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Since 1965, when he and his cohorts in The Band (then called The Hawks) conspired with Bob Dylan to "go electric," Rick Danko has been an integral part of the popular music landscape. As lead singer, bassist and acoustic guitar player for The Band, and as a solo artist, his contributions have been substantial.

Hailing from Greens Corner, about a mile and a half from the tiny rural town of Simcoe, Ontario, Rick was born into a musical family. Both of his parents and his three brothers played instruments and/or sang, and music was a way of life for him from the beginning. He listened to Hank Williams and Sam Cooke as a small child, and was "ready to go to Nashville" by the age of seven. With his oldest brother, Maurice ("Junior"), Rick sang and performed at family get-togethers and made his public debut on four-string tenor banjo before an audience of his first-grade classmates.

Rick quit school at 14 to pursue music full-time and in 1960, when he was 17, he joined rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins’ group, The Hawks, initially as rhythm guitarist. He soon moved to bass, learning his instrument "one string at a time," and, with the help of the Hawks’ boogie-woogie piano player (and later, pianist for the late 1980s incarnation of The Band) Stan Szelest, whose left-hand techniques he memorized and adapted to his bass playing, began developing his trademark percussive but sliding style.

Under Ronnie Hawkins’ tutelage, Rick began a three-year tenure of non-stop gigging and rigorous rehearsals that fellow Band-mate Richard Manuel once likened to "boot camp." By the time he was 20, he was a seasoned pro, having spent most of his teenage years "playing in bars that you were supposed to be 21 to play in."

By the early 60s, Rick and the other Hawks had outgrown the limited roadhouse and honky-tonk circuit and left Hawkins to pursue greener pastures. Bob Dylan saw them perform in the mid-60s and was so impressed that he signed The Hawks to accompany him on his 1965-66 World Tour. The Band’s collaboration with Dylan, initially greeted with boos and catcalls around the globe, changed the course of popular music by spawning one of the most significant musical hybrids of the rock era, "Folk Rock."

Rick’s penchant for musical hybrids began germinating, literally, in his own backyard in Simcoe, a town heavily populated with displaced Southern tobacco farmers. The interesting mix of Northern and Southern cultures there was later reflected in his music and is partly responsible for the occasional Southern inflection that colored some of his words.

After the tumultuous world tours with Dylan (the European leg of which was documented in the obscure film Eat the Document), Rick moved from Manhattan to upstate New York, along with Dylan and the other members of the still-unnamed Band. He rented a big pink house in West Saugerties, near Woodstock, and with Dylan and The Band began recording songs which soon surfaced on bootlegs and were officially released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes.

In 1968, after toying with a host of politically incorrect names, like the Crackers and the Honkies, The Band made its official debut with the release of its seminal and eclectic album, Music From Big Pink (Capitol), which became the fulcrum for the country rock and roots rock of the coming decades.

The music of The Band was at once traditional and contemporary, and the combination made it timeless. In the eye of the psychedelic hurricane, The Band virtually pioneered the use of traditional instruments like mandolins, accordions and fiddles in rock & roll, and Rick Danko was one of the first non-rockabilly players to use stand-up acoustic bass on a rock record. In the midst of political unrest and the peace movement, The Band’s lyrics celebrated real life - beauty, tranquillity, nature, good sex, good friends, small town America, Southern culture - a series of themes whose influences would be felt in another musical hybrid, Americana, 25 years later.

In 1991, Rick began working on a project that would become near and dear to his heart, a collaboration with Folk legend Eric Andersen and Norwegian singer/songwriter Jonas Fjeld. The almost immediate result of the trio’s collaboration was an award-winning album, Danko Fjeld Andersen (Stageway), which was honored in Norway with a Spellemans Pris (the Norwegian Grammy) for Record of the Year and was released in late 1993 by Rykodisc. The Rykodisc release was honored by AFIM (formerly NAIRD) the following year. Danko Fjeld Andersen, which contains some of Rick’s finest work, received a four-star review in Rolling Stone.

1993 proved to be a banner year for Rick. In addition to the "Trio Album," Rick and The Band recorded their first studio album in 17 years, the acclaimed Jericho (Pyramid), which featured a rootsy rendition of Bruce Springsteen’s "Atlantic City," and several original compositions. In early 1996, The Band released High On The Hog (Pyramid) and in February, 1997, Rykodisc released Ridin’ On The Blinds, the follow-up to Danko Fjeld Andersen, which was recorded in Norway in 1994. Jubilation, The Band’s third album in five years, was released on River North Records in September, 1998.

In September 1999, Rick came back strong with an 11-song collection of inspired performances called Live On Breeze Hill. Rick was joined on this mostly live outing by some of the finest musicians in the business, including Band-mate Garth Hudson and long-time collaborator and Band co-producer Aaron Hurwitz. Eric Clapton said of Rick in 1999 "Rick’s singing has had a tremendous influence on me - it’s only my own humble opinion, but I think you have to be a great musician before you can sing like that." Rick’s voice indeed sounded better than ever, and he began actively promoting the CD, as well as laying down tracks for a new album (which would be released, posthumously, in August 2000 as Times Like These).

On December 10, 1999, Rick Danko died as he had lived - simply, without fanfare, pomp or pretense. If the tears, prayers and tributes that followed are any indication, this country boy whose goal was to "help the neighborhood" certainly succeeded. The world is a much better place because of Rick Danko, and a much sadder one without him.
--Carol Caffin

	"Times Like These" AMD106

It is still difficult to believe that Rick Danko left this earth. He's missed but, he leaves behind a rich legacy. In addition to his recordings with The Band, there is now "Times Like These", a collection of 10 solo work recorded shortly before his death. Several of the songs on this cd had been recorded with the intent of releasing an album to followup "Live On Breeze Hill". Other material was added to complete this cd, two of them live performances. The gorgeous title track and an amazing cover of The Dead's "Ripple" are but two of the gems. Guest musicians include longtime Band-mates Levon Helm and Garth Hudson. Danko has always had a voice well suited to introspective ballads, and the material here - it's perfect. Times Like These is both a fitting tribute and apt benediction for Danko.

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"Times Like These"        #AMD106      Rick Danko            $12.99

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                                                AMD Records 06/07 admin@amdmusic.com