Jaime Royal Robertson

Jaime Royal "Robbie" Robertson was born in Toronto, Ontario, to a Cayuga and Mohawk mother and a Jewish father. He learned guitar on the Six Nations Reserve and joined rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins' backing group The Hawks as a teenager. In 1965, Bob Dylan recruited The Hawks as his backing band for his epochal, electrified world tour.

Renaming themselves The Band, the group released revolutionary albums including Music from Big Pink (1968) and The Band (1969), pioneering the Americana genre with earthy harmonies and mythic storytelling. Robertson authored their most famous anthems, including "The Weight" and "Up on Cripple Creek." In 1976, their farewell concert was immortalized in Martin Scorsese's masterpiece documentary The Last Waltz. Robertson enjoyed a celebrated solo career and worked as Scorsese's frequent film composer and music producer, earning a posthumous Oscar nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon.