A NEW ROBERTSON ON `REDBOY' DISC; INDIAN SOUNDS MEET TRIP-HOP.

Byline: Fred Shuster Daily News Music Writer

It would be easy to dub the Band the greatest American rock group of all time - if only three of its members weren't Canadian.

You can't call the Band the greatest Canadian group, either, because one of the musicians was a Yank.

In any case, ex-Band singer, guitarist and principal songwriter Robbie Robertson, born in Toronto of Mohawk descent, isn't concerned about such things 22 years after the group called it quits.

However, he is looking back. Way back.

Robertson, who spent summers as a kid with relatives on the Six Nations Reservation in Canada, explores his American Indian background on his latest album, ``Contact From the Underworld of Redboy,'' which not only pays respects to the original roots music of North America but includes cutting-edge contributions from members of the European dance-club underground.

It's a stretch from Virgil Kane to remixer DJ Premier, but Robertson has crossed great divides before.

Critic David Hutcheon, writing in the British music mag Mojo, said ``Redboy'' includes ``some of the rawest and most adventurous work by its creator in 25 years.''

The album not only sheds light on certain dim musical corners but also seeks to bring the light of freedom to jailed American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier, featured on the track ``Sacrifice'' in a taped phone conversation from the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kan.

Peltier has been imprisoned since his 1976 conviction for the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

Robertson said he wrote a letter to President Clinton seeking clemency for the American Indian activist and got a response reporting that the case was under review by the Justice Department.

``When you get all the information on the case, it really makes you upset,'' Robertson, 53, said. ``Leonard Peltier doesn't deserve to be in prison. He never should have been sent there in the first place. Amnesty International has even declared him a Prisoner of Conscience.''

Not exactly. Roger Rathman, spokesman for Amnesty International USA, says the organization is calling for a new trial for Peltier but has stopped short of its Prisoner of Conscience designation.

``Amnesty International has asked for a new trial because the conditions of his trial have tremendous political overtones,'' Rathman said. ``He didn't get a fair trial, and we believe he should get a new trial. Peltier and Geronimo Pratt fell under the same concerns.''

Another stirring track on ``Redboy'' is ``The Sound Is Fading,'' which samples the plaintive voice of Leah Hicks-Manning, a 16-year-old member of the Paiute tribe when the Library of Congress source recording was made in 1942.

Hicks-Manning, later killed in a fire of suspicious origins, was the mother-in-law of American Indian activist poet John Trudell.

``I was following my instincts,'' Robertson explained. ``A lot of the creative process had to do with making a discovery and understanding how to share it with people. I knew I could do it in a real honest way.

``I thought people today would be more inclined to have open ears and hearts to what this record is dealing with. Ten or even five years ago, I couldn't have made this album. I don't think people were open to something like this.''

Robertson approached similar material in 1994 on ``Music for `The Native Americans,' '' which featured songs from the Robertson-scored soundtrack to the six-hour TBS documentary on American Indian history.

``That time, I had to make the music work for the film,'' Robertson said. ``I wanted the opportunity to approach this music with no boundaries and find out where it can really go.''

The new disc boasts a modern trip-hop-tinged sensibility, thanks to collaborations with such producers as Howie B (Bjork, Eno, Tricky and Massive Attack) and Marius de Vries (Bjork and Massive Attack) and remixer DJ Premier.

American Indian contributors include Rita and Priscilla Coolidge, opera singer Bonnie Jo Hunt, throat-singing duo Tudjaat and the Six Nations Women Singers.

PBS has shot an hourlong special, ``Robbie Robertson: Making a Noise,'' about the making of the album.

Robertson, who hasn't toured since the Band's ``The Last Waltz'' was filmed in 1976, is considering bringing ``Contact From the Underworld of Redboy'' to the concert stage.

``It's a matter of figuring out how it could be done, what the logistics might be,'' he said. ``It's complicated, but I've talked to some of the artists about it.''

Meanwhile, the Band - which backed Bob Dylan in the mid-'60s before creating such enduring album classics as ``Music From Big Pink,'' ``The Band'' and ``Stage Fright'' - continues to capture the imagination. Several books on the group have been published, but Robertson claims not to have read a single one all the way through.

``I did read 20 or 30 pages of one, and it was so unbelievably inaccurate,'' the Los Angeles-based musician said. ``The author was trying to do a good job, but there was so much guessing going on. He was writing about things that happened inside a room, and he wasn't there.''

Would Robertson, who produced soundtracks for the films ``Casino,'' ``Phenomenon,'' ``King of Comedy,'' ``Carny,'' ``The Color of Money'' and ``Raging Bull,'' ever consider an autobiography?

``It's been discussed, and I even spent time with a couple of writers,'' he said. ``But I couldn't stop what I was doing to give it the proper attention. Anyway, I'm not interested in writing a book that someone else ghostwrites. I want to do it myself, and the most interesting thing would be a book about my musical journey.''

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Photo: `I thought people today would be more inclined to have open ears and hearts to what this record is dealing with. Ten or even five years ago, I couldn't have made this album. I don't think people were open to something like this.'

Robbie Robertson

on ``Contact From the Underworld of Redboy''