{"id":3043,"date":"2011-08-03T14:19:54","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T21:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3043"},"modified":"2011-08-03T14:19:54","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T21:19:54","slug":"robert-randolph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/robert-randolph\/","title":{"rendered":"ROBERT RANDOLPH"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

ROBERT RANDOLPH<\/h1>\n

Taking the pedal steel guitar on a journey into the past<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Chris Neal<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a kid, Robert Randolph\u2019s life revolved around the House of God church in Orange, N.J. And as a member of a strongly religious family, he was forbidden to listen to secular music. \u201cThe thing is, I did listen to secular music,\u201d he says with a chuckle. \u201cI grew up in church, but we lived in the inner city. We\u2019d play our church music, but we would sneak and listen to R&B and hip-hop music in those days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Randolph\u2019s musical education was mostly limited to gospel music. Even as he emerged from the church\u2019s \u201csacred steel\u201d tradition in the early 2000s (see sidebar<\/em>) and established himself as a musical force in the outside world, he was conscious that his experience with popular music extended no farther back than the1970s. A couple of years ago he undertook to correct that oversight once and for all. He and his Family Band\u2014bass player Danyel Morgan and drummer Marcus Randolph, both Randolph\u2019s cousins\u2014were ready for a break after seven years on the road, and Randolph took the opportunity to immerse himself in the last hundred years of African-American music. He listened to countless songs, with producer T Bone Burnett as his guide through the past. \u201cJust talking to him opened up my musical dream to a whole other universe,\u201d Randolph says.<\/p>\n

The result is Randolph\u2019s third studio album with the Family Band, We Walk This Road<\/em>. The songs encompass sources ranging from Blind Willie Johnson to John Lennon and Prince, all filtered through Randolph\u2019s own distinctive blend of rock, gospel, blues and R&B. Burnett and Randolph sought advice from friends like Robbie Robertson and former Warner Bros. Records president Lenny Waronker (the latter suggested that Randolph take on the\u00a0little-known Prince gem \u201cWalk Don\u2019t Walk\u201d), and brought in guests like Ben Harper, Leon Russell and master drummer Jim Keltner. \u201cI\u2019m glad I got the opportunity to talk to these guys,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause most people don\u2019t.\u201d We got the opportunity to talk to Robert Randolph during a break from tour rehearsals in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

What did T Bone bring to the record? <\/strong><\/p>\n

T Bone is such a musical historian. He listens to the old, original stuff. He would be listening to what Jimi Hendrix listened to\u2014Blind Willie Johnson, Howlin\u2019 Wolf,\u00a0all those dudes. In the South you had this blues stuff happening, and at the same time these guys came out of the church. They were just on the darker side. My grandma had stories about growing up listening\u00a0to that.<\/p>\n

Is there a fine line between gospel <\/strong>and blues?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early on, it was really all the same. Gospel is the good word, blues is feeling down\u00a0and out\u2014but it was all the same chord patterns. These guys rebelled against gospel, went to the juke joints and played blues and talked about the down things. \u201cI\u2019m feeling down, I\u2019m feeling blue.\u201d It\u2019s the total opposite of what the Southern Gospel churches were doing in those days. But if you listen to the chords, they\u2019re the same. That\u2019s where Ray Charles got his stuff. It\u2019s funny, Ray Charles took many songs from gospel\u2014it\u2019s literally the same song, he just changed the words. I grew up in church playing those songs.<\/p>\n

How did Ben Harper get involved? <\/strong><\/p>\n

We had played the Blind Willie Johnson version of \u201cIf I Had My Way,\u201d and that turned into a long jam that we kept trying to write to. I was texting Ben the whole time, saying, \u201cHey, man, we\u2019re right down the street\u00a0from your house! Are you in town?\u201d One\u00a0day he came down about 10:30 at night and we started jamming on this instrumental thing. In the middle of a break he said,\u00a0\u201cLet me hear some other stuff that you\u00a0might not have finished.\u201d We played the\u00a0Blind Willie Johnson thing, and Ben\u2019s\u00a0eyes lit up. He immediately went into the vocal booth and did those choruses in about 10 minutes. We sat down with T Bone\u00a0and [songwriter] Tonio K. and wrote all the verses to it, and we finally had this thing. It\u2019s a song we\u2019ll be singing for the next\u00a020 years.<\/p>\n

Do you always write through jamming? <\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s either-or for me. Sometimes if we\u2019re\u00a0at a soundcheck, somebody will do something and a melody or a chorus will come\u00a0to me and we\u2019ll build off that. Sometimes I\u2019ll just play and record myself. I may have\u00a0a melody in mind, but I don\u2019t ever write lyrics until I\u2019m either on a plane or in a car. It\u2019s\u00a0the weirdest thing.<\/p>\n

