischa Richter

The Chicago-born, Tennessee/New York raised poet, novelist and musician completed his first book of poetry at the age of 13 and first novel, The Vulture, at 19. He dropped out of college in Pennsylvania after only one year to concentrate on his writing career. His debut album, Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, was released in 1970 and included his best known song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". Signing to Arista Recording in 1975 Gil had some success in the US R&B Charts with Johannesburg reaching no 29 and the single, The Bottle peaking at no 15.

Much of his music was inspired by the events and movements of the day including Apartheid and Civil Rights, President Reagan's conservative policies and nuclear energy. In 1985 Arista dropped him and he stopped recording until 1993. He spent much of his later life held back by a number of drug possessions although he did record the album "I'm New Here" in 2010.

Many people were influenced by Gil, not least after "Black Wax" was shown on British television in the early eighties, as evinced by the remix album Jamie Smith of The XX did shortly before Gil's death of "I'm New Here". The tributes from musicians as diverse as Public Enemy's Chuck D and Chic's Nile Rodgers show that it wasn't just his politics and words (Chuck D) that mattered, but that his musicality (Nile Rodgers) did too. He was not just the proto-rapper he's often pigeon-holed as, with a social conscience, he was a great singer and very charismatic live performer.

He wasn't afraid to snap at his admirers, and in songs like "The Message to the Messengers" he more or less told rappers off writing about being against misogny and violence in lyrics.

There was, obviously, quite a dichotomy between the lyrics of anti-drug songs like "Angel Dust" and addiction morality tales like "The Bottle" and Gil's lifestyle, but the songs still stand as great lyrics, and people held a lot of affection for him, even after no-shows and wasted performances, as demonstrated by his selling out The Picture House (Edinburgh) last year, and doing so quite quickly.

As Stephen mentions in this 2009 edition of The Jazz House, Pocket Legend Gil did have a Scottish connection - his Jamaican born father played briefly for Celtic football Club, the first black man to do so. Gil toured Scotland regularly and had his early novels republished by Edinburgh's Canongate. This Pocket Legend was broadcast on 21 January 2009, the week of President Barack Obama's inauguration as US President.

The song is from Dylan's 1976 Desire album. It's a bit of a break-up number and has also been covered by Calexico and The White Stripes. Some interpretation of the lyrics, should you be interested, is available on Wikipedia.

Throughout his career Dylan has been both a folk and country singer, political activist and more recently a radio DJ. One of the reasons for his continued popularity through the decades is that his songs are timeless. Tracks such as The Times They Are A-Changin' and Masters of War are as relevant today as they were when he wrote them.

So for the next couple of weeks the BBC are paying tribute to the great man. On television, radio and online, across all the networks you'll find Dylan features and programmes. Here's just a small sample, you can find the full list on the BBC Schedule.

BBC Radio Scotland:

Friday 20 & 27 May: Another Country with Ricky Ross - Rosanne Cash, Tom Jones, The Secret Sisters, Teddy Thompson are amongst the musicians who choose their favourite Dylan song.

Here's Rosanne Cash (who shares her birthday with Bob) telling Ricky about her favourite Dylan song...

Tuesday 24 May: Mary Ann Kennedy's Global Gathering - Mary Ann introduces highlights from the 2011 Celtic Connections Bob Dylan Tribute Concert.

Wednesday 25 May: The Jazz House
Stephen Duffy marks Bob Dylan's 70th birthday with jazz versions of Dylan classics by the Danish Radio Big Band, Barb Jungr and Nina Simone.

BBC Radio 2

Wednesday 18 May: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan - A Folk Tribute.
the cream of the British folk scene re-interprets songs from his iconic album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

Monday 23 May: Dylan's Women
Bob Harris takes a look at the women behind the songs.

BBC Radio 4

Saturday 21 May: Bob Dylan and Me
Poets, musicians and fans reflect on what Bob Dylan means to them.

BBC 6 Music

Daily from 17-22 May: The Bob Dylan Story
Kris Kristofferson presenter the story of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in a six part series.

24-26 May: Bob Dylan Changing Times
BBC 6 Music explores Bob Dylan's career in 1969, 1979 and 1989 and assesses his self-reinvention at the end of each decade

BBC Radio Ulster

Thursday 19 May: Ralph McLean Classic Albums
Ralph presents a two hour tribute to the man and his music.

