NEWPORT - If you saw the movie "The Last Waltz," Garth Hudson's posture looked familiar Sunday as he played keyboards with the Dixie Hummingbirds - hunched over the organ in a possessed, mad-scientist manner.

Hudson played on the veteran gospel group's latest CD and was a featured player during the Apple & Eve Newport Folk Festival. And if you've heard Hudson speak, it all makes sense. He's dedicated much of his life to performing roots music - folk playing, blues, brass arrangements, country and gospel - and passing along his knowledge.

Hudson, who grew up in Canada, is a multi-instrumentalist who made his name with The Band in the 1960s until that group's original lineup ended things in 1976. Since then, he's performed in a 1990s version of The Band and with a variety of groups that play an array of styles.

And he shares what he knows with younger musicians. During a recent tour of Ireland, Hudson, 67, said he met with Irish musicians and master accordionists (he plays accordion, piano, organ and saxophone) to talk about their craft and ways to improve.

"Before I was done, I would get together about 40 minutes worth of tips," he said during an interview at the Folk Festival. One man, a music teacher, came back twice. "We'd have the performance and then sit back after it was over and talk about music, different ways of doing things," he said. "I enjoy helping musicians. It's always been that way."

In "The Last Waltz," Robbie Robertson talks about how Hudson billed himself as a music teacher early on, when the group was the Hawks and backed singer Ronnie Hawkins, and later Bob Dylan.

It's a role he continues to perform. He recently recorded with the country flavored Burrito Deluxe, with a new CD out this week. "I've always tried to stay very close to the American roots music," Hudson said.

It's been nearly 30 years since The Band's final concert in San Francisco, captured in the documentary "The Last Waltz." Through the years, other members of The Band have said they wanted to keep going, but that Robertson wanted to do other things.

"It was really two members," said Hudson, who lives with his wife, Maud, in the Hudson River Valley of New York. "Rick (Danko) had some other projects he was interested in."

Now there are only three members left, Robertson, Levon Helm and Hudson. Danko died a few years ago and Richard Manuel committed suicide in 1986.

But the music teacher continues to find pupils, in young people eager to learn the music he cares about.

"I think it's important to keep young people entertained and informed," he said. "You want them to come away with at least one or two things, things that will continue to stay with them." . . . FOOTNOTE: Garth sat in with WILCO on main stage when they closed the festival. -mh