How did Leon Russell come to be on the record? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Leon had a meeting with T Bone the morning that we were finishing up the song \u201cBack to the Wall.\u201d T Bone mentioned he was working with me in the studio and Leon said, \u201cReally? I want to come down and meet him.\u201d So he came down and sat in the session while we were recording. We moved on to the next tune, and I said, \u201cHey, if you ain\u2019t doing nothing you might as well come on and play this tune with us.\u201d He was like, \u201cYeah!\u201d It turned out to be this beautiful song.<\/p>\n

How did you find the Prince song?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lenny Waronker and Mo Ostin ran Warner Bros. when Prince and Ry Cooder and all those guys were around. Lenny had been out of the music for a while, but he and\u00a0T Bone are buddies. T Bone said, \u201cHey,\u00a0why don\u2019t you come hang and help me work on this Robert Randolph record?\u201d Lenny and I talked about all these songs\u2014songs\u00a0I\u2019d written, songs he had. He said, \u201cYou know, there\u2019s this one old Prince song that fits you and the Family Band. A lot of\u00a0people don\u2019t even know it. Most people probably couldn\u2019t record it\u2014but you guys, this is what you stand for. The message is there, the vibe is there. It could be really electrifying.\u201d I listened to it and said, \u201cLet\u2019s try and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

How about John Lennon\u2019s \u201cI Don\u2019t Wanna Be a Soldier Mama\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the time when we were making the album, we would sit and watch the presidential debates and listen to the news about what was happening with Wall Street. All the lyrics on the album had something to do with what was going on\u2014we wanted to uplift people. T Bone came across that Lennon tune and I said, \u201cLet\u2019s record it.\u201d We went ahead and did it because it spoke to what\u2019s going on in the world today. Even though Lennon\u2019s version was probably meant to be anti-, we didn\u2019t want our version to be anti-, even though we\u2019re singing the same lyrics. It was more like, everybody\u2019s tired of all this stuff. I\u2019ve got three cousins over there in the Air Force right now. When you speak to them, it\u2019s like, \u201cWe\u2019re fighting, we want to win, but at the same time we want to come home.\u201d So it is what it is.<\/p>\n

What instruments did you play? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I wound up using a Weissenborn on the song \u201cDon\u2019t Change,\u201d as well as a 1956 Fender lap steel. There were four different pedal steels that I used. There was a lot going on.<\/p>\n

How about amps? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Fender just put out this new Bassman. It\u2019s\u00a0300 watts and has a 15-inch speaker in it. I use that one now.<\/p>\n

Do you often play regular guitar? <\/strong><\/p>\n

I played a little in the last couple of years I was in church. I started out playing steel guitar first. Being that a regular guitar is just so much more mobile, when you\u2019re traveling on tour buses for hours and hours year after year, it becomes something you pick up every day.<\/p>\n

What did you take away from the recording experience? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Making this record, there were years\u00a0spent with T Bone and Lenny Waronker, months spent with guys like Jim Keltner. Talking to Robbie Robertson every day,\u00a0being friends with Eric Clapton. If you go,\u00a0\u201cHey, man, this sounds like a radio tune!\u201d those guys will say, \u201cWhat\u2019s that? We just write and record songs\u00a0because they feel good. It\u2019s not about\u00a0radio or MTV.\u201d I had that constantly plowed into my head. I learned that you just work\u00a0on something until it gets great, and people will learn to love and appreciate that.\u00a0Elton John is sitting there looking at\u00a0me saying, \u201cWhat the hell is this? Where has this been all my life?\u201d That kind of stuff. Those guys are like, \u201cGee, where did you come from?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have a goal in mind? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The goal is to keep recording, keep making music. You can only do what you feel,\u00a0which is this thing that people fell in love\u00a0with from the beginning. As long as you stay true to yourself and keep that thing going, that\u2019s what will make our legacy grow.\u00a0People will hear something someday and say, \u201cHey, that sounds like Robert Randolph.\u201d Some kid who\u2019s 8 years old will hear\u00a0this and his musical brain will take him into another thing. That\u2019s what will keep\u00a0music going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ROBERT RANDOLPH Taking the pedal steel guitar on a journey into the past By Chris Neal As a kid, Robert Randolph\u2019s life revolved around the House of God church in Orange, N.J. And as a member of a strongly religious family, he was forbidden to listen to secular music. \u201cThe thing is, I did listen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[80,970,2283],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3045,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3043\/revisions\/3045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}