BBC Four

20 & 21 May: Arena: Bob Dylan No Direction Home
The story of Bob Dylan directed by Martin Scorcese.

Triangulating the perfect drone

Tonight's appearance from electronic prankster duo Matmos is part of the Glasgow mini-festival programmed by minimal classical experimentalists the Kronos Quartet, who have invited a selection of friends and collaborators to the fair city for a series of concerts that have by all accounts been a roaring success.

If you know anything about Matmos, you know that this is going to be anything but ordinary. Previously from San Francisco (I'm assuming that's where they got together with Kronos), but now based in Baltimore, where Drew Daniel is an assistant professor of English, they delight in creating downright strange but often catchy and toe-tapping electronic music using a variety of bizarre sound sources - anything from the gruesome ripping and squelching noises of the surgical operating room to...well, to the Kronos Quartet reluctantly bowing deep fat fryers, as I was amused to read in The List.

Before the gig, we find ourselves meandering between Merchant City bars and spot a group of people gathered around a tall, academic-looking man in a brown tweed suit playing a cheery kazoo-like ditty on an orange drinking straw. It is Martin aka MC Schmidt, one half of Matmos, giving us a small example of the sense of fun that makes the band much more interesting than many of their experimental peers.

Tanya Tagaq in blue mood

We sit in cabaret style around tables in the dark Fruitmarket hall. Opening for Matmos is a lady in a cocktail dress from the icy tundra. Tanya Tagaq has been working with Kronos over quite a few of their Glasgow gigs, but here is performing as part of her own trio. Her vocal approach is lifted from a traditional Inuit singing game, and involves making throaty grunts and rhythmic breath sounds at the same time as sung notes, akin to beatboxing but much weirder. I've heard recordings of this singing game and she definitely takes the style way beyond its roots. A huge video backdrop projects primary colours and compliments her melodramatic writhing. Heavily effected haunting violin and hypnotic percussion join to create a pleasing and strange experience. Quiet reflective moments build to Banshee screaming and frantic drumming. She is an intense and odd performer.

A brief hiatus, and onto the stage bounds Matmos. There are three of them tonight - on guitar and effects is long-time friend J Lesser, while Drew Daniel stands at what I think might be a laptop and MC Schmidt sits at a tiny drumkit and keyboard...as far as I can tell. It's an unsettling opening: a voice intones 'triangle' repeatedly as sampled notes from said basic instrument layer into a complex drone epic while Lesser plays mournful wails on his electric guitar.

The choir - but where are the baguettes?

Their sense of intelligent mischief is soon in full effect as it becomes clear they have enlisted an impromptu choir in comedy glasses to chant inane sentences from the balconies in a monotone. The disembodied voices overlap and spin around the quadraphonic sound system spouting stream of consciousness phrases from every angle ('flying baguettes' was the one that stuck in my head). The projections on the big backdrop mix po-faced stills of Matmos performing Kraftwerk-like with abstract and mundane images of corridors.

The more dance-oriented side of Matmos begins to emerge as MC Schmidt plays intricate patterns on his little drum kit which are looped and mangled into something approaching a groove. The set continues to build with strange and elaborately perfect sound sculptures until incredibly we realise it is 1am and the band wave goodbye.

The resultant pocket of 'one more tune' chanters are rapturous when Matmos return, and the band seems energised by whoops from the small group of enthusiastic dancers who form a mini-rave down the front, bopping away to the decidedly funky beats that constitute their encore. We are very sad they don't have another hour.

More Kronos In Glasgow:

• Reviews from STV
• Review from Scotsman
• Review from The Herald

First up: DJ Jackmaster

Jack Revill is the latest in the line of illustrious selectors to grace the Fabriclive mix series. Reflecting the shifting but always dancefloor-oriented music policy of the soon-to-be world-dominating Numbers labels, and the Glasgow club nights at which he is resident, the mix CD is out on Monday. In the meantime, take a listen to this promo mix he's put together.

Seconds out, gloves off. It's Sons and Daughters.

You are hereby notified of the imminent release of a new Sons and Daughters LP. After Bernard Butler's production delivered a glossy sheen to their last album, this time they've enlisted the assistance of yet another Glasgow DJ. Optimo veteran and long-time supporter of the band JD Twitch, aka Keith McIvor, has taken them in a new synthy direction while simultaneously recovering some of the rawness that was a feature of their earlier releases. Have a listen to two tasters on Domino Records' Soundcloud. Incidentally, the band are booked in for a session appearance on the Vic Galloway Show on June 6th. The album, Mirror Mirror, is also out in June.

