Amy Helm has received the key to the Town of Woodstock nearly two decades after her father, Levon, drummer and vocalist for The Band, received the honor. The award was given at Levon’s Birthday Ramble May 24.
“That was a sweet one for me because the first one I was involved with was back 19 years ago was Levon Helm, and the town gave him the key to [Woodstock],” town supervisor Bill McKenna said.
Levon was the first award-winner in modern times. “And for me, Amy is the last one for my tenure. So it was nice to come full circle,” McKenna said. “It’s not like who’s got the most record sales or anything like that. It’s what they’ve done for Woodstock. For Levon, he had the studio there and he had the Rambles. For a while there, that was the one place that consistently had live music in Woodstock. Amy has done an incredible job of maintaining that, and she’s the next generation to take it over.”
A secret committee meets periodically to decide who gets bestowed the honor. It must be someone who has made contributions to the community.
Other recipients include Todd Rundgren, Rennie Cantine, Happy and Artie Traum, Cindy Cashdollar, Jack DeJohnette and Marc Black. Village Apothecary owner Neil Smoller, the only non-musical honoree of recent history, received the key for administering Covid vaccines to the community.
“We were set to give one to [The Band keyboardist] Garth Hudson, but due to his health that never happened,” McKenna said.
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