The late Levon Helm of The Band founded Levon Helm Studios, music venue and studio space located in New York, in the ‘70s, and started hosting his Midnight Ramble shows there in 2004. After his death in 2012, Amy Helm, his daughter, took over the space and continued to perform at the Rambles. Amy and Sandra, his widow and Amy’s stepmother, were 40% shareholders of the studio. Barbara O’Brien and Helm’s longtime friend Brian Parillo each had 10% as well. Back in May, Amy was removed by the venue’s board, and Parillo became the CEO of the space, with Sandra and O’Brien giving up their voting shares to him, as reported by Sterogum.
Since then, the Midnight Ramble scheduled for June was rescheduled for August and then postponed indefinitely. Amy took to Instagram to address these changes. She wrote: “In time, I will be able to speak to the disturbing circumstances behind the current situation at my father’s home and recording studio. Neither I, nor our long time 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.’”
Yesterday, The Overlook published a piece about the shareholder disputes. It details allegations Amy made, saying that Parillo allegedly engaged in financial exploitation and elder abuse toward Sandra during the transfer of voting shares.
Sandra responded to Amy’s Instagram post with a post of her own, writing, “I am Levon’s widow, The Barn is where Levon and I lived for 44 years, through 2 Barns, a fire in 1991, now the present residence and studio. Now our business has been presented to the public yesterday and my privacy invaded, which was Amy’s decision, not mine.” She said that Levon would hate all of the conflict, and redirected people to still find joy in the venue for its original purpose to “celebrate the glory of music.”
Parillo also weighed in on the Levon Helm Studio’s official Instagram page, where he accused Amy of mismanaging the space. He accused her of a “concerted effort by Amy and her advisors to deny Sandy, me and the other stockholders access to any corporate records or any meaningful updates on how the company was being run.”
He goes on to explain that Amy’s alleged behavior prompted the other two shareholders to appoint him as CEO, so he could investigate how the space had been operating.
With all the controversy, shows at the space have been cancelled outside of the Midnight Rambles, with the trio of Tim O’Brien, Sam Grisman and Victor Furado canceling their two shows at the venue.
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