And finally: hillbilly wedding video fun from The Raw Kings.

It's only a couple of weeks since the BBC was gripped by wedding fever, meaning we've slightly missed the boat with this one from another Glasgow band, a fun-lovin' posse of country-flavoured pub rockers known as The Raw Kings. But as it's such a well assembled video with a huge sense of fun, we felt it warranted inclusion here, despite its adult themes and our lack of timeliness... Enjoy!

You can catch the band supporting Lulu, of all people, at the grand opening of the Tall Ships festival in Greenock. How's that for rock'n'roll?

On April 19th 2008, Metallica opened the first Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco and the event has quickly spread worldwide. This year's event takes place on Saturday 16th April.and music enthusiasts will gather worldwide at their local independent record shop to show their support and pick up one of the multitude of special limited edition releases available on the day.

Domino will release an EP of Franz Ferdinand covers with Debbie Harry, ESG, LCD Soundsystem and Peaches taking on tracks from the band's Tonight LP while Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad are set to team up for a special limited edition cassette of unreleased material. Head on over to recordstoreday.com/SpecialReleases for the full list.

Stores around Scotland will also be celebrating the day and whether your local store has live performances or not, it's worth heading down there to check out what's going on and have a look at the special releases available.

Aberdeen

One Up - live performances from Indian Red Lopez, Craig John Davidson and Seas Stally

Dundee

Groucho's - live performances from Courtney Stuart and The Twist.

Edinburgh

Avalanche - live performances from Frightened Rabbit, The Last Battle, Penguins Kill Polar Bears and Gordon McIntyre of Ballboy.

Coda Music - live performances from Sharon King, The Paul McKenna Band, Southern Tennant Folk Union, Iain McLaughlin and Corran Raa.

Underground Solu'shn - Dj sets from FOUND, Fudge Fingas, Nasty P, The Blessings and Eclair Fifi.

Glasgow

Love Music Glasgow - live performances from Admiral Fallow, Pearl and the Puppets (solo acoustic set), Woodenbox With A Fistful Of Fivers, The Zips, Stephen Flavahan, Aaron Wright, For Abel, Mr Kil and The Hollows.

Monorail - live performances from Frightened Rabbit, Palms, Iain Shaw and The Membranes, Dj sets from Gerry Love (Teenage Fanclub), Paul Thompson (Franz Ferdinand) and Russell Elder.

Rubadub - Dj sets from Instra:mental, Koreless, The Blessings and Stephen Brown.

Volcanic Tongue

Greenock

Rhythmic Records

Paisley

Apollo Music

Stirling

Europa Music - live performances from Bad Boogaloo, Debrasco, The Media Whores, The Sundancer, Adam Donaldson, Craig Hughes and Andrew Huggan.

We'll have more clips shortly from SXSW and watch out for a SXSW special on Artworks Scotland set for broadcast during the summer.

We first came across the OLO Worms at last year's Homegame festival and they've been working away on their debut album for Fence since then. The first teasers of the forthcoming long player have appeared on the band's Soundcloud page and show a more electronic direction than previous work but with the harmonies intact.

Snake by OLO Worms

Look out for the album's release later in the year and here's their camper van session filmed at Homegame in case you missed it.

Edinburgh's FOUND recently signed to Chemikal Underground and the first fruit of their collective labour is the factorycraft LP. The band dropped in on The Vic Galloway Show on BBC Radio Scotland to play tracks from the album and cover Cate Le Bon's Eyes So Bright.

Watch two tracks below and listen again to the full show for more information and a third track.

FOUND - I'll Wake With A Seismic Head No More

FOUND - Eyes So Bright

We've reached the final part in our history of the jazz piano with Dr Richard Michael. Over the past seven days we've covered a variety of legendary jazz pianists and today Bill Evans is in the spotlight.

Don't forget you can still listen back to previous installments:

History of the Piano Pt 1 - Scott Joplin/Jelly Roll Morton
History of the Piano Pt 2 - Fats Waller
History of the Piano Pt 3 - Art Tatum
History of the Piano Pt 4 - Count Basie
History of the Piano Pt 5 - The Bebop Era
History of the Piano Pt 6 - Oscar Peterson