Music News

On Thursday, more than two thousand came out to mourn the death and to celebrate the life of Levon Helm in Woodstock, New York, where the late musician performed during the  late 1960s alongside the likes of Bob Dylan and his other band mates. Mr. Helm, who contributed his creative drumming skills and country-weathered voice to The Band, an acclaimed rock-roots Americana band who formed back in 1964, was revered as the most unpretentiously public of performers – he played not just at the Rambles, which would have helped pay his mortgage and denote the sting of his medical bills, but oftentimes on the Town Green, as well as at different venues around the world, reports The New York Times.

Also according to the NYT, the ceremony was a blend of private and public - the public wake took place at his home with a closed coffin next to his drum set – very much the way the late musician led his life.

Helm died of cancer last week at 71.

The Killers’ saxophonist, Tommy Marth was found in his backyard in Las Vegas Monday morning of a gunshot wound. The Clark County coroner has ruled the cause of death as a  suicide.

“Last night we lost our friend Thomas Marth,” the band tweets. “Our prayers are with his family.There’s a light missing in Las Vegas tonight. Travel well, Tommy.”

Key performer to The Killers’ second and third albums, Marth was also an important member of the Las Vegas music scene, reports the Las Vegas Sun. He contributed to the scene working at concert venues, as a writer, and performing with the bands Black Camaro and Halloween Town.

Marth died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was 33.

Photo courtesy of groovescapes via Flickr