Band on the Rerun: Rowdy, haunting and resonant, The Band is the voice of a vanished America

A GORGEOUS MELANCHOLY lies at the core of the music created by The Band, four Canadian rockers and an Arkansas drummer who, some argue, brought the pop experiments of '60s psychedelia to a twangy, appealingly old-timey halt. They claimed to be "rebelling against rebellion" of the times in their majestic debut album, 1968's Music from Big Pink, and its even more successful follow-up The Band. But rarely has musical reactionism sounded so free-spirited, inventive and knowing.