Posted in: News, Trivia Q & A | 2 Comments | Posted on March 19, 2022 by Mary Anne

Q. One of the best debut albums was the release “Music From Big Pink”. Many people have heard this title, but can’t remember who released it. Can you?

A. The Band

The Band was a Canadian-American roots rock group, originally consisting of Rick Danko (bass guitar, double bass, fiddle, vocals), Levon Helm, the only America (drums, mandolin, guitar, vocals), Garth Hudson (keyboards, saxophones, trumpet), Richard Manuel (piano, drums, vocals) and Robbie Robertson (guitar, percussion, vocals). The members of the Band first came together as they joined rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins’s backing group, the Hawks, one by one between 1958 and 1963.

Music from Big Pink is their debut studio album. Released in 1968, it employs a distinctive blend of country, rock, folk, classical,R&B, and soul. The music was composed partly in “Big Pink”, a house shared by Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson in West Saugerties, New York. The album itself was recorded in studios in New York and Los Angeles in 1968, and followed the band’s backing of Bob Dylan on his 1966 tour (as the Hawks) and time spent together in upstate New York recording material that was officially released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes, also with Dylan.

The cover illustration for the album is by Dylan.