Robbie Robertson

Storyville,' the second solo album by Robbie Robertson, the former guitarist and main
songwriter for the Band, is an imaginative and spiritual journey, with New Orleans as its
inspiration. The album takes its title from a section of the city once known, in Robertson's
words, for its dedication to "fast living, hot music and moonburnt nights." But the album also
trades profitably on the metaphoric meanings of its title, because Storyville is its... More >

Robertson's unctuous undertone is the voice of a two-bit hustler who's discovered the big lie--the good and the beautiful, rapture and immortality, my BMW's in the shop, of course I'm not married, I can't wait to go down on you. It's disheartening that people whose age and wisdom approach my own are fussing over his New Orleans "concept"--a posse of L.A. studio hacks augmented by a few ringers and the kind of second-line once-removed horn charts the Band was hiring 20 years ago. The '70s are over, gang. Now let's dispense with the '80s. (Grade: C)