Woodstock-based artists The Weight Band releasedthe music video for their latest single, “World Gone Mad.” The track is featured on the band’s first full-length studio album World Gone Mad. The album features original tracks, guest vocals and slide guitar from Jackie Greene on a cover of a Jerry Garcia-Robert Hunter song, as well as writing contributions from the late Levon Helm on previously unreleased songs.
“World Gone Mad” reflects the band’s growing concern over the divisiveness of today’s political climate and life’s hardship. It is a powerful glance at the current national mood. The song originated while Jim Weider was on tour in San Francisco. “I saw all these homeless people sleeping under bridges in these tent-like cities. It stayed with me, and really underscored the economic despair still lingering in our country,” says Weider. Inspired, Weider began to craft the song’s lyrics, such as:
I see kings and queens sleeping on the street
Got no home no shoes on their feet
Don’t it make you want to hang your head & cry
Some folks falling while other ones rise
Later, joined by co-writer Colin Linden, Weider reacts to the 24-hour talking head news cycle. It’s a gripping image for an increasingly bewildering world:
Lions and elephants running around
Looks like the circus is back in town
Screaming and hollering like chimpanzees
Fighting one another on my TV
The music video for “World Gone Mad” was filmed last summer by Conductor Productions during a celebration at the storied Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY. In the video, The Weight Band – comprised of former members of The Band, Levon Helm Band and Rick Danko Group – play before a packed crowd in the very space where their collaborator and friend, Levon Helm, hosted countless Midnight Rambles.
The Weight Band recorded World Gone Mad in Clubhouse Studio in Rhinebeck, NY. A rustic American musical tradition can be heard throughout the album’s songs, whose lyrics reflect stories of love, humor, and personal journeys. As a complete project, World Gone Mad salutes a sometimes-overlooked, immensely rich musical style best described as the “Woodstock sound.” Over the next several weeks, a series of videos on The Weight Band, and the new album, will be released.
World Gone Mad will be available as a CD and digitally– including on SoundCloud—in February 2018. The album cover was designed by John Halpern (The Eagles, OutKast) with graphics by Larry Freemantle (Kid Rock.)
To watch the “World Gone Mad” music video, click here.
SOUND CLOUD: https://soundcloud.com/
UPCOMING TOUR DATES:
02/09 @ Bergen Performing Arts Center | Englewood NJ
02/10 @ The Warehouse at FTC | Fairfield CT
02/16 @ Infinity Music Hall | Hartford CT *Album pre-release concert
02/17 @ The Barn | Woodstock NY *CD release ramble
3/9 @ Sportsmen’s Tavern | Buffalo, NY
3/10 @ Anthology | Rochester, NY
3/11 @ Center for the Arts of Homer | Homer, NY
3/30 @ Beacon Theatre | Hopewell, VA
3/31@ McGlohen Theater at Spirit Square | Charlotte, NC
4/1 @ City Winery | Atlanta, GA
4/4 @ Crest Theatre | Delray Beach, FL
4/5 @ King Center for the Performing Arts | Melbourne, FL
4/6 @ Capitol Theatre | Clearwater, FL
4/7 @ Center for Performing Arts | Bonita Springs, FL
4/19 @ Narrows Center for the Arts | Fall River, MA
4/27 @ Fox Tucson Theatre | Tucson, AZ
4/28 @ Rhythm Room | Phoenix, AZ
4/29 @ Belly Up Tavern | Solana Beach, CA
6 /24 @ Rocks, Ribs & Ridges Festival | Augusta, NJ
8/20 @ Camp Cripple Creek at Full Moon Resort | Big Indian, NY
