It was with great sadness that I read about the passing of Garth Hudson, the multi-instrumentalist and last surviving member of the influential 1960s- 70s music group The Band. Garth and his bandmates, fellow Canadians Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Arkansan Levon Helm, took a musical journey together, from playing bars to backing Bob Dylan to filling arenas as a main attraction.
The Band’s sound was a melting pot of musical influences, including rock, R&B, country, and Americana. Hudson was integral to the band’s success due to his mastery of several instruments, song arrangements, and the sweeping sound of his Lowry organ.
Hudson’s Early Years and the Hawk
Eric Garth Hudson was born in Windsor, Ontario, on August 2, 1937. His mother, Olive, was a vocalist and played the piano and accordion, and his father, Fred, played the drums, saxophone, clarinet, flute, and piano. He grew up listening to country hoedowns on the radio and learning classical music. He was classically trained in piano, music theory, harmony, and counterpoint and wrote his first song at eleven. Hudson studied music at the University of Western Ontario but became bored by the rigidness of classical music and dropped out.
Garth first caught on with a London band called the Silhouettes when, in the summer of 1961, Ronnie Hawkins and Helm approached him to join their band, the Hawks. He demurred initially but was lured back when given a new Lowry electronic organ and paid an additional $10 a week to give the group music lessons. This benefit was to appease his parents, who were skittish about their classically trained son going off with a “rockabilly” band.
Other Hawks members included his future bandmates Robertson, Manuel, and Danko. They toured with Hawkins for two years, earning their musical chops when, in 1963, they broke off to form Levon and the Hawks. They played the bar circuit for two years until August 1965, when they were introduced to Bob Dylan by Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman’s assistant, Mary Martin.
Dylan to The Last Waltz
The Band, as they were now known, teamed up with Dylan to record the now-famous “The Basement Tapes” and accompany him on his controversial 1966 electric tour of the United States, Australia, and Europe. After Dylan’s serious motorcycle accident, The Band holed up in a big pink house near Woodstock, New York, and recorded their debut album, Music from Big Pink. This album included the song “Chest Fever,” which featured an organ masterpiece that became a part of The Band’s live shows. Other songs from the group that featured Hudson’s talents include the Clavinet on “Up On Cripple Creek,” saxophone on “Tears of Rage,” accordion on “Rockin Chair,” and piano on “The Weight” and “Rag Mama Rag.”
After 16 years of touring, The Band gave their farewell concert at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco on November 25, 1976. Dubbed The Last Walz, The Band was joined on stage by such music luminaries as Eric Clapton, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Dylan, Van Morrison, and many others. The concert recording became a hit record and, as directed by the great Martin Scorsese, arguably the best rock documentary ever filmed. The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1984.
Later Years
Hudson, Danko, Manuel, and Helm would reform The Band in 1983, sans Robertson, and they would record and tour together until Danko’s untimely death in 1999. Hudson also became a much-in-demand session musician, playing with legendary artists like Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty, Rogers Waters, Muddy Waters, Keith Richards, and Morrison. He recorded a solo album in 2021, formed a 12-piece band with his wife Maud on vocals, and was an accomplished lecturer who taught master classes in music instruction.
Levon Helm once said of Hudson. “Anybody who gets a chance to play with Garth Hudson, they’d be a fool not to. As far as the Band is concerned, he’s the one who rubbed off on the rest of us and made us sound as good as we did.”
Hudson was married to his wife of 43 years, Maud Hudson, who passed away in 2022 at the age of 71 and is survived by one daughter, Tami Zoe Hill.
