Control of the legendary Levon Helm Studios has been transferred from Helm’s daughter, Amy to musician Brian Parillo. The Overlook, a Woodstock-based news outlet, first reported the details. WAMC's Sam Dingman spoke with two of its reporters about their findings.
John Barry is a reporter for The Overlook and the author of a book on Levon Helm called, "Rock, Roll, and Ramble." The longtime Woodstock, New York, resident says there are three milestones in his hometown: the Woodstock Music Festival; Bob Dylan living in the Byrdcliffe Arts Colony in the 1960s; and Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble.
Helm was the drummer and singer for The Band. Levon Helm Studios is the sprawling 18-acre property where he lived, recorded, and, towards the end of his life, performed. The centerpiece of Levon Helm Studios is The Barn, which has a living space, a recording studio, and a stage. In the early 2000s, Helm was sick with throat cancer, and he needed money to cover medical expenses and bills on the property. "So Levon, in true Levon form, says, 'Let's have a rent party and go out with a bang!'" recalled Barry. "Those rent parties turned into his Midnight Ramble house concerts."
That first Ramble was in 2004. And it was such a success that Helm kept doing them every Saturday night until he died in 2012. Barry was at pretty much all of them. "The Midnight Ramble was like an old-time county fair with friends you see week after week. There was a potluck table in the garage where people would walk in with, you know, tacos and pizzas and grilled cheeses and bagged bologna sandwiches. There was a ticket booth out by the driveway. There were fire pits in the winter. And then the bands - you'd have one or two opening bands. Then the Levon Helm band would play, and you would hear anything from Band covers to blues, to rhythm and blues, to soul."
After Helm's death, Amy took over the Ramble.
Barry said, "[she] kind of took things in a new direction that took it away from the county fair... The bones of the concept were still there, but the skin and the appearance and the attire had changed drastically."
Sandra Helm, Levon's widow, still lives on the property. In an interview with Barry and The Overlook editor-in-chief Noah Eckstein, she said she didn't like the direction Amy was taking things. "The rock and roll character of what she thought Levon had was changing," said Eckstein.
The group running Levon Helm Studios included Amy, Sandra, Levon's former manager Barbara O'Brien, and musician Brian Parillo. Barry says Brian worked his way into the family's inner circle, "Brian was in a band called the Apple Pickers Union, based in New Jersey. Any time Levon played anywhere within driving distance, this group, including Brian, would go see him, and so they became a presence."
Parillo also spoke with The Overlook, and he told Eckstein and Barry that he's worked for Levon Helm Studios for decades without taking a salary. But earlier this year, under circumstances that are still unclear, Parillo became CEO. He evidently convinced Sandra Helm and Barbara O'Brien to grant him their voting shares in the organization, which gave him 60% control over the decision making. It appears he has now used that control to force out Amy. "Parillo is publicly accusing Amy Helm of some sort of financial malfeasance and mismanaging of the company," Eckstein said.
The specifics of Parillo's claim are also unclear, but I did find a document sent to Amy earlier this year from the Ulster County Clerk, requesting payment on over $37,000 in unpaid state taxes.
On May 28th, the day after Parillo took control, there was an incident on the property. Amy and her stepmother Sandra were in the middle of a conversation, when Parillo showed up.
I got a copy of the police report from this altercation. A little after 2 p.m. that day, Parillo called the cops, saying that in the midst of a "business meeting," Amy started "shoving him." Amy told an officer that she pushed Brian away after he approached her "aggressively." According to the report, both Amy and Sandra also told an officer that Parillo was trying to "take over the company and obtain ownership." Amy also alleged that Parillo was attempting to "trick" her 76-year-old stepmother.
As The Overlook later reported, in a June court filing, Amy accused Parillo of financial exploitation and elder abuse. But Eckstein says it's not that simple. "One reason this story is complicated and has so many moving parts is that the accounts conflict a bit," he told me. Eckstein and Barry interviewed Sandra Helm after the shoving incident, and she told them she deliberately put Parillo in charge. "She said that she was not coerced," Eckstein said. "And that this was a decision that was made completely [of] her own volition, to try and steer Levon Helm Studios back in a direction that she wanted it to go in."
Barry added that in all his years of reporting on Levon Helm, he never noticed any tension between Sandra and Parillo. "You know, after the Rambles, everyone would gather around Levon's kitchen table, kind of like the green room. Brian, many times, was there. And I never, ever, detected any animosity between Levon and Brian, Sandy and Brian, you know, anybody."
In early June, Eckstein saw a social media post announcing that an upcoming Midnight Ramble show had been postponed. He mentioned it to Barry, who could tell right away that something wasn't right. "You have to understand that during the eight years that Levon was with us during the Ramble, he was not in the greatest of health, because he was still recovering from cancer of the vocal cords," Barry said. "So there could be a night where Levon didn't sing. One night he was taken to the hospital about an hour before showtime, and they made an announcement: 'Levon's not here tonight, if anyone wants their money back, go downstairs.' And three people out of 200 got their money back. So this is an event where the headliner at points was not even there. And they never, ever, ever postponed or canceled a Ramble.
This past Sunday, Amy Helm posted a statement on Instagram, which read, in part, "Neither I nor our longtime core staff are currently part of Levon Helm Studios, and have nothing to do with any decisions made or actions taken by the new 'management.'"
The August Midnight Ramble shows have been postponed.
"In time," Amy wrote, "I will be able to speak to the disturbing circumstances at my father's home and recording studio."
