Together with Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Byrds (during their Sweetheart Of The Rodeo period), The Band helped young America (well, North America - most of the Band is from Canada) rekindle its pride in their own musical roots. Psychedelic drugs and electric guitars, it turned out, weren't the only path to nirvana; a jug of moonshine and a beat-up acoustic would do the trick nicely. By the time their first album was released, the Band had been playing together for years, and they had developed a wonderful chemistry, trading lead vocals and licks with abandon, and generally having a good time. And while their music was rooted deeply in rural tradition, they infused it with a spiritual longing more characteristic of their modern, urban (and urbane) generation. The organic quality of their music grew out selflessness, with each member contributing the perfect part in just the right quantity. As guitarist Robbie Robertson became the dominant player, they lost this dynamic, and eventually they lost the magic.

The Bands' best originals compositions- most written or cowritten by Robertson - sound positively timeless, as though they drifted down from Appalachia two hundred years ago. They speak vividly of history (in the Civil War epic, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"), unforgettable characters (the lonely neurotic in "Stage Fright"), and overpowering emotion ("Tears Of Rage"). Songs like "The Weight," "Up On Cripple Creek," and "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" stand toe-to-toe with Bob Dylan's "When I Paint My Masterpiece" and "I Shall Be Released" - songs definitively performed by the Band, not Dylan. But, don't forget: the Band accompanied Dylan on some of his finest work, including The Basement Tapes, Before The Flood, and The Royal Albert Hall Concert.

The Band's first four studio albums are all keepers. Music From Big Pink (1968), The Band (1969), Cahoots (1970), and Stage Fright (1971) are each easily worth an individual purchase. They followed these with a monumental live set, Rock Of Ages (1972), that is just as essential. After that, the malaise mentioned above began to kick in, and the Band's last three studio albums are far less consequential. Moondog Matinee (1973) is a covers record that works up a good head of steam but ultimately fails to ignite. And while Northern Lights - Southern Cross (1975) is just shy of great (witness "Ophelia" and "It Makes No Difference"), Islands (1977) is forgettable. Luckily, Capitol Records (after allowing the Band's catalog to fall into considerable disrepair) reissued each individual album in 2000, with bonus tracks and vastly improved sound.

At the same time, Capitol released a new, CD-length Greatest Hits that more than supplants The Best Of The Band, a perennial favorite from 1976. Greatest Hits is a wonderful primer for the uninitiated, but it cannot properly represent the group's superb early catalog. Rhino-distributed Pyramid Records released The Best Of The Band Vol. 2 (1999) which surveys the group's 90's-era reunion albums (minus Robertson), notable mainly for some marvelous renditions of songs by Dylan ("Blind Willie McTell") and Bruce Springsteen ("Atlantic City"). All in all, not bad - but hardly their "best." In addition, Capitol released a boxed set (now deleted) entitled Across The Great Divide that critics - including the Band themselves - reviled; frankly, I thought it was just fine.

No argument, though, Rhino's four-disc boxed set reissue of The Last Waltz is good; so good, in fact, that it's almost too much. The Last Waltz was a Martin Scorcese-directed film of the Band's 1976 farewell concert, and the soundtrack was originally issued on three LP's. It was a rousing good show - filled with guest spots by friends and fellow travelers like Van Morrison, Ronnie Hawkins, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan. The gargantuan boxed version (adding 24 cuts to the original 30) is a mother lode for collectors, but it over-inflates the importance of the event relative to the Band's studio work; I recommend Rhino's two-CD version of The Last Waltz instead.

All of the Band's members, including Rick Danko and Levon Helm, have released solo albums over the years, and all have attractive qualities. None have had much impact except those of Robbie Robertson who, after a long period of relative silence, released his first solo album in 1987, the excellent Daniel Lanois-produced Robbie Robertson. Subsequent releases, however, quickly succumbed to the sort of pretentiousness with which Robertson had flirted for years.