Robbie Robertson

Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson OC (July 5, 1943 – August 9, 2023) was a Canadian musician, composer, and producer. Robertson was the onetime lead guitarist for Bob Dylan's backing band. He was also the guitarist and primary songwriter of the Band from its inception until his 1976 departure. In his later solo career, Robertson released six albums.

Robertson's work with the Band was instrumental in creating the Americana music genre. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Canadian Music Hall of Fame as a member of the Band; he was also inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame, both with the Band and on his own. Robertson is ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine's 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. He wrote "The Weight" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" with the Band and had a solo hit with "Somewhere Down the Crazy River". He was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Songwriters.

Robertson collaborated on film and television soundtracks, usually with director Martin Scorsese. His soundtrack work began with The Band's farewell rockumentary film The Last Waltz (1978) and included dramatic films such as Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), The Color of Money (1986), The Irishman (2019), and Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), the last of which was dedicated to his memory and garnered him a posthumous nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson was born on July 5, 1943. His mother, Rosemarie Dolly Chrysler, was born on February 6, 1922. Chrysler was Cayuga and Mohawk, and was raised on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve southwest of Toronto near Hamilton. Chrysler later lived with an aunt in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood of Toronto and worked at the Coro jewellery plating factory. She met James Patrick Robertson there and married him in 1942.

James and Rosemarie Robertson continued working at the Coro factory, and they lived in several Toronto neighbourhoods while Robbie Robertson was a child.: 55 : 65 An only child, Robbie Robertson often travelled with his mother to the Six Nations reserve to visit family. Here he was taught guitar, particularly by his older cousin Herb Myke. He became a fan of rock and roll and rhythm and blues through the radio, listening to disc jockey George "Hound Dog" Lorenz play rock on WKBW from Buffalo, New York, and staying up to listen to John R.'s all-night blues show on WLAC, a clear-channel station in Nashville, Tennessee.: 56 : 65–66

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.