Robbie Robertson

This is sure stirring up some ghosts for me," says Robbie Robertson on the first album he's
made since the demise of the Band more than a decade ago – but he's not talking about the
ghosts of "The Weight" or "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" or any of the other slices
of elemental backwoods rock he wrote while leading that outfit. The Band's music
sounded as if it had sprung out of some deep, unsettling North American subcon... More >

Once established as an icon of quality, he always took himself too seriously, and age has neither mellowed him nor wised him up. So now, casting about for a contemporary context, he hooks up with the two most sententious young artists of quality on the charts. Took some guts for such an unrepentant Americana-monger to risk Anglophobe wrath, but unfortunately, the mesh didn't take. Because whatever you think of Peter Gabriel and Bono Vox, you have to admit that unlike the old man they're a) idealistic, b) singers, and c) at no loss for context. (Grade: C+)