From David Thompson:
…I got to know Zack as a friend and player when Howe roped him into an incredibly dumb and incredibly fun cover band of The Band, The Cover Band, The Band Band our senior year at Wesleyan. Getting inside this music with these guys was the kind of delight I only ever knew at Wesleyan–pursuing totally pointless projects with deadly seriousness just for the sheer fun of it. Zack was all in. When he joined it felt like we were really channeling those dudes.
Zack refused to pick the bass like Rick Danko did–the most serious I ever saw him was when he said he would like never defile his instrument like that lol–but he just fuckin nailed the tone and the parts note-for-note, getting right in the pocket with Nathaniel on his fretless bass. He’d come in every time just bursting, just so ready to give it everything, but apparently only energized by the effort. Playing with him felt like the real deal, but it was just nothing but love for the music with him, that was it–he didn’t get in the way of himself for a second.
The cool thing about this was that Howe pushed Zack not just to play the bass but to sing. It was sort of a new thing for Zack. And I just remember how excited he was, how pumped he’d get when people told him he should sing more.
We played three shows with this group–one of them, outdoors during senior week, was the wildest show I’ve ever played–and these recordings are from our Zonker Harris show. The recordings are not so good, but it is so nice to revisit that day. Listening to these cracks me up–Zack and Matt and I playing the parts note for note, Nathaniel holding it down, while Howe makes up some random shredding, Zack holding down the vocal parts while my voice totally gives out, it’s awesome. Zack’s bass on “Don’t Do It” is so nice, in particular.
Zack absolutely destroys the “Crazy Chester” verse in the Weight–talk about channeling Rick Danko!!!–that’s my favorite moment in the whole thing. And his verse comes right after Claire Randall’s. It’s fucked up that both of these friends are gone; I feel so lucky to have known and loved them both. They shed so much light on our lives.
You can also hear Zack singing lead in Up on Cripple Creek, Long Black Veil, halfway through Look Out Cleveland, the “back with my wife in Tennessee” verse in Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, and Don’t Do It.
credits
released January 6, 2013
The Band Band was:
Nathaniel Draper as Levon Helm
Howe Pearson as Robbie Robertson
Matt Sellier as Garth Hudson
Zack Rosen as Rick Danko
David Thompson as Richard Manuel
Claire Randall, special guest
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