Bellingham’s Mt. Baker Theatre opened its centennial 2026-27 season with a sold-out performance by singer-songwriter Amy Helm on August 19. Accompanied by Anthony da Costa on lead guitar and back-up vocals, the evening settled into the type of warm, intimate performance for which the Mt. Baker Theatre has been known over the past 100 years.
As a musician and performer, Ms. Helm embodies that link between the foundations of rock music and its expansion beyond genres (and genders). Channeling her father, renowned drummer for The Band, Levon Helm, as well as influences as diverse as Mahalia Jackson to Bruce Springsteen, she delivered a performance that was powerful but gentle, traditional and contemporary, expressive yet subtle.
Accompanying Amy was acclaimed in-demand session and touring guitarist, Anthony da Costa. In addition to his expressive fills and tasteful lead guitar work, he brought a quick wit and self-deprecating humor I’d experienced when he joined Sunny War on the same stage three years prior.
Martha Scanlan and Jon Neufeld opened the show at precisely 7:30pm, turning in a half hour of well-received bluegrassy folk (or folky bluegrass, if you prefer.) For their final song, “Guardian Angel,” from Scanlan’s EP, Tongue River Stories: Autumn, the pair were accompanied by Amy Helm who added a soulful harmony in a preview of what was to come.
Amy and Anthony appeared onstage only a few minutes later, opening with an inspired take on “Sweet Mama,” from her 2021 album, What the Flood Leaves Behind, Helm’s urgent vocals meshing with da Costa’s slashing electric guitar immediately amping up the room’s energy. The first of several songs from her newest album, 2024’s Silver City, “Money on 7” brought her soulful R&B roots to the fore. On the next song, Mahalia Jackson’s, “Didn’t It Rain,” Helm and da Costa left the audience astounded with their contemporary take on the 1955 gospel standard.
On her website, Amy talks about Silver City in terms of the passage of time. “No one talks about the beauty of age. Shame and fear are so common to so many of us, and to get through that and feel ourselves change is the most beautiful thing about getting older. It’s incredible to look back at things and celebrate how we’ve survived.”
Although that quote is aimed squarely at growing old, it is also a recognition that traditions, particularly based in art and music, carry an irreplaceable beauty from the past. Midway through the show, Amy made the point that music has foremothers (as distinct from forefathers) whose art, drive, and beauty deserve celebrating, no matter how old.
Amy Helm Setlist
Sweet Mama
Money on 7
Didn’t it Rain
If I Was King
Breathing
Carry it Alone
Cotton and the Cane
Running Out of Love
Rescue Me
Encore (with Martha Scanlan and Jon Neufeld)
Love Supreme
Atlantic City
Now warmed up, the duo performed “If I Was King,” also from Silver City, an intense bluesy song partially about Helm’s great grandmother. “Her story was lost to the family. They were dirt poor sharecroppers [from Turkey Scratch, Arkansas] and she started having kids when she was 14. She had married this fire-and-brimstone preacher, who banished her from home and from her children.” Performed live, the song is a study in contrasts: Amy’s calm and tranquil onstage demeanor barely containing the passion and intensity (and to be sure, anger) of her singing about the injustices suffered by her foremother, and indeed, so many women around the world. Da Costa’s accompaniment was especially notable on “…King,” his high energy fills adding to the song’s urgency while his extended, intricate solo reached a climactic, and perfect, resolution mirroring Helm’s emotional vocals.
Watch Amy perform “If I Was King” with Anthony da Costa, Lizzy Ross, and Aidan VanSuetendael on Dirt Farmer Hymnal Sessions via YouTube:
As the show continued, audience and performer(s) settled into an easy camaraderie, at one point after a false start, Amy announced, “We’re just gonna make this a warm-up gig. I feel so good up here!” The acoustic duo gigs with da Costa (of which Bellingham was only the second) allowed Helm to connect intimately with her audience, road test the songs, and prepare for the sizable crowds she’ll face opening for Roger Daltrey during several stops in September and October.
Listen to Silver City by Amy Helm on Spotify:
The set wrapped up with “Rescue Me,” another tune from her 2015 debut album, the cascading refrain, “Come rescue me, I’m falling fast and free,” nestled into a pleasing mid-tempo beat, perfect for hand-clapping and singalong accompaniment which, of course, we all did. For the 2-song encore, Scanlan and Neufeld returned to the stage for a lovely rendition of Silver City’s opening ballad, “Love Supreme.”
Before the final encore, Amy addressed the musical legacy with which she’s been entrusted. Speaking of her father as he was battling, and surviving, throat cancer, she talked of his recuperation and the herculean efforts he, and she, went through to mend his voice. In 2004, Amy and Levon started the Midnight Ramble concerts at his home in Woodstock, New York. With Amy at his side, she coached him through the songs and helped the voice of the Band’s classics like “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “The Weight” recover his ability to sing.
As a result of those Midnight Rambles, Levon fully recovered to record the Grammy winning Dirt Farmer (2007) which was produced by Amy and Larry Campbell. Its 2009 follow-up, Electric Dirt, won the first-ever Grammy award for Best Americana Album in 2010. The Midnight Rambles, held at the Woodstock Barns at Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, NY, have “preserved and furthered Levon Helm’s legacy for nearly two decades, playing the iconic music of The Band and Levon Helm.” With that introduction, Amy and her three companions, or “band” (as someone in the audience smartly noted), sang Springsteen’s “Atlantic City,” its chorus a telling refrain about loss, recovery, and survival: “Well, everything dies, baby, that’s a fact, but maybe everything that dies someday comes back, put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty, and meet me tonight in Atlantic City.”
Here are some more photos of Amy Helm with Anthony da Costa at Bellingham’s Mt. Baker Theatre on August 19, 2026. All photos courtesy of and copyright Mark Caicedo.
