Contact from the Underworld of Redboy

Robbie Robertson

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 10, 1998)
• Original Release Date: March 10, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B00000634T
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #56,252 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
As on 1994's Music for the Native Americans, Contact from the Underworld of Redboy finds former Band leader Robbie Robertson incorporating Native American musical textures into ultramodern soundscapes. Once again, Robertson fares best when he turns the microphone over to his guests. Verdell Primeaux and Johnny Mike's "Peyote Healing" is almost otherworldly in its beauty, and political prisoner Leonard Peltier's guest rap on "Sacrifice" lends the record some legitimate political weight. In comparison, Robertson's mannered, overly processed vocals make songs like "In the Blood" sound like Don Henley attempting a Native American version of Paul Simon's album Graceland; one hopes that this wasn't exactly what he was trying for. --Dan Epstein

People
On Contact's finest tracks ... [Robertson] melds traditional Native American chants with searing guitar solos, up-to-the-second dance beats ... and haunting melodies.... Blessed with a keen pop sensibility and sexy whisper of a voice, Robertson energizes his heartfelt songs by capitalizing on both.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid., December 22, 2004

By	Paul Bridges (California) - See all my reviews

With some native american heritage myself, I've sampled a few artists (Nakai, etc). But I put this album and Robertson's "Music for Native Americans" together at the top of my "native american" list. It's traditionally influenced without being trite, modern without being too edgy. Thumbs up.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Emotional Absinthe, June 14, 2004

By	Fred McGhee "fredmcghee" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Better than therapy, lovelier than a summer rain, smoother than smoke, heart pounding like Bison, sentimental like a first kiss, tougher than leather, rapturous like love. Robbie Robertson delivers once again. This album does the very difficult: it communicates an authentic sense of culture and history without beating you upside the head, while also being totally OPEN and embracing to outside influence. This music communicates its history to you in simultaneously subtle and overt ways (just like most Indigenous people do in person), and speaks to your head and heart at the same time.

And for good measure, it also gets you off your ass and gets you dancing. Now what could be better than that?

For God's sake Robbie, you've made us wait long enough! Give us another album already!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Neo-Traditional Aspects of Sound, November 10, 2003

By	Come Again Moon (United States) - See all my reviews

*****

This music is as free and uncontainable, as the Spirit of the indigeonous peoples of Turtle Island.

With precise skill and Creativity, Robbie Robertson, again, steps from the roll of performer, to take his place beside the likes of Paul Simon, as one of today's most profound producers in the music industry.

Contact From The Underworld of Red Boy, is yet another level of Sacred Spirit manifested into the physical, through the inner worlds of Robbie Robertson.

"Sacrifice," with Leonard Peltier, is a welcomed and needed reminder of the fast-shrinking rights and liberties of every man woman and child, of this great land and I'm glad to have this paticular cut, to pass on, to those who need to hear "one of a million stories."

This album is blessed with Traditional Ceremony and charged with enough techno-fun, to carry the soul, easily, between the worlds of heaven and Earth. I find Robbie's musical transcendence, a joy to experience.

Steamy and haunting, like the inipi ceremony.

Hey Robbie, is it hot in here, or is it just YOU!

In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse,
Mitakuye Oyasin
Come Again Moon