WOODSTOCK, N.Y. – There was a reunion, of sorts, at Woodstock on Thursday.

Musicians, friends and fans gathered in the board-and-batten barn where Levon Helm staged his Midnight Ramble concerts to remember the influential singer and drummer for The Band, who died of throat cancer last week at age 71.

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Levon Helm, the singer and drummer for The Band who died of throat cancer last week at age 71, was remembered by musicians, friends and fans at Woodstock, N.Y. The Associated Press

Gregg Allman

Nearly 2,000 people attended his wake, not far from where The Band played at the Woodstock gathering in 1969, said a spokesman for the school bus company that shuttled mourners from the village to the wooded grounds of Helm’s home and studio.

Helm’s closed casket, in the second-floor studio of the barn, was surrounded by flowers and flanked by his drum kit and a piano.

“He was so down to earth,” said Roland Mousaa, a folk musician who performed with Bob Dylan and other artists at Woodstock.

“The greatness of Levon Helm was the impact he had on people,” Mousaa said.

Visitors greeted family members and walked down a corridor lined with photos and memorabilia, including Helm’s Grammys in a lighted case. Upstairs, they filed silently past the coffin and glimpsed a family photo slideshow before security staff ushered them toward the back exit.

“He was an icon, but also the guy next door,” said Al Caron, of Woodstock.

“The Rambles were like a revival meeting. There was just a sense of euphoria from the minute you arrived at his home and he will be missed,” Caron said.

Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel’s first album as The Band was 1968’s “Music From Big Pink.”

That album and its follow-up, “The Band,” remain landmark albums of the era, and songs such as “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “Up On Cripple Creek” are rock standards.

Early on, The Band backed Dylan on his electric tours of 1965-66 and collaborated with him on the legendary “Basement Tapes.”

“He was my idol,” said Dan McCabe, a college student pursuing a career in music production who played in a jazz band at one of Helm’s Rambles.

After a private funeral today, Helm will be buried in Woodstock Cemetery next to Danko, The Band’s singer and bassist, who died in 1999.

Poor health forces Allman to delay tour

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Poor health hasn’t robbed Gregg Allman of his sense of humor.

Just as it seemed the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member was finally over the effects of his liver transplant two years ago, he’s been forced to delay his upcoming book tour to promote his new memoir, “My Cross to Bear,” for heart tests.

But in a phone interview Thursday he seemed in good spirits as he described his latest health problem.

“It’s just one of those make-sure tests, you know,” Allman said. “My heart goes into A Fib (atrial fibrillation) and does those beats — you know, instead of going du-dun, du-dun, du-dun, it goes ta-da-dat-ta-da-doot-doot. There’s a little reggae in there somewhere.”

Allman is scheduled to undergo tests today at The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. He had a liver transplant due to Hepatitis C at the same clinic in 2010 and has been steadily recovering since.

Bush documentary to air June 14

NEW YORK – HBO is producing a documentary on the first President George Bush to debut two days after his 88th birthday in June.

Titled “41,” the film about the 41st president is being produced by Jerry Weintraub, a friend of the Bush family and himself the subject of “My Way,” another HBO documentary. Jeffrey Roth, who made “The Wonder of It All” about Apollo moon walkers, is directing and writing the film. It was made between September 2009 and February 2011.

HBO said Friday that Bush, father of the 43rd president, shares anecdotes about his youth, various jobs and term in office. Its first airing is on June 14.

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