Photo by Dean Budnick
When Robert Randolph & the Family Band released their 2003 studio debut, it couldn’t have been titled more appropriately. Unclassified brought the pedal steel player to a wide audience that grew with choice spots for the band’s music including promos for the NBA.
Fourteen years later, Randolph has done it again. His fifth studio effort, Got Soul, perfectly references his church background as a Sacred Steel musician as well as his ability to seamlessly bring together soul, blues, funk, gospel and rock.
On a more basic level, the name of the new album draws from the title track and the song, “She Got Soul.” Talking about that element of musician’s spirit, Randolph said, “People like Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, Elvis and the Stones, they were all in tune with their soul. When you’re digging deep in your soul, you can always find originality. People got soul everywhere.”
Growing up in Orange, New Jersey Randolph learned his exceptional skills on pedal steel at House of God Church. By 2000 he was ready to branch out into the secular world and wowed audiences as well as musicians in the New York area. Soon, he was opening for North Mississippi Allstars and was invited to join members of NMAS and John Medeski as the gospel instrumental jam act, The Word.
Randolph followed that with seven releases – two live, five studio – countless live dates with the Family Band and shared stages and recording appearances with Eric Clapton, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Dave Matthews Band, Santana, Ringo Starr and Buddy Guy among others.
Got Soul his first album in four years should earn him as much praise for his songs as he has long earned for his playing. The record also features guest vocalists Anthony Hamilton (“She Got Soul”), Darius Rucker (“Love Do What It Do”) and Snarky Puppy’s Cory Henry on a cover of the Sam & Dave classic “I Thank You.”
As Randolph explains during our conversation, his music aims to inspire people with positive sounds and lift their spirits. Got Soul moves in that direction.
JGP: Your new album’s on Sony Masterworks. I hear that name and think of classical music, but when I looked at the roster, there’s much more to it than that. Still, why did you sign to this particular label?
RR: There’s a guy there named Chuck Mitchell, who took over the label. Sony Masterworks has now become one of these true rock, bluesy Americana labels. They let the artist have their own creative way with the label as well. It’s kind of one shared vision of solid music. Everybody there is on the same page. We just clicked right away. It really happened. It was a great time hanging with those guys.
JPG: At first when I noticed this is your first album in four years, I thought “Wow! That’s a long time. Usually bands don’t have such a long break,” but a release every three to four years is normal for you.
RR: Well, you know it’s funny, man. What’s weird is all three of my last records all of the labels I was on had basically either fired the president or fired 90% of the staff or something right after I put the records out. (Laughs) It happened when I was at Warner Bros. It happened with the Colorblind record. They got rid of a bunch of staff. Then, we had to wait a long time. Then, the T-Bone Burnett record, We Walk This Road ,” that we put out. Right that week that record came out the head of the label got let go. The last record which we did [ Lickety Split ] , which was on Blue Note, the same thing sort of happened. They’re part of the Capitol Music Group but it changed directions with what they wanted to do a month after the record came out, too.
I had let Sony know. They were like, “Well, you know the last couple of records didn’t sell well.” I was like, “Yo, they fired the staff.” It wasn’t just me. It was a bunch of other artists. It happened to Warren Haynes. Warren Haynes was at Blue Note, too. When I was at Warner Brothers, My Chemical Romance and a bunch of other bands, it happened to everybody there.
Little ol’ me got caught in that stage three times. Sony was just a great group of people to talk to. We all shared the vision of keep putting out music and keep putting out content because through all these years, there definitely hadn’t been enough music and enough content. So, we really got the ball rolling with those guys.
JPG: But you still got exposure. I remember the NBA used one of your songs for promos. “Going in the Right Direction?”
RR: Well, sports people like to use a bunch of upbeat music, and I’m a sports guy. I guess what they do, more so now than ever, they’re trying to look for positive artists and positive message and everything else. I’m always going to fit in that category. I’m always at sporting events anyway — hockey, baseball, basketball, football and so forth. A lot of those people are music fans.
JPG: On a side note, I might be afraid to ask this, but your favorite hockey team is…
RR: (laughs) Rangers
JPG: Yes. Robert I love you (laughs). Longtime Rangers fan here.
RR: I just got into hockey back in 2004. I tell everybody, first of all, a hockey playoff game is the most stressful freakin’ event you can find. Whether you’re there or whether you’re watching it on TV, it is nerve-wracking. My God ! Even more so than a baseball pitch because baseball is like the guy’s on base…hockey is like if the puck goes in the net, that’s it. (laughs) And it all happens so fast.
JPG: Turning back to music, I read the Billboard article where you described this album as a return to your roots as a church musician in New Jersey. In what ways because I feel that’s always been a part of you?
RR: Well, it always has but it’s just more so now than ever; being really comfortable in who we are and the sounds that we make and the message. It all has to do with the timing of what’s going around in the world, and when you look at all the other musicians and all the other artists, you just go like, “This is exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.”
I’ve been on other labels. I get together with people and you write songs and you do these things and they go, “Let’s stray more towards this and…” “Hey man, that ain’t what I do. Call somebody else for that.” I’m here to inspire people, make people dance, make people happy, create this rock and roll church experience for people. That’s what it’s really about.
When you really look at it, when you look at how we came into the scene, we were just innocent church guys. I didn’t know anything about rock ‘n’ roll, blues, none of that music. We played in church our whole lives, grew up in the north New Jersey area. It’s just that our style of church music was very rock ‘n’ roll bluesy anyway. And what’s funny is almost all of the songs that we’ve done; that I’ve recorded over the years, almost all of that stuff has been taken from elements of church or some old church tape that I was watching. “I Need More Love,” “Ted’s Jam,” all those things we would play in church.
There’s been plenty of other songs on other records, same kind of thing. What’s weird is that’s like my library of music, all of these thousands of church tapes. These things are like gold for us because all of those guys that I grew up watching, a bunch of them are dead now, but all of the guys that I grew up watching that’s the Muddy Waters, that’s the Hendrix and all that.
JPG: What role did The Word play?
A lot of people don