Guitarist Jim Weider keeps The Band’s flame burning

All five members of The Band, the pioneering Canadian/American group of musicians who backed Bob Dylan and almost singlehandedly created the Americana genre, are gone.

The Weight Band, playing the Capitol Theatre Friday, is keeping the flame alive by playing the classics created by Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson.

But the Weight Band is not a tribute act. Its bona fides are impressive.

Founding guitarist Jim Weider began performing alongside Helm in the early ‘80s, several years after the group split, and was lead player in the reconstituted Band – filling in for Robertson, the only player who never returned to the fold – until it shut down in 1999.

Weider and Weight Band pianist Brian Mitchell continued with Helm’s Midnight Ramble Band until the singer/drummer’s death in 2012.

The Weight Band began soon after, and has to date recorded three albums of original music.

Friday’s concert will interweave Band chestnuts – and there are a lot of them – with music from Weider, Mitchell and their bandmates Albert Rogers, Michael Bram and Matt Zeiner.

Find tickets at this link.

St. Pete Catalyst: You were in The Band longer than the original Band was together. That’s a long stretch.

Jim Weider: It was a long stretch. It was a rough and tumble ride!

How did you end up joining them back in 1985?

I was working in Atlanta in a studio, and I had moved back to Woodstock. I played with Robbie Dupree – he had a hit out at the time – and after that I started working with the Levon Helm Band. Levon’s All-Stars, around ’83 or so. Then Rick came back, and it was just me and Levon and Rick, then it kind of morphed into The Band as people from The Band moved back.

So it was Levon who said ‘Let’s just put The Band back together?’

He was getting back into playing around the area, and first Rick, then Garth, then Richard moved back. I had a country band and they would all sit in. As they moved back, there was an offer to eventually go out on the road (as The Band) with Crosby, Stills & Nash.

You’re a musician, a creative entity in your own right. Did you think ‘They just want me to be the Robbie and play all his licks’?

They never put any laws down. They were pretty open. I would intro all the tunes, the classic intros that Robbie wrote, like the beginning of “It Makes No Difference” or “The Weight” or “Up on Cripple Creek.” But as far as soloing, I never had any … it was ‘just do your thing.’

Richard took his life after a gig in Florida in 1986. Was he in such bad shape at that point that you almost saw it coming?

No, we didn’t see that coming. Nobody does. But he was drinking heavy that night. He said ‘I’m sorry, guys.’ And Levon said ‘Eh, don’t worry about it. Let’s get through the gig. It’s all good.’ He was battling alcoholic demons, you know?

When did The Band, so called, cease to exist?

When Rick died, in December 1999, that was the end of it. I went off and did my own records. Then Levon had gotten sick too, with throat cancer, then we all went our ways for a while there. Till I ended up working with him again, in his band, later on.

The Barbara Walters question: What’s the enduring appeal of this music?

The songs are so strong. The songs have a life of their own. “The Weight” is such a classic piece of American music. And of course we’ve got a couple of albums out, just to continue in that genre. Keep that genre going.

Because there’s not a lot of groups that are doing this kind of music, and this band is so strong, with five singers and harmony – it really understands how to play that groove that The Band had. Which is a real Woodstock sound. It was developed here, a combination of all different kinds of music, from R&B to blues to rockabilly to country. It’s got its own kind of mountain sound. So that’s the appeal.