01/21/2025
The London Music Hall of Fame and the Forest City London Music Awards family is saddened to hear of the passing of Garth Hudson London Music Hall of Fame inductee 2014. Garth was emblematic of the greatness of . He was a dear friend of our organization and performed his last ever show in London in 2016 during our celebration. We are honoured to have enshrined Garth Hudson in London Music history.
Garth Hudson was born August 2nd, 1937 in Windsor, Ontario. His mother, Olive, played piano, accordion and sang; his father, Fred, played drums, saxophone, clarinet and flute, and piano. Garth’s family moved to London, Ontario around 1940. He went to Broughdale Public School, Medway High School, and the University of Western Ontario. Garth studied piano with Miss Nellie Milligan and Clifford Von Kuster, while learning theory, harmony, and counterpoint with Thomas Chattoe. He also played organ for services at St. Luke’s Anglican Church. Garth then performed with dance bands and joined a rock and roll group, the Capers, from 1958 through 1961, before becoming the music consultant, organist and saxophonist for Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, from 1961 to 1963. After leaving Hawkins, Levon and the Hawks toured on their own. The band was introduced to Bob Dylan, who recruited them to accompany him on his controversial 1966 folk-rock tour. Garth eventually settled near Woodstock, New York and Dylan was a frequent visitor to the Hudson’s pink-colored house. Garth recorded their collaborations, resulting in the legendary “Basement Tapes.” In 1968, the Hawks became known simply as The Band and recorded their seminal debut album, Music From Big Pink. Over the next eight years, The Band continued recording and touring, releasing eight albums and performing for full houses around the world. Among the highlights of these shows were Garth’s improvised introductions to “Chest Fever.” The Band called an end to touring with a lavish final concert on Thanksgiving 1976 as documented in Martin Scorsese’s film, “The Last Waltz.” Garth spent the next 16 years in California’s burgeoning music scene, contributing to several movie soundtracks, including “The Right Stuff” and Martin Scorsese’s films “Raging Bull” and “The King of Comedy.” He also enjoyed recording and collaborating with other musicians on their albums. Garth composed the music for Music For Our Lady Queen Of The Angels, a multimedia celebrational environment created in 1980 for the 200th anniversary of the City of Los Angeles. Garth continued to perform with The Band frequently through the ’80s and ’90s. He moved back to the Woodstock, New York area in 1991 and recorded three CDs with The Band. He has appeared on TV shows, such as Ed Sullivan, Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary, Woodstock ’94, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien, Saturday Night Live, Roots 94 (NRK-TV) Norway, Puistoblues Finland. He has recorded and performed with many artists, including Norah Jones, Los Lobos, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison, Muddy Waters, Marianne Faithfull, Ba*****ed Ladies, Emmylou Harris, Sneaky Pete Kleinow and the Flying Burrito Brothers, Don McLean, Keith Richards, The Sadies and scores of others. Garth’s long-awaited first solo CD, The Sea To The North, was released in 2001. He is developing a retrospective box set on Levon and the Hawks, 1956 to 1966, and contributed unheard tracks from his personal vault to Capitol Records’ six-disc The Band: A Musical History box set. Garth and Maud, his actress/wife released their duo CD, Live at the Wolf (opening weekend of Wolf Performance Hall in London), as well as Garth’s CD of Music For Our Lady Queen Of The Angels. Garth produced and released Garth Hudson Presents A Canadian Celebration of The Band in 2010 and has contributed to most of the tracks for The Beautiful Old 2013. Garth Hudson continues to enjoy producing, composing, arranging and performing with Sister Maud and his eleven-piece band. He lectures around the world, teaches Master Classes when his schedule allows and continues to prepare the syllabus for The Garth Hudson Institute featuring his innovative learning methods. His long list of awards includes • Inducted into the JUNO Hall of Fame (The Band), 1989 • The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (The Band), 1994 • Canada South Blues Society, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2002 • Hamilton Music Scene Award, Instrumentalist of the Year, 2005 • Hamilton Dofasco Lifetime of Achievement Award (The Band), 2007 • Grammy Lifetime of Achievement Award (The Band), 2008. • Blues Hall of Fame, Legendary Blues Artist, 2012.
https://fclma.ca/hall-of-fame-inductees/
THE BAND
The Forest City London Music Awards Acknowledges The Tremendous Support of Our London Music Hall of Fame Founding Partners
