Inside The Last Waltz Ensemble’s soulful journey through the music of The Band and Bob Dylan
By Michael J. Pallerino
Karl Gloer was close. Around 2010, a friend of his, Oliver Wood, was playing with The Band’s vocalist and drummer Levon Helm in Woodstock, New York. After arranging a meet-and-greet, Gloer flew to New York City, rented a car and headed to the upstate mecca The Band forged the music that helped shape the Americana sound. While en route, however; he received word that Helm had come down with a bout of pneumonia. While one of his musical heroes couldn’t be there—a man whose spirit helped inspire Gloer to create The Last Waltz Ensemble and carry the torch of The Band’s legendary sound—the show went on, filled with the kind of soul Helm would’ve been proud of.
That spirit rising through Gloer started Thanksgiving weekend, 2004. Gloer and his band, HoundDog, took the stage at Fuzzy’s Place off North Druid Hills to perform songs honoring The Band’s legendary farewell concert film, The Last Waltz. They threw in some Dylan, a little Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison. The crowd showed up. The room buzzed. The show sold out. Something clicked.
That night lit a spark, one that has grown into a blazing fire known as The Last Waltz Ensemble—a band dedicated to celebrating the musical legacy of The Band and Bob Dylan. But to Gloer, it’s never been about imitation. It’s always been about the soul.
Back in the mid-’80s, Gloer was just another Deadhead chasing tour buses and life lessons. “In ’85, I saw Dylan with the Dead and it changed me,” he recalls. The music. The jam. The words. It all hit differently. Through Dylan, he found The Band. And from there, a lifelong reverence for a time and sound that shaped the roots of Americana.
By 2005, The Last Waltz Ensemble had its name and a growing following. Gloer and his crew took the act on the road—Birmingham, Charleston, Raleigh. Five out of six shows sold out. One booking agent saw the magic and helped them scale up. One hundred shows a year followed. The mushroom effect, as Gloer calls it. They spread across the South, and then into Texas, New York, D.C., and beyond.
The show isn’t just a tribute—it’s a concert celebration. “We’ve always tried to avoid the word ‘tribute,’” Gloer says. “This is more than that. It’s a living, breathing thing. These songs… they have blood in them. They’ve lived lives. Sometimes we chase production ideas and they work. Sometimes they don’t. But we know these songs. We’ve lived in them. And we’ve found our own sound through them.”
The setlist, like the spirit, is fluid. Some nights, you’ll hear pure reverence. Other nights, the band explores, stretches and plays with arrangements. For the Amplify performance, the band will be joined by guest spots from Atlanta musician Jon Harris, Athen’s Woody Garrison. Gloer says the headlining set is more than a gig—it’s home turf. “I grew up playing football on fields just blocks from where we’ll be performing. I was babysat in public housing a stone’s throw from the square. There’s a hometown fire in this one.”
And with that fire comes reverence. For the songs. For the stories. For the moments that never fade. One of Gloer’s most cherished? A show at Smith’s Olde Bar on April 4, 2008, where renowned blues guitarist Sean Costello joined in for what would be his last night on stage (Costello passed away a few days later). “He was electric. On fire. Susan Tedeschi. Tommy Talton. Colonel Bruce Hampton. Francine Reed. We’ve shared the stage with so many greats. We’ve been blessed.”
Even with decades of performance under his belt, Gloer hasn’t lost the fan in him. He has seen Dylan around 50 times. Following that near meeting, Helm not only sent word to “Keep rockin,” he even included a signed copy of “The Basement Tapes.”
In the music—an art of sound that expresses ideas and emotions that is capable of changing lives— Gloer hopes that people walk away with a glimpse of what he did. “I hope people find it credible. When you’re doing a tribute act, for a long time, I stayed away from the word tribute. We called our thing a concert celebration. Over the years, we have gotten to know these songs. I think you’re going to hear a lot of originality from them, some innovations, too.”
All of it sits at the heart of The Last Waltz Ensemble. Not just covering legendary songs, but honoring them. Keeping them alive. And helping new generations feel the soul behind every verse, every riff, every story told on stage.
