Until recently, a set of drums that longtime local musician and festival founder Bryan Hembree describes as “the most important drum kit in American music” sat in a barn in Fayetteville, unused and largely forgotten.
The setup is a personalized assembly built around a Ludwig badge-style kit from the early 1960s and considered to be the “No. 1” kit of Arkansan and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member Levon Helm.
Like a guitarist who switches instruments between songs to obtain a different sound, Helm would play on a variety of kits throughout the years. But this one seemed to have special importance to Helm, and it was the one seen in many of the tours and concert events that made his group, called The Band, famous. It was the kit he played when The Band backed Bob Dylan on his first electrified tour. Those early concerts were composed of two sets – one of Dylan playing familiar acoustic music and the other backed by the full heft of The Band behind him…