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Page 8-8 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, March 5, 2020
’Once Were Brothers’ leaves you feeling
like you’ve alway been a fan The Band
he Band is the single most in-
l fluential musical group in mod-
ern history that literally no one
younger than 40 years old has ever
heard of, so if there is a flaw in the
documentary “Once Were Brothers:
Robbie Robertson
and The Band,” it is
that it was arguably
assembled and re-
leased two to three
decades too late.
Or perhaps not,
because while time
has robbed us of
three of the five
members of The
BOXLEITNER Band (Garth Hud—
son and, of course,
Robbie Robertson are still with us),
I suspect it might have lent director
Daniel Roher the clarity of emotional
distance that Martin Scorsese argu-
ably lacked when he directed the doc-
umentary of The Band’s final concert
in 1976, which was released as “The
Last Waltz” in 1978.
Joe Queenan, who’s a far smarter
and meaner movie reviewer than me,
wryly observed that it was entirely
on-brand for The Band to invite so
many guest performers to their final
concert that they were outshined dur-
ing their own swan song.
Because while the cross—cultural
origins of The Band’s genesis are fas-
cinating, it’s telling that even their
decline was marked by relatively little
drama, especially when compared to
the excesses of their fellow successful
musicians, both of that era and in the
decades since.
Just as The Band’s deliberately
understated name would indicate,
these were five highly talented guys
who simply wanted to make good
music together, and their respective
skills were so well-matched with one
another that, before the drinking
HABSTINE NEWS
The Band gets its due in director Daniel Roher’s documentary, “Once
Were
Brothers.” Courtesy photo ‘
and drugging got in the way, no one
member of The Band commanded any
more attention than the others.
In retrospect, it’s a bit of a different
story, not only because Robertson is
one of the two members of The Band
- who’s still alive, but also because he’s
enjoyed the greatest measure of musi—
cal and multimedia success outside
of The Band (I first saw him when
my mom’s friend, Victoria Seever,
sent me a VHStape of some MTV
videos that included Robertson’s 1987
“Showdown at Big Sky”).
Robertson’s upbringing was a
tug-of-war between the Toronto
neighborhoods where his parents
raised him and the First Nations
reservation where his mother grew
up, and after working summer jobs
in the traveling carnival circuit, his
performing and songwriting got him
a spot in rockabilly musician Ronnie
Hawkins’ backup band, the Hawks,
which became the Petri dish for
bringing together future members of
The Band. .
This heady melange of Native and
Southern influences gained a folk
flavor when The Band began touring
with Bob Dylan just as he made his
controversial transition into rock, all
of which added up to the recipe for
The Band to essentially invent the
Americana subgenre of rock, retreat-
ing into the rock genre’s rustic roots,
when so many of their contemporaries
were going psychedelic. .
Even as someone who’s already
well familiar with The Band’s scope of
influence, it’s still a trip to see Bruce
Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Van Mor-
rison, Peter Gabriel and, yes, Mar-
tin Scorsese, all showing up simply
to gush over how much they loved
The Band (Clapton was such an un-
abashed fanboy that he even tried to
become a member).
With so many fans who are far
more famous than The Band itself,
one might be forgiven for wondering
why The Band never made it as big
as, say, The Beatles, to whom they’re
compared at least once in this film.
But again, what this film underscores
is that these guys were never fame-
seekers, even when a number of them
were mired in their more dissolute
downhill slides.
Indeed, part of the reason why
Robertson, who only started out writ-
ing a fraction of The Band’s songs,
became its driving force by the end
was because he was the only one who
never let the drink or drugs over-
whelm him.
Given how content Robertson
was before to write a number of The
Band’s songs, but still be one of five
equally—sized faces on the covers of its
albums, the 'factthat he was thrust
into such a proactive leadership role
‘ by default, can’t help but remind me'
of the quote routinely attributed to
the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, to
wit: “Someone has to do something.
It’s just incredibly pathetic that it has
to be us.”
In spite of this film basically serv-
ing as a eulogy for both The Band and
the majority of its members, it doesn’t
really end on a downbeat note. I was
far from the only one laughing out
loud in the theater at the anecdotes
told about The Band’s antics and
travails, which included at least one
instance of onstage hypnotherapy and
a whole slew of bawdy quotes by Ron—
nie Hawkins. .
In an age of entertainment fran-
‘ chises being endlessly resurrected for
nostalgia value, there’s something
almost novel about the fact that The
Band is gone for good, so all we can do
is honor its legacy. ‘
I Kirk Boxleitner is arts editor for the
Port Townsend & Jefferson County
Leader, the Shelton-Mason County
Journal’s sister paper. He can be
reached at kboxleitner@ptleader.com.
1 Pier Peer shedslight on dark mysteries below’the water;
ance of crimson buds at
the very tip ends
of the alders. We have
groves and bunches
of elders throughout
the island’s evergreen
forests. If you pause
and check one of them, ’,
those lifeless drab ,
limbs will be quivering
just a little as crimson
buds begin to shake
Ican see the slow appear-
winter’shold.
Driving into town,
I can see plum and cherry
trees already shouting their
liberation. Here on the island,
we don’t have a lot of plum
or cherry trees, so we have to
rely on the alders to give us
By MIKE
themselves free from CALLAGHAN
an early seasonal clue. And I
like to think that since island
time is just a little-
slower and more
restful than time on
the mainland, our
alders fall in line and
announce themselves
in the same unhur—
ried pace.
The senior lunch
menu is out; On
Wednesday, they will
be serving chicken
strada, peas and on-
ions, and brownies.
Then on March 18, in celebra-
tion of St Patrick’s Day, they
will have corned beef and cab-
bage with potatoes, carrots,
pickles and soda bread. For
dessert there will be green an-
gel food cake and gingerbread
with whipped cream. You had
better wear something green
or you might get pinched
before you eat. Remember
the doors open a little before
noon, when serving begins.
All who live in the Pioneer
School District and are age 50
and older, and their friends,
are invited to attend. A $4
donation is asked to cover the
cost of the food. I
If you would like to attend
the Pioneer Kiwanis Club’s
Crab and Clam Dinner and
Auction, you better hurry and
get a ticket, they are going
fast. The auction already has
about 150 items with 20 of
them set for the live auction.
This is the most important
fundraiser Kiwanis Club will
put on this year and proceeds
from this event benefit the
youths of Pioneer School Dis-
trict and Mason County. It
will be March 21 in the new
portion of the school, where it
was last year. The ticket pric-
es are $35 for adults and $15
for children 12 and younger.-
Children 2 and younger are
free. Doors open at 4 p.m. for
viewing auction items and
dinner begins at 4:30.
For us islanders, I think
this would be an interesting
event to attend it is called
Pier Peer and it is scheduled
for March 28 at the Oakland
Bay Marina in Shelton. The
Puget Sound Estuarium and
the Mason Conservation Dis-
trict partner to put on this
project. The estuarium will ,
put underwater lights in the
water at the guestrdock of the
marina. To get to the guest
dock, park in the parking lot
and walk down the pier to the
guest dock floating at water
level. The lights will light up
the dark mysteries and at-
tract creatures that we might
not see in the daylight. The
event will be from 8 to 9:30
p.m. Thanks to Linda Shrum,
there should be hot cocoa and
cookies ready for you. There is
no fee, but you have to regis-
ter with Mason Conservation
District at www.masoncd.org.
I Mike Callaghan can be
reached at sobad0g@msn.com.