Robbie Robertson lived a full musical and creative life until his passing at the age of 80 in 2023. From joining Ronnie Hawkins’ backing band at the age of 16 to his time with The Band to a wide-ranging solo career as a musician, producer, composer, narrator, and writer, Robertson kept himself occupied with a diverse range of interests and collaborated with everyone from Ryuichi Sakamoto to Trent Reznor, and frequently with Martin Scorsese. His curiosity took him to many different places over his career, perhaps nowhere as interesting as his exploration of his Indigenous roots with a pair of projects in the 1990s – a documentary soundtrack, “Music For the Native Americans,” and a studio album, “Contact From the Underworld of Redboy.”
Robertson’s mother was Six Nations – Cayuga and Mohawk – and he spent many of his boyhood summers on the Six Nations of the Grand River reservation in southern Ontario. He hid or downplayed his heritage until he reached middle age when he began to embrace his Native roots. “Contact From the Underworld of Redboy,” released in 1998, comprised collaborations with Native musicians and singers, an archival Native performance, excerpts from an interview with jailed activist Leonard Peltier, and lyrics exploring aspects of Native culture and thought. It was met with positive reviews and was nominated for a Grammy in the Best World Music Album category. It’s a rich exploration of a side of himself that Robertson was proud of, but he felt he needed to hide because of prejudices. It’s compellingly personal and sonically adventurous in an exciting, unexpected way.
Beyond Robbie Robertson’s embrace and exploration of his Native heritage is the other reason the record is so interesting – the production of British trip-hop legends Howie B. and Marius de Vries. Both had spent the 90s helping to shape pop culture through collaborations with the likes of Bjork, Tricky, U2, and Madonna, in addition to work on film scores and soundtracks (“Mission: Impossible” for Howie B., “Romeo + Juliet” for de Vries). Their spare, trance-like beats swirl hypnotically throughout the record, giving the songs a complex sonic texture that is miles afield from the straightforward Americana that Robertson had helped pioneer thirty years earlier, but it’s all still distinctly Robbie Robertson. Even if all you know about him is “The Weight,” the smartly layered arrangements and incisively sparse lyrics transcend genre and subject. It’s an ambitious and rewarding record from a master artist and well worth a listen.
PHOTO: Heinrich Klaffs, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
