The Band — Academy of Music, New York, 1971

From 28 to 31 December 1971, The Band took over New York’s Academy of Music for a four-night run whose New Year’s Eve show was the climax — these concerts yielded the live double album Rock of Ages. This capture conveys the Canadian-American group’s roots rock and Americana augmented by a new horn section, arranged by New Orleans’ own Allen Toussaint, who lends a soul and Crescent City breath to classics like « The Weight », « Up on Cripple Creek » and « The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down ». The shared vocal harmonies of Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Richard Manuel, Garth Hudson’s organ and Robbie Robertson’s guitar reach a rare balance. On New Year’s Eve, Bob Dylan joined his old partners on stage. A major live archive of American rock history, this full concert documents a group at the peak of its collective art, caught in a now-canonical folk-rock repertoire.