Robbie Robertson life and biography

Jaime Robbie Robertson is a songwriter, guitarist and singer, probably best known for his membership in The Band.

Born to a Jewish father and a Mohawk mother, (he took his stepfather’s last name after his mother remarried), Robertson’s earliest exposure to music was at Six Nations 40, Ontario, where he spent summers with his mother’s family. He studied guitar from his youth and was writing songs and performing from his teen years.

By 1958, Robertson was performing in various groups around Toronto. In 1960, he met singer Ronnie Hawkins, who headed up a band called The Hawks (after relocating to Canada), and joined the group, which toured often, before splitting from Hawkins in 1963.
The quintet styled themselves as The Canadian Esquires and Levon and the Hawks,(after rejecting such tongue-in-cheek names as The Honkies and The Crackers), before ultimately calling themselves The Band.

Bob Dylan hired The Band for his famed, controversial tours of 1965 and 1966, his first wide exposure as an electrified rock and roll performer rather than his earlier acoustic folk sound. Robertson’s distinctive guitar sound was an important part of the music; Dylan famously praised him as “the only mathematical guitar genius I’ve ever run into who doesn’t offend my intestinal nervousness with his rearguard sound.”

From 1987 onwards, Robertson released a series of four solo albums, his first was self titled followed by Storyville, Music for the Native Americans and Contact from the Underworld of Redboy. In 1990, he contributed to Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto's album Beauty. Robertson's song "Broken Arrow", off the Robbie Robertson album, was covered by Rod Stewart on his album Vagabond Heart and became a hit single. "Broken Arrow" was also a part of the Grateful Dead's rotation of live songs 1993–95 (sung by bassist Phil Lesh), and later with Phil Lesh and Friends. The song "Somewhere Down the Crazy River", became Robertson's biggest solo hit.

How To Become Clairvoyant was released on April, 5, 2011 and is the fifth solo release from Robbie Robertson. It features Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Trent Reznor, Tom Morello, Robert Randolph, Rocco Deluca, Angela McCluskey, and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes. Pino Palladino, and Ian Thomas are the rhythm section.

Robbie performed "He Don't Live Here No More" on CBS's Late Show with David Letterman and ABC's The View in support of the album, with the band, Dawes, and solo artist, Jonathan Wilson. The album was also released in a de luxe edition containing five bonus tracks (four demos and the exclusive track Houdini, named after the magician).

Discography
Albums with The Band:
1968 Music from Big Pink
1969 The Band
1970 Stage Fright
1971 Cahoots
1972 Rock of Ages
1973 Moondog Matinee
1975 Northern Lights - Southern Cross
1977 Islands
1978 The Last Waltz
1995 Live at Watkins Glen

Albums with Bob Dylan and The Band:
1974 Before the Flood
1974 Planet Waves
1975 The Basement Tapes
1998 The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert

Solo recordings:
1987 Robbie Robertson
1991 Storyville
1994 Music for The Native Americans
1998 Contact from the Underworld of Redboy
2011 How to Become Clairvoyant

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