The Weight Band Releases New Single “World Gone Mad”

Former members of The Band, Levon Helm Band and Rick Danko Group revive Woodstock sound on World Gone Mad, their first full-length album

The Weight Band releases “World Gone Mad,” an original song and music video

WOODSTOCK, NY – This Thursday, Woodstock-based artists The Weight Band will release the 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/theweightband

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