It was a Harvest show that went down as a classic for the people crowding in the Blues tent in 2011. Levon Helm and his great big 13-piece band rolled into Fredericton for the jazz and blues festival, and stole everyone's hearts. The great love the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member was shown by the crowd was returned by the band in a vibrant show. Helm, left with so little voice after years of battling cancer, still managed to serve up The Weight to a delighted audience. It was a stroke of luck he was even there; the band was a late replacement for the ailing Gregg Allman, not even announced until four weeks before the festival. It would be one of his last performances; Helm passed away the following April.

There was one thing missing from that great show four years ago. It wasn't a 13-piece band after all, just twelve on the stage. For years, the strength behind Levon's return to prominence had been his daughter, Amy Helm. She was already a successful modern folk artist, part of the group Ollabelle, but put her own career on hold as she worked with her father, at his famous barn studio in Woodstock, NY, in the band, and on his Grammy-winning albums. But she was a no-show in Fredericton. It turns out, she had a very good reason. "I was delivering a baby!," she recalls, on the line from Woodstock. "I remember missing that show, I was giving birth to my little son Huey! I was sorry I couldn't be there."

That isn't just performer-interview hype. Helm knows lots about the Maritimes, even though she hasn't been here before. That changes this Saturday, Sept. 19, when she performs at the Festival. Helm has favourite musicians here, including Halifax singer Erin Costelo ("That's one of the most soulful, influential albums in my life"). Then there's her connection with Matt Andersen, who recorded part of his last album in Woodstock, with Helm doing guest vocals. She's a fan and friend. "Matt and I were both part of a tour with Blackie and the Rodeo Kings and we were pal'ing around, I can't wait to see him," she says enthusiastically. "I can't say enough about Matt, I'm hoping he'll sing with me! I gotta try to get in touch, I think he's one of the great voices."

Anytime Helm crosses the border, she picks up on the great love the country still feels for her father. Levon came to Canada with Ronnie Hawkins in 1958, and teamed up with a rag-tag group of Ontario farm boys musical savants to form Levon and the Hawks, which eventually became The Band. Music fans have long considered him an honorary Canadian, and the feeling was mutual. Amy Helm confirms she sees that first-hand still. "I really do, and he felt so much that way, he really claimed Canada as home," she says. At the barn in Woodstock, he had a Canadian flag and an Arkansas one. And on that tour with Blackie and Matt, I got to see a lot of the country, and really was made to feel like I was family."

After her father's passing, Helm continued on with his legacy, taking part and co-ordinating musical tributes, and making sure his beloved barn would keep going. "We're still doing shows at the studio, as a venue," she says. "We're hoping to let it continue as a church of live music, for people to come and see great shows." She was also able to get her own career back on track. She's just released her first solo album, Didn't It Rain, a strong roots that highlights both her vocal and writing chops, and her love of traditional music. It features some of the last playing her father did, and in the personal upheaval of her world, took four years to complete. "I am feeling a lot of gratitude about finishing it, all the people that helped on it and made it better," she says about the project. "It really took a village to get the thing out."

Now Helm is getting back on the road, something she does enjoy, especially with her own band. "We've really worked hard over the past two years," she says. "I can not go on enough about the three of these guys as musicians. Every time I'm on stage they make me stronger as a singer. Every time I go on tour, I love it, and know this is what I was meant to do." You can see Amy Helm do her thing at the Harvest Jazz and Blue Festival, on Saturday at the Mojo Tent starting at 6:30.