You don't have to wait to see a new exhibition about Levon Helm. This Wheel's Still On Fire: The Legacy of Levon Helm is now open in the Alexander Gallery at the Porter Art Warehouse in Fayetteville. Earlier this week, the day before the exhibition opened, Deana McCloud, co-founder of the Museum Collective and curator for the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame in Boston, and curator of this exhibit, delivered a preview tour dedicated to the Arkansas-born singer, songwriter and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fittingly, the first things you see when you enter the exhibit are:
McCloud: Drums. First of all, when you walk in the door, you see Levon's original Gretsch drum kit. The drums are not in great condition just because they were in storage. They were in a tarp shed in Terry Cagle's backyard, but there were, we wanted to rescue them, and Brian Hembree, because he is just an amazing researcher, was able to look at the skins and the remainder of the skins on the drums that he picked up from Wade Cagle and matched them to photographs and videos of Levon playing this. This was his primary, number one drum kit.
And so because we wanted to show people what it would look like set up, Brian also has this proxy kit that he built from, you know, it's the same era, same make, same model as the original kit. So you can see what it looked like set up, and really special moment: a couple of years ago at the Jubilee in Marvell, Levon's grandson Lavon played that proxy kit on the front porch of Levon's boyhood home.
Kellams: I love that this exhibit takes you chronologically. You end up with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammys, all of that. But you start in Marvell and Turkey Scratch.
McCloud: Absolutely. Because Levon was always just a kid from Turkey Scratch. He never forgot where he came from. And for this exhibit to be in Arkansas was always the intention. We are so proud to have it here in Fayetteville because this is where it all began. But not only where Levon began and the Hawks began, but it is where Americana music began. Because when you think of Americana bands, the first one was the Band, and there's only one of them from America. The rest are Canadian, and he's an Arkansas guy. That means all roads for Americana music lead right back to Arkansas. So we're here to celebrate Arkansas's important impact on this genre of music, as well as Levon.
Kellams: And you and I are damn near on Dixon Street, which of course is immortalized in a way in The Weight.
McCloud: Absolutely, absolutely. Well, and I had such a good time getting to meet Anna Lee, who lives in Little Rock.
Kellams: Yeah, and you think about the lyrics of The Weight and Crazy Chester. Those are all characters that Levon grew up with.
McCloud: I mean, his music is pulling from his personal experiences. And I think that's the most important, most impactful music that anybody ever creates, is when you're speaking from your heart, your experiences, because that just draws people in.
Kellams: What's also great about this exhibit is, as you go clockwise, you begin to understand, you put it so well when you talked about the beginning of Americana music, but you start to see where Levon's fingerprints are, and they are all over American culture.
McCloud: Oh, 100%. I mean, you're not only the music, but his film career. And I love an interview I read that he had about his film career at one point where he states, acting is easy, I just go and be myself. And I thought, yeah, that's his, his characters are cast for him. And, you know, he just brings that sensibility that those of us from this area have, that people are attracted to. I love that, I love that.
Kellams: So there are memorabilia, awards, great images, but it's 2026. Exhibits are also hands-on. Can we walk over to where….
McCloud: Our drum petting zoo? Yes. So we have three snare drums set up here. One has a maple shell. The other one has a maple shell with a wood hopper, and the other, the last one is chrome over aluminum shell. So they all sound differently. And the text describes what Levon preferred, which was that one, which is the wooden one. Or you might want that one a little brighter, oh, that's the all-metal one. You know, if you're in an arena or open-field festival where you need to be really loud, that one is the one you choose because it's loud.
Kellams: But Levon…
McCloud: Levon is here. So I'm hoping that our little drum practice here doesn't drive anybody on staff nuts, but it's going to be fine. It's a music exhibit. It's supposed to be loud.
Kellams: And you go down here and you've got, you know, the Hawks. Well, starting with his youth, yearbooks from Marvell going all the way down to the Hawks. And by the time we get to the end of this corridor, there's Dylan, there's Martin Scorsese.
