Saturday matinee - Robbie Robertson

I know this post is a day early, but what the heck. Check back tomorrow and you'll see why.

Last week, I posted about The Band. This week, I'm posting about Robbie Robertson.

Robertson was lead guitarist for The Band, and exerted increasing artistic control over The Band's musical direction. When The Band broke up, Robertson went solo.

I bought his self-titled solo album when it came out, without having heard it. I bought it solely because I had been so impressed with The Band's final studio album, "Northern Lights - Southern Cross".

Boy was I impressed! "Robbie Robertson" was a real gem. The production values were amazing (not surprising - Robertson had already produced several albums for other artists), and the songs were great. Tracks included a heartfelt tribute to former Band-mate Richard Manual who committed suicide, a cautionary tale of gang violence ("Sonny Got Caught In The Moonlight"), a story that intermingled tales of James Dean, Elvis Presley, and Marilyn Monroe ("American Roulette"), and my personal favorite, "Somewhere Down That Crazy River". I can't embed it, so here's a link to the video of that.

I thought his self-titled album would be a tough act to follow, but he topped it with his next release - "Storyville", an album with tons of guest appearances (Neil Young, some of the Neville Brothers, former Band-mates Rick Danko and Garth Hudson, Bruce Hornsby, Ginger Baker, and a whole bunch of New Orleans musicians). There are no videos for this album, unfortunately.

"Storyville" was an incredible tour de force, and I listened to it a lot. Robertson (who is part Mohawk) followed it up with a soundtrack to a limited TV series called "The Native Americans". Robertson produced and sang and played on some tracks. Here's a video of "Ghost Dance":