Probably old news to most of you, but I recently rented The Band's "The Last Waltz"  DVD and was blown away by the beauty of the playing. 

I'm a former metal player trying to learn the feel behind blues, funk, and folk, and there was something about this live performance that spoke to me.  I played along on a pillow and just tried to feel their groove...it was very educational for me.  The Band as a whole plays tastefully, and never lets any song stray into a nine minute "jam".  Everything is tight and musical and just plain pretty. 

Anyway, I've a new personal anchor for finding the groove: when I play, I try to capture the feeling the Band exudes on this disc.  It seems to make my band happy when I can get there.

I haven't seen the video, but have listened to all the Cd's. What a great show! I've only been familiar with a few of their hits, and it was good to finally understand better what they were about and why many musicians felt that it was such an end of an era for them with this final concert.
It's so nice to to hear them play those great organic grooves, it was about the sound they could create with their instruments, not the sound that their instruments could create for them.

If you ever get to check out the series "Classic Albums"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Albums

They cover The Band - The Band album,

They're available at Amazon

Very educational, I didn't know too much about them aside from The Last Waltz. They were pretty magical in their grooves

Are you referring to to the jazz song "Caravan" (the one that switches between a sort of middle east sound to a half time swing) or is that another one that I'm not familiar with...

I feel like a noob right now