Robbie Robertson’s recorded output with his legendary band — that is, The Band — and his solo career would seem like different beasts on the surface. While The Band was known for its exploration of the various forms of American roots music — folk, country, and rhythm and blues — his solo recordings have aimed for a more expansive sound, incorporating electronic instrumentation, prog-rock arrangements, and even dance remixes. But beyond that, Robertson’s solo career actually follows a similar level of output as The Band: two good albums (or in the case of The Band’s first two, great albums), followed by a few more middling works, and then absolutely nothing for at least a decade. Eleven years passed between The Last Waltz and Robbie Robertson, and it was ten years this March that Robertson’s most recent record (Contact From the Underworld of Red Boy) came out. Don’t expect that drought to be broken any time soon: The only times in the last few years that Robertson has been attached to music was to help oversee The Band’s 2005 retrospective box set, and to make an abbreviated appearance at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads guitar festival last year.

Robertson’s solo career also follows a similar pattern as to his time both within The Band, and after their breakup: the pattern of being a flaming jag-off. How much a jerk you believe Robertson to be is usually inversely proportional to how much you like his former Band-mate, Levon Helm, since most of the more juicy tales about Robertson are tied to the decades-long feud between the two men.

-Both blame the other for the suicide of The Band’s Richard Manuel. Robertson blames Helm because Helm supposedly dragged Manuel along on the sans-Robertson incarnation of The Band, putting more pressure on the depressed and alcoholic Manuel until he got to the breaking point and hung himself in his Florida hotel room during a 1986 tour. Helm blames Robertson for breaking up The Band via his unilateral decision, and leading Manuel to be in no financial position to to afford proper treatment (since Robertson controlled almost all the songwriting and publishing royalties), and contends that re-forming The Band actually allowed Manuel to survive longer, regardless of his tragic end coming on tour. Robertson would eulogize Manuel on the opening track of his first solo album, “Fallen Angel” (download). (more…)

Various Artists - Largo (1998)
purchase this album

Before telling you how much I love this album, and how I’ve hung onto it since stumbling across it in a used bin in the spring of ‘98, I will tell you what it is:

1. A full-length tribute to Antonin Dvorak’s From the New World.
2. Mostly written by Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman, also known as the creative engine that drives the Hooters.
3. Featuring special guests including Cyndi Lauper and Joan Osborne.

So now that I’ve gotten that out of the way — and you’re probably thinking this is something you’d never want to hear — let’s talk about why Largo is better than it has any right to be. Let’s talk, first, about Dvorak. For the sake of making things easy for me, I’ll assume you know nothing at all about nineteenth-century classical composers, and begin by telling you that Dvorak was one. Specifically, he was a Czech nineteenth-century classical composer, which makes him seem like a bit of an odd choice for a ’90s pop tribute, but appearances can be deceiving. (more…)