WOODSTOCK, N.Y. (AP) - Friends and fans of Levon Helm are gathering at his Woodstock home to pay homage and say farewell to the legendary singer and drummer for The Band, who died of cancer last week.

Thursday's public memorial is being staged at the place where Helm held his Saturday night Midnight Ramble barn concerts in New York's Hudson Valley. After a private funeral Friday, Helm will be buried in Woodstock Cemetery next to Rick Danko, The Band's singer and bassist who died in 1999.

Helm, Danko, Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel's first album as The Band was 1968's "Music From Big Pink." Songs including "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and "Up on Cripple Creek" are rock standards.

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Watch a Video on the Life of Levon Helm

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