Amy Helm On Mountain Stage

This Too Shall Light is the second solo album from Amy Helm, who stepped out of her home base comfort zone of Woodstock, N.Y. to record in Los Angeles with Grammy-winning producer Joe Henry.

After four records as a member of the roots-music collaborative Ollabelle, who made three appearances on Mountain Stage, Helm returns for the second time with her own band.

The band choose to let the music do the talking, delivering a powerful four-song set packed with musicality, soul and candor.

Helm begins the set wrapping her voice around Rod Stewart's "Mandolin Wind," a song that's been covered by The Everly Brothers and Earl Scruggs. Next, she nods to the rich legacy of her father, Levon Helm, with "Stones That I Throw," written by Robbie Robertson and released as a single in 1965 by Levon & The Hawks, a precursor to The Band.

With Tony Mason on drums, Adam Minkoff on bass, acoustic guitar and backing vocals, Mark Marshall on guitar, and Kevin Bents on keyboards and backing vocals, Helm and company stretch out on a lush re-imagining of the Milk Carton Kids' "Michigan," adding dynamic layers to the already powerful melody.

"I believe that all the music teachers should take this song back to the classrooms, " Helm says while introducing Allen Toussaint's "Yes We Can Can," "And start teaching the lyrics of this song to their students."

Helm and her band are touring throughout the Western United States in late November and early December before ending 2018 with shows in her native New York, including a couple of nights with a reunited Ollabelle and a New Year's Eve engagement at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock.

SET LIST:

• "Mandolin Wind"
• "Stones That I Throw"
• "Michigan"
• "Yes We Can Can"

Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.