Amy Helm
Sellersville Theater
Sellersville, PA
9/16/2018
Amy Helm has told me she doesn’t read reviews at all. Great, that gives me a good excuse to keep this short. After all, I am a photographer who writes reviews not a writer who takes pictures. OK, I’m done. Nah, just kidding.
This wasn’t the first time I’ve shot Amy Helm. The first time was when she was in Ollabelle at The Philadelphia Folk Festival. Since then a few times when she had her own band. So, after all this time covering Amy Helm, listening to her perform, and taking pictures what do I think? First of all she is a very very nice lady. Oh, and besides that she is also an incredible talent. Helm can sing and play folk, stay with the best doing R&b and soul, go down home with the blues , and totally rock out. She is a real talent. Sing, what a voice, write, play, and beautifully run a performance.
A little of her setlist shows the range of her talent. Amy opened with “Cotton and the Cane” a song about sharecroppers and cotton done very upbeat immediately showing off Helm’s voice.
Then “didn’t It Rain” for the album of the same name. A solid rocker with Helm showing again she is up to rocking the house. At one point Amy mentioned that she loved playing Sellersville but the folks in the audience were pretty quiet and she was used to playing loud rock and roll joints. Amy bounced back and forth between her two albums Didn’t it Rain and her latest This Too Shall Light all night. What a night. It was a night of really great music from Amy Helm and her band. I believe she said she was taking off for ten days them back on the road so check her schedule and catch her if you can.
Mark J. Smith
www.photosmithdigital.com
