RaveQuill & Quire (CAN)[Tooze\'s] fresh investigation couldn’t come at a better time, seeing how Robertson’s version of events – set out in a recent autobiography, documentary, and what feels like daily media interviews – is currently the uncontested narrative ... Tooze really shows her chops. She succinctly zeroes in on how an untrained Helm developed as a drummer, from his influences to the way \'he laid down his groove at the far end of the beat\' because that’s how you made the music more danceable. Every aspect of his kit set-up and technique is examined, often playfully ... While there’s plenty in the book for drum enthusiasts, Tooze doesn’t skimp on the main draw: the years between 1964 and 1977, when Helm and Canadians Robertson, Manuel, Rick Danko, and Garth Hudson set out on their own ... Painful chapters about the break-up of the Band and its farewell concert, the Last Waltz, are powerful and intimate ... While there’s no way Helm’s second act could be as enthralling as what came before, Tooze teases out the tension in his compulsive need to perform, a throat-cancer diagnosis, the award-winning solo albums made after his recovery, and the famed Midnight Ramble musical celebrations Helm held in his barn in Woodstock in the ’00s toward the end of his life ... achieves a clear picture of Helm’s magnetic personality with very little editorializing and no sycophancy. And despite more than a few unsavoury stories of Helm’s drug use and treatment of women, he remains the definition of generosity and warmth.
