The Band: A History

Jericho was the first Band studio album in sixteen years, and by the time it arrived a lot had changed. Richard Manuel was gone. Robbie Robertson was gone. What remained were Levon Helm, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson, joined by Jim Weider, Randy Ciarlante, and Richard Bell, trying to figure out what The Band could still sound like in the 1990s.

In this episode, I take a look at how Jericho finally came together after years of touring, a failed attempt at a record, and more than a little loss along the way. We talk through the songs, the players who helped make the album, and what was happening around the band when they stepped back into the studio.

It’s not a return to the past. It’s a later chapter. A record made by musicians who had already lived through the legend and were still trying to keep the music going.
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Before Jericho, there was Tombstone.

In this episode, we examine the Band’s abandoned 1990 Sony sessions, recorded with Jules Shear and ultimately rejected by the label.

Through the music and the context, we piece together what this project was meant to be and what it tells us about the Band’s struggle to redefine themselves in the early 1990s.
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This episode traces the final years of Richard Manuel, from The Band’s relentless touring in 1984–86 to his last night in Winter Park, Florida. We follow the grind of the road, the pressures that built around him, and the moments of beauty still present in his late performances. This is the story of a brilliant singer living through the hardest years of his life, the night everything changed, and the music and tributes he left behind.

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This episode follows guitarist Jim Weider, from growing up in Woodstock to finding his way onto the road with Levon, Rick, Richard, and Garth. We trace how he joined The Band in the mid-’80s, held things together through years of hard touring, helped shape their final studio records in the ’90s.

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In this mini episode, we dive into Robbie Robertson’s Insomnia — a vivid, late-life reflection from one of rock’s most self-mythologizing figures. Less a memoir and more a cinematic vignette, Insomnia captures the years between 1976 and 1980, when Robertson drifted through post-Band life alongside artists, filmmakers, and excess.

The song played during the episode is entitled "At Last" from Scorsese's Raging Bull, produced by Robertson and performed with his former bandmates Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson.

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