Amy Helm at Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 2

Amy Helm, the daughter of singer/songwriter Libby Titus and drummer Levon Helm of the Band, was born in Woodstock, New York, and started singing rhythm and blues and hip hop with her friends in a group called the Chilly Winds while attending school in Manhattan. By age 17, she started listening to her father's music and absorbed his taste for vintage American music like blues and gospel. In 1993, she began a professional career singing backing vocals for her stepfather, Donald Fagen, and his reunited Steely Dan. In 2002, Amy teamed up with several New York roots musicians to form the group Ollabelle, which fused bluegrass, gospel and other roots music. She also began singing at her father's monthly Woodstock jams, known as the Midnight Rambles, and as part of his road band. After her father's death in 2012, she continued to host concerts at his barn, and began working with a new band, Amy Helm & the Handsome Strangers. Her one album as a solo artist is 2015's Didn't It Rain.

Amy Helm performs in New York City frequently, seemingly with a different collective of musicians each time. Her concert tonight at Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 2, the first of three consecutive Tuesday nights there and part of her second annual Woodshed Residency Tour, featured guitarist Tash Neal of the London Souls, Woodstock-based guitarist/keyboardist Connor Kennedy, bassist Jeff Hill of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, and Brooklyn-based drummer Yuval Lion. Her set consisted of pretty much the same songs she performs regularly, including "Didn't it Rain" and "Rescue Me" from her album plus covers of Mary Gauthier's "Gentling Me," Allen Toussaint's "Yes We Can Can," and the Milk Carton Kids' "Michigan." Helm's stellar, bluesy vocals steadfastly remained the aural heartbeat of the performance, but she encouraged her musicians to rave, and Neal and Kennedy especially jammed extensively on their instruments. The band went all out on the traditional blues song "I Know You Rider." Helm invited guitarist Eric Krasno of Soulive to join the band for a few jams towards the end of the set. Perhaps all this is among the beauties of Helm's down-home concerts; her heartfelt vocals rule, but she allows each of her musicians to tailor the arrangements of the songs so they never sound exactly the same. The result is always solid, grooving, American roots-influenced music.

Visit Amy Helm at www.amyhelm.com.