The Band's music combined elements of Americana, folk, rock, jazz and country, which influenced artists including George Harrison, Elton John, the Grateful Dead, Eric Clapton, and Wilco.

Pink Floyd member Roger Waters deemed it the "second-most influential record in the history of rock and roll",[2] and music journalist Al Aronowitz called it "country soul ... a sound never heard before".

Helm would go on to have a successful solo career, winning multiple Grammy Awards in the folk and Americana categories until his 2012 death, while Hudson worked as a featured session musician.

Helm journeyed with Hawkins from Arkansas to Ontario, where they were joined by Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and finally Garth Hudson.

Hawkins regularly convened all-night rehearsals following long club shows, with the result that the young musicians quickly developed their instrumental skills.

[15] Following the 1966 tour, the group moved with help from Dylan and his manager, Albert Grossman, to Saugerties, New York, where they made the informal 1967 recordings that became The Basement Tapes, the basis for their 1968 debut album, Music from Big Pink.

Levon and the Hawks were recommended by blues singer John P. Hammond, who earlier that year had recorded with Helm, Hudson and Robertson on his Vanguard album So Many Roads.

They thought of themselves as a tightly rehearsed rock and rhythm and blues group and knew Dylan mostly from his early acoustic folk and protest music.

[28] Frustrated by the slow progress in the New York studio, Dylan accepted the suggestion of producer Bob Johnston and moved the recording sessions to Nashville.

In a 1971 review for Creem, critic Dave Marsh wrote, "My response is that crystallization of everything that is rock'n'roll music, at its finest, was to allow my jaw to drop, my body to move, to leap out of the chair ...

4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert in 1998, critic Richie Unterberger declared the record "an important document of rock history.

The sessions with Dylan ended in October 1967, with Helm having rejoined the group by that time, and the Hawks began writing their own songs at Big Pink.

The Band featured songs that evoked old-time rural America, from the Civil War in "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" to the unionization of farm workers in "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)".

These first two records were produced by John Simon, who was practically a group member: he aided in arrangements in addition to playing occasional piano and tuba.

Simon reported that he was often asked about the distinctive horn sections featured so effectively on the first two albums: people wanted to know how they had achieved such memorable sounds.

Simon stated that, besides Hudson (an accomplished saxophonist), the others had only rudimentary horn skills, and achieved their sound simply by creatively using their limited technique.

[37] A critical and commercial triumph, The Band, along with works by the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, established a musical template (dubbed country rock) that paved the way to the Eagles.

In the concert documentary film, released in 2003, Danko can be seen participating in a drunken jam session with Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, John Dawson, and Joplin while singing "Ain't No More Cane".

After Northern Lights – Southern Cross failed to meet commercial expectations, much of the group's 1976 tour was confined to theaters and smaller arenas in secondary markets (including the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, the Long Island Arena and the Champlain Valley Expo in Essex Junction, Vermont), culminating in an opening slot for the ascendant ZZ Top at the Nashville Fairgrounds in September.

[41] In early September, Richard Manuel suffered a severe neck injury in a boating accident in Texas,[42] prompting Robertson to urge The Band to retire from live performances after staging a "farewell concert" known as The Last Waltz.

Other guests they admired (and in most cases had worked with before) included Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Ron Wood, Bobby Charles, Neil Diamond, and Paul Butterfield.

As a result of their diminished popularity, they performed in theaters and clubs as headliners and took support slots in larger venues for onetime peers such as the Grateful Dead and Crosby, Stills and Nash.

Bell had played with Ronnie Hawkins after the departure of the original Hawks, and was best known from his days as a member of Janis Joplin's Full Tilt Boogie Band.

The Band was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the 1989 Juno Awards, where Robertson was reunited with original members Danko and Hudson.

Also that year, The Band, along with Ronnie Hawkins, Bob Dylan, and other performers, appeared at U.S. President Bill Clinton's 1993 "Blue Jean Bash" inauguration party.

The Band released two more albums after Jericho: High on the Hog (1996) and Jubilation (1998), the latter of which included guest appearances by Eric Clapton and John Hiatt.

[69] Hudson released two solo CDs, The Sea to the North in 2001, produced by Aaron (Professor Louie) Hurwitz, and Live at the Wolf in 2005, both featuring his wife, Maud, on vocals.

Hudson contributed an original electronic score to an off-Broadway production of Dragon Slayers, written by Stanley Keyes and directed by Brad Mays in 1986 at the Union Square Theatre in New York, which was restaged with a new cast in Los Angeles in 1990.

The Black Crowes frequently cover songs by The Band during live performances, such as "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", which appears on their DVD/CD Freak 'n' Roll into the Fog.

Members of Wilco, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Shins, Dr Dog, Yellowbirds, Ween, Furthur, and other bands staged The Complete Last Waltz in 2012 and 2013.