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By Rock Cellar Magazine Staff | January 21, 2025 |
Garth Hudson (screencap via Rolling Stone/YouTube)

Garth Hudson (screencap via Rolling Stone/YouTube)

Garth Hudson, keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist and the last remaining founding member of The Band, has passed away at the age of 87.

The news was announced early Tuesday. Per Rolling Stone:

Jan Haust, Hudson’s longtime friend and colleague, confirmed his death to Rolling Stone. He declined to reveal a cause of death, but said Hudson “died peacefully” and “yesterday was a day of music and hand-holding.”

Born in 1937 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, Hudson joined Levon Helm and the Hawks in 1961 by request of Helm and Ronnie Hawkins. As an integral part of The Band’s sound, Hudson’s presence was unmistakable.



When Bob Dylan famously recorded music with the Band that resulted in the albums Planet Waves and The Basement Tapes, it was said that Hudson’s contributions were a main reason for Dylan’s collaboration.

Per Rolling Stone‘s look back:

The Hawks soon parted ways with Hawkins, who was a strict taskmaster, and signed on with Bob Dylan, forming one of the greatest partnerships in rock. Hudson was part of the draw. “Like everyone else who encounters Garth for the first time,” Helm wrote of the singer’s reaction to a Hawks performance, “Bob was blown away.” Hudson’s ornamented fills magnified the folk singer’s poetry. “The wonderful thing in working with Dylan was the imagery in his lyrics,” Hudson told an interviewer. “I was allowed to play with these words.” As bootleg recordings document, his organ playing on “Ballad of a Thin Man” during those shows was quite literally in dialog with the singer’s verses.

May Garth Hudson — and his fellow late band mates Helm, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, and Robbie Robertson — rest in peace.

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The SPL Rocks!







Pulled up to my house today
Came and took my little girl away!
Giants Stadium 8/28/03



Oats

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