McCloud: Yep. You know, and I love that this starts with him growing up again in Turkey Scratch. We've got his baseball glove, a photo of him and his sister Linda, Linda and Lavon. And she's playing a washtub bass, one of his first performances. So yes, we want to tell as much of the whole story as we can fit in this space. And again, our lenders from all over were just so generous. A lot of these early-year pieces came from Marvell, from the home site, and they opened up their archives and just let me shop as much as I wanted. And I loved them for that. They were just so generous with that.
Kellams: Gold records, videos from being on with David Letterman.
McCloud: Mhm, mhm. Yeah. The ambient sound is on a TV screen with four performance videos that are throughout his career, starting with the original orientation of the Band. And then there's a little excerpt from The Last Waltz where he's speaking, not where they're singing, but where he's talking about the midnight rambles that he saw when he was a kid and why that became his inspiration for the rambles that he then hosted at his barn in Woodstock, that still go on today. So we wanted that full-circle kind of thing because again, when Levon passed, he had one directive: keep it going. We've got to keep the music going. Amy does that in Woodstock with her Helm Family Rambles that she still does. We're doing this with this exhibit. You got to keep on singing this music and keep the music flowing.
Kellams: And of course, we're in Northwest Arkansas in Fayetteville. So there is also, you know, the connection to the Cate Brothers.
McCloud: Oh, absolutely. We expanded the section where we include the Cate Brothers. And I'm excited that they're going to be here tomorrow to get a sneak preview before everybody else comes in. And we also have an interview with the Cate Brothers. We have two monitors that feature interviews with a variety of artists who have been associated with Levon throughout the years, and one of them is the Cate Brothers. And I love getting to speak with them and interview them. Part of it is because, my, they're about the same age as my dad, and they speak with the same cadence, because my dad's family came from Arkansas, and there were moments when I was talking with the two of them that I just started thinking of talking to my dad. So I had to kind of rephrase some of the questions because I didn't want to call either one of them dad. But it was so sweet. They loved and respected Levon so much. And they're just lovely people.
Kellams: And you mentioned that you get that from Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen, who we can hear here too.
McCloud: Oh, absolutely. The appreciation for Levon, not just as a musician but as a person and as a friend, it runs deep with these other artists. I mean, Jackson and Bruce speaking about Levon and their respect for him is amazing. Also, Max Weinberg, Bruce's drummer, he and Levon were very close. He calls him Lavon, as he should, since we're back in Arkansas. But he loved Lavon, and it was a love for Lavon that lasted his entire life.
Kellams: Finally, you know, this is going to attract people who, like me and you and so many others around here, are big Levon Helm fans, know a lot of what they're going to see, still be surprised. But there will also be people walking in who may not even really know who Levon Helm was.
McCloud: Those are my favorite people, because everything that we do is education, education, education. So no matter how much experience, how much knowledge you have of Levon, of this music, when you walk in, you're going to go out with a lot more, and especially for a younger generation. I mean, when I was the executive director of the Woody Guthrie Center, we would have kids and families come in all the time that if they were under 40 years old, they had no idea who Woody Guthrie was. They didn't know who Bob Dylan was. So this is a way of sharing that for this area. It's very similar to my thoughts about sharing Woody's legacy with a younger generation. Yes, this is about music, but this is also about empowerment and being proud of your skills and who you are, where you came from. Don't you tell me you can't be anybody just because you grew up outside of Fayetteville, Arkansas, or Okemah, Oklahoma, or Turkey Scratch. You can be anything you want. And Levon Helm, Woody Guthrie showed us that all you have to do is be proud of yourself. And we're here to listen to you. I think that's our initiative.
Kellams: Deana McCloud, curator of the exhibit This Wheel's Still On Fire: The Legacy of Levon Helm, exhibited at the Alexander Gallery at the Porter Art Warehouse in downtown Fayetteville through early September. The gallery is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday evenings, 5 until 8 p.m.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline and edited for length and clarity. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
