''Northern Lights – Southern Cross'' is the sixth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

rock group the Band, released in 1975. It was the first album to be recorded at their new California studio,

Shangri-La Shangri-La is a fictional place in Asia's Kunlun Mountains (昆仑山), Uses the spelling 'Kuen-Lun'. described in the 1933 novel ''Lost Horizon'' by English author James Hilton. Hilton portrays Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, ge ...

, and the first album of all new material since 1971's '' Cahoots''. All eight songs are credited as compositions of guitarist

Robbie Robertson Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson, OC (born July 5, 1943), is a Canadian musician. He is best known for his work as lead guitarist and songwriter for the Band, and for his career as a solo recording artist. With the deaths of Richard Manuel in ...

. ''Northern Lights – Southern Cross'' was recorded using a 24-track tape recorder, which allowed

Garth Hudson Eric "Garth" Hudson (born August 2, 1937) is a Canadian multi-instrumentalist best known as the keyboardist and occasional saxophonist for rock group the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a ...

to include multiple layers of keyboards on several tracks. Three songs from the album – "

It Makes No Difference "It Makes No Difference" is a song written by Robbie Robertson and sung by Rick Danko that was first released by The Band on their 1975 album '' Northern Lights – Southern Cross''. It has also appeared on live and compilation albums, inclu ...

", "

Ophelia Ophelia () is a character in William Shakespeare's drama ''Hamlet'' (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet, who, due to Hamlet's actions, ends up in ...

" and "

Acadian Driftwood "Acadian Driftwood" is a song by the Band. It was the fourth track on their sixth studio album '' Northern Lights – Southern Cross'' (1975), written by member Robbie Robertson. Richard Manuel, Levon Helm and Rick Danko trade off lead vocals a ...

" – were performed at ''The Last Waltz'', the Band's 1976 "final performance". "It Makes No Difference" and "Ophelia" were included in the ''Last Waltz'' film and on the original 1978 soundtrack album, and "Acadian Driftwood" was included in the 2002 extended re-release of the soundtrack album. These songs in particular have enjoyed subsequent revivals and cover versions. "Acadian Driftwood" was featured in a 1984

CBC-TV CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

special titled ''Murray McLauchlan's Floating Over Canada''. The only Band member to appear in the sequence was

Levon Helm Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm (May 26, 1940 – April 19, 2012) was an American musician who achieved fame as the drummer and one of the three lead vocalists for the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. H ...

. In this presentation of the song, Levon, his wife Sandy Helm, and

Murray McLauchlan Murray Edward McLauchlan, (born 30 June 1948) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist, and harmonica player. He is best known for his Canadian hits "Farmer's Song," "Whispering Rain," and "Down by the Henry Moore". Early life Mc ...

depict the expulsion of Acadian citizens by British forces. The album was well-received critically: ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' declared that The Band had kicked "a field goal", and, while he was put off by the sentimentality of the lyrics,

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

wrote "the pure comeliness of every melody on this album led to an immediate infatuation." John Bauldie in Q Magazine called the album "glossy and slick" and lamented that the close-knit aspect of the group playing together had disappeared.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by

Side one

Side two

* Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–8 on CD reissues.

Bonus track listing from 2001 re-release

Personnel

;The Band *

Rick Danko Richard Clare Danko (December 29, 1943 – December 10, 1999) was a Canadian musician, bassist, songwriter, and singer, best known as a founding member of the Band, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. During ...

– bass, guitar,

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

, vocals, mixing *

– drums, guitar, percussion, vocals *

– organ, keyboards,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and reed ...

chanter The chanter is the part of the bagpipe upon which the player creates the melody. It consists of a number of finger-holes, and in its simpler forms looks similar to a recorder. On more elaborate bagpipes, such as the Northumbrian bagpipes or the ...

, bass, mixing *

Richard Manuel Richard George Manuel (April 3, 1943 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian singer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter, best known as a pianist and one of three lead singers in The Band, for which he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and ...

– acoustic and

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

, keyboards, organ, drums,

clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

, percussion, vocals *

– guitars, piano, clavinet,

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...

, percussion, mixing ;Additional personnel *

Byron Berline Byron Douglas Berline (July 6, 1944 – July 10, 2021) was an American fiddle player who played many American music styles, including old time, ragtime, bluegrass, Cajun, country, and rock. Life and career Berline was born in Caldwell, Kansas ...

– fiddle on "Acadian Driftwood" *Nat Jeffrey –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, mixing *Rob Fraboni – engineer, mixing *Ed Anderson – engineer

Charts

Album - ''Billboard'' (United States) Singles - ''Billboard'' (United States)

External links

nbsp;– Peter Viney's article on "Acadian Driftwood" at theband.hiof.no

nbsp;– Peter Viney's article on "Jupiter Hollow" at theband.hiof.no

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Northern Lights - Southern Cross The Band albums 1975 albums Capitol Records albums Albums produced by Garth Hudson Albums produced by Levon Helm Albums produced by Richard Manuel Albums produced by Rick Danko Albums produced by Robbie Robertson Albums recorded at Shangri-La (recording studio)