Robbie Robertson, best known for his work as guitarist and songwriter for the influential rock group The Band, is set to release his first album in 13 years. How to Become Clairvoyant, Robertson's fifth solo effort, hits record stores on April 5 and features an impressive roster of talent including guest artists Eric Clapton, who co-wrote three tracks with Robertson and performs with him on six; Steve Winwood, who plays organ on two numbers; guitarist Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine; and pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph. "The boys helped me out," Robertson told Rolling Stone. "I think I've written some really good songs, and ... it turned out quite extraordinary."
In a surprising move, Robertson also asked Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to contribute to Clairvoyant on the instrumental piece "Madame X," providing what Robertson calls "additional textures" to the song. "It's a really cinematic piece of music," says Robertson. "He understood exactly what I was talking about and did something completely beautiful and haunting."
Named one of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," Robertson, 67, turned to his Native American heritage for inspiration on his last two solo albums, Music for the Native Americans (1994) and Contact from the Underworld of Redboy (1998). For his new collection of songs, the guitarist looks back almost 50 years and explores his rock roots, most notably with "This is Where I Get Off," the first song Robertson's ever written about his departure from The Band in 1976. Clairvoyant also includes numbers like "Straight Down the Line," a song about rock 'n' roll's early reputation as the Devil's music, and "He Don't Live Here No More," which details a close friend's battle with addiction and features Clapton on harmony vocal and electric and slide guitars.
As one of the leading songwriters of the rock era, Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson was born on July 5, 1943, in Toronto, Ontario, to a Jewish father and a mother of Mohawk descent. He was first introduced to live music as a young boy during summer visits to the Six Nations Reservation, where his mother was born and raised. He took up the guitar at age 10 after his cousins began teaching him how to play country music. Gradually Robertson began writing his own songs. He developed a trademark guitar sound that can be traced back to blues masters like Muddy Waters. "I didn't realize that they were using slides, so for years I worked on developing a vibrato technique equivalent to a slide," he told Guitar Player magazine. "It all made me develop a certain style."
Robbie's musical interests evolved from country to big band to rock, and at age 16, he quit school to become a performer. He was part of various teenage groups in the Toronto area in the late '50s and was recruited by rockabilly star Ronnie Hawkins in 1960 as lead guitarist for Hawkins' backing band, The Hawks. Along with Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson, and Richard Manuel—fellow Hawks sidemen and future Band mates—Robertson recorded a few singles with The Hawks, who became quite well-known in the thriving Toronto music scene. For the next two years, he practiced endlessly as the band toured Canada and the rural sections of the States.
While under Hawkins' tutelage, this group of young musicians quickly developed technical prowess on their instruments. Robertson was beginning to explore harmonics (picking a string and then grazing it with a finger to bring out a bell-like overtone). "Within a year (of joining the Hawks) I was actually onto something," he said. "I was the only one playing a certain way in a big area; up north it just wasn’t happening for that kind of guitar playing." The Hawks grew tired of performing the same songs and yearned to play original material, so they split with Hawkins in 1964. "Eventually, [Hawkins] built us up to the point where we outgrew his music and had to leave," said Robertson. "He shot himself in the foot, really, bless his heart, by sharpening us into such a crackerjack band that we had to go on out into the world."
For the next couple years, drummer Levon Helm fronted the group as Levon and the Hawks. The band toured Canada, and after catching their show in Toronto, blues artist John Hammond, Jr. (son of influential record producer John H. Hammond) brought the members to New York where Robertson played on some of Hammond's recordings. Robertson soon came to the attention of Bob Dylan, who invited him to play guitar on Dylan's first US "electric" tour. After two shows, the other Hawks bandmates were brought on board as well, and the group became the support unit on Dylan's now-legendary 1965-1966 world tour.
The Hawks returned to the bar and roadhouse touring circuit and began writing their own material when Dylan retired into semi-seclusion in the summer of 1966 after injuring himself in a motorcycle accident. When the group went into the recording studio still without a name for themselves, Robertson suggested The Band as everyone had referred to them as "the band" during their time with Dylan. Although his bandmates were a bit ambivalent about it, the name stuck.
As one of rock's most noted acts, The Band were propelled by Robertson's evocative examinations of American mythology and lore. They made a series of seminal LPs, including 1968s Music from Big Pink, which included three songs written or co-written by Dylan ("This Wheel‘s on Fire," "Tears of Rage," and "I Shall be Released") as well as "The Weight," which was used in the 1969 landmark counterculture film Easy Rider and is arguably their best-known song. The Band toured in support of Big Pink and performed with Dylan at both Woodstock and the UK Isle of Wight Festivals. That same year they released their highly-acclaimed eponymous album, The Band, which included the singles "Rag Mama Rag," "Up on Cripple Creek," and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."
The Band went on to release Stage Fright (1970), Cahoots (1971), Moondog Matinee (1973), and Northern Lights - Southern Cross (1975) before Robertson grew weary of touring and decided to leave the group. The Band went out with a bang on Thanksgiving Day, 1976, following an all-star concert filmed at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, California. The show featured a stellar list of guests, including Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Ronnie Hawkins, Bob Dylan, Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Van Morrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Ronnie Wood, Paul Butterfield, and Neil Diamond. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the documentary film, The Last Waltz, was released in 1978 along with a triple-LP soundtrack. The project marked the beginning of Robertson's long affiliation with Scorsese and sparked an interest in dramatic acting for the musician.
In 1980, Robertson produced and co-starred with Jodie Foster and Gary Busey in Carny. That same year Scorsese hired him to compose the musical score for Raging Bull. Robertson continued to branch out in the film medium for the next several years, working with Scorsese on the 1983 satire The King of Comedy and 1986s The Color of Money. He and Scorsese have been frequent collaborators over the years, having worked together on the films Casino (1995), Gangs of New York (2002), The Departed (2006), and Shutter Island (2010).
Robertson wove his solo projects in between his work in film. In 1987 he released his self-titled solo debut album, which included guest appearances from onetime Band mates Danko and Hudson as well as U2, Peter Gabriel, Daniel Lanois and Gil Evans. The conceptual piece Storyville followed in 1990 with its sounds and imagery of a famed area of New Orleans. Robertson next teamed up with the Native American group the Red Road Ensemble in 1994 for Music for the Native Americans, a collection of songs that were composed for a television documentary series. Contact from the Underworld of Redboy followed in 1998.
When asked once why it had taken him so long to put out music as a solo artist after his departure from The Band, Robertson told Musician magazine that, "I just didn't have the lure to get in there, sit down and suffer. I wasn't so sure I had something to say. I just didn't want to make mediocre moves." Judging by the number of years gone by since his last album, How to Become Clairvoyant promises to speak volumes about a musician who has been playing rock 'n' roll almost since rock 'n' roll began.
The title track to Robertson's upcoming album, "How to Become Clairvoyant," was included on True Blood: Music from the HBO Original Series Volume 2 soundtrack. In addition to the new record, Robertson is said to be writing his autobiography.
