Editing Levon Helm (section)

===The Hawks===
While he was still in high school, Helm was invited to join [[Ronnie Hawkins]]' band, the Hawks, a popular bar and club act in the South and [[Canada]], where rockabilly acts were very successful. Helm's mother insisted that he graduate from high school before touring with Hawkins, but he was able to play with the Hawks locally on weekends.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Helm |first1=Levon |last2=Davis |first2=Stephen |author2-link=Stephen Davis (music journalist) |title=This Wheel's on Fire: Levon Helm and the Story of The Band |date=1993 |publisher=[[Information Today|Plexus Publishing]] |location=London |page=48 |isbn=9780688109066 |url=https://archive.org/details/thiswheelsonfire0000helm/page/48/ |access-date=13 November 2022}}</ref> After his graduation in 1958, Helm joined the Hawks as a full-time member and they moved to [[Toronto]], where they signed with [[Roulette Records]] in 1959 and released several singles, including a few hits.

Helm reported in his autobiography that fellow Hawks band members had difficulty pronouncing "Lavon" correctly and started calling him "Levon" ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|iː|v|ɒ|n}} {{respell|LEE|von}}) because it was easier to pronounce.

In 1961, Helm with bassist [[Rick Danko]] backed jazz guitarist [[Lenny Breau]] on several tracks recorded at Hallmark Studios in Toronto. These tracks are included on the 2003 release ''[[The Hallmark Sessions]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theband.hiof.no/albums/hallmark_sessions.html|title=Lenny Breau: The Hallmark Sessions|website=Theband.hiof.no|access-date=September 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160802131536/http://theband.hiof.no/albums/hallmark_sessions.html|archive-date=August 2, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

By the early 1960s, Helm and Hawkins had recruited an all-Canadian lineup of musicians, guitarist [[Robbie Robertson]], bassist [[Rick Danko]], pianist [[Richard Manuel]], and organist [[Garth Hudson]], all of whom were multi-instrumentalists. In 1963, the band parted ways with Hawkins and started touring as Levon and the Hawks and later as the Canadian Squires, before changing back to the Hawks. They recorded two singles, but remained mostly a popular touring bar band in [[Texas]], [[Arkansas]], Canada, and on the [[East Coast of the United States]], where they found regular summer club gigs on the [[New Jersey]] shore.

By the mid-1960s, songwriter and musician [[Bob Dylan]] was interested in performing electric rock music and asked the Hawks to be his [[backing band]]. Disheartened by fans' negative response to Dylan's new sound, Helm left the group in the autumn of 1965 for what turned out to be a two-year layoff, being replaced by a range of touring drummers (most notably [[Mickey Jones]]) and Manuel, who began to double on the instrument. He spent time with his family in Arkansas, and undertook sojourns in [[Los Angeles]], where he experimented with [[LSD]]  and performed with [[Bobby Keys]], and [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] and [[New Orleans]], where he worked on a nearby [[oil platform]]. In the autumn of 1967, after what would later be called "the [[Summer of Love]]", he returned to the group.

After the Hawks toured Europe with Dylan, they followed him back to the U.S., remaining under salary, and settled near Dylan's home in [[Woodstock, New York]]. The Hawks recorded a large number of demonstration and practice tapes in nearby [[West Saugerties, New York]], playing almost daily with Dylan, who had completely withdrawn from public life following a motorcycle accident in July 1966. These recordings were widely [[Bootleg recording|bootlegged]] and were partially released officially in 1975 as ''[[The Basement Tapes]]''. The songs and themes developed during this period played a crucial role in the group's future direction and style. The Hawks also began writing their own songs, with Danko and Manuel also sharing writing credits with Dylan on a few songs.