And Clapton Didn't Even Know

I was a Dylan freak from 1964 to whenever I lost touch with his stuff (meh), so I was stoked to see him and The Hawks (Band sans Levon) in 1966. A life changing event musically for my soft 15 year old brain, and the loudest thing I'd seen up 'till then as most Big Deal bands simply used the "house" PA…these guys had piles of Altec A7s and were substantially more substantial. A cool thing about the Big Pink and The Band albums was the relative mysteriousness surrounding these guys, along with their utterly original production of what would now be called "Americana." That's what blew my generation of musicians away…songs that seemed to be carved from logs and performed with gusto with 3 lead singers. Hell yeah…After the Band my fave (and the fave of people like Zep and the Stones) became Little Feat for pretty much the same reasons…roots deep in the mud of what came before with supercharged musicianship.

Americana is a broad category and I would include in addition to Little Feat, Los Lobos, Nelville Brothers and The Blasters (Dave Alvin). You could also include the Mothers Of Invention, but that might be a pushing to boundary.

The Band also had a somewhat unique instrumentation. It was far more common at that time period to have two guitar players, but the band instead had twin keyboard players, a pianist and an organist. I can only think of Procol Harum and Mott the Hoople having similar lineups at that time.
Were there others?

Little Feat was a monster. Interesting comparison to The Band - maybe a funkier, muffuletta flavored variation on the same theme. Lowell George was just a hero of mine. From The Mothers to Little Feat, LG spanned just such an amazing range of musical sensibility that I think he might have had one of the great, long careers in popular music had he not died so young. What a shame.

Ditto on the Lowell George hero thing. I luckily saw the classic Feat live a couple
of times, and a couple of post Lowell versions too. Something about George's
gonzo yet precise cerebral soul (from a self described "fat kid from
Hollywood")…I still listen to all the Little Feat stuff and George's solo album
(an amazingly well recorded LP for my tastes anyway) often. There's a new Lowell
George DVD I just read about (Feats First)…interviews and things that looks
really interesting.

The Band was very talented and influential with some good stuff but I tend to prefer classic Little Feat's act more.

Neville Brothers never disappoint.