The Band

Clairvoyant peek inside Robbie Robertson

Clairvoyant peek inside Robbie Robertson | Toronto Star It took a while — a long while — before Robbie Robertson was ready to address the topics in songs on How to Become Clairvoyant.       Nick Krewen Special to the Star Published on Mon Mar 28 2011 Thirteen years between albums may seem like ages, but it’s not as though Robbie Robertson has been idle. Prior to this Tuesday’s…


Ryuichi Sakamoto works with giants and with glaciers

Composer found music even in the frigid waters of the Arctic Sea.  Nick Krewen Special to the Star, Mon Oct 25 2010 Over 80 albums and 32 years, revered Japanese cultural icon Ryuichi Sakamoto — who made a rare Toronto concert appearance Sunday at the Queen Elizabeth Centre — has dabbled in a lot of genres. Since he graduated from his electronic music studies at Tokyo’s University of Art, Sakamoto,…


Toronto’s transit of venues (or, weep not for the bop)

Veteran rock writer Nick Krewen takes a tour through defunct Toronto concert venue history – from the ’60s in Yorkville, to the subsequent decades when the action was mostly around Yonge St., to the rise and apparent decline of Queen St. W.  Nick Krewen and Garnet Fraser Published on Sun Jan 03 2010 On Queen St. W., the concert scene is changing, and it’s leaving some fretful. Hard-rock hangout the Big…


Summers at Six Nations

  Where Robbie Robertson Learned To Play At The Feet Of His Mohawk Cousin   NICK KREWEN Hamilton Spectator October 6, 1994   TORONTO:  As a kid growing up in Toronto, Jamie Robbie Robertson had little interest and awareness in music. That all changed at the age of 11, when Robertson, who would later co-found The Band, started spending his summer vacations visiting relatives at the Six Nations Reserve just…


Robbie Robertson’s Music For Native Americans

 NICK KREWEN Special To The Hamilton Spectator Thursday, March 12, 1998     TORONTO:  In 1994, Robbie Robertson embraced his Native heritage with the documentary soundtrack album Music For The Native Americans. He continues the exploration of his roots with his latest album, Contact From The Underworld Of Red Boy — released this past Tuesday — but says that this album is much more personal. “It isn’t a sequel to…