Chest Fever

This is Richard Manuel. He was one of the 4 Canadian kids who joined one Amercian guy to form a truly unique musical group 40+ years ago. Although the title of this post comes from a song that featured Garth Hudson, Manuel is the one I think about most of the time when the topic of The Band is brought up within earshot.Manuel's voice was a key element in the unique vocal sound of the Band, and in combination with Levon Helm and Rick Danko created a beautiful, inspiring harmony. It is unusual even to this day. Listening to "I Shall be Released," "Wheels on Fire" and "Long Black Veil" from their first album one gets the feeling the songs and that sound could have come from 100 years ago (or older). If you've never listened to Music From Big Pink I'd suggest it is a very worthwhile hour.I've been thinking about harmonies over the last little while; when you grow up in a family that believes there are two kinds of music (country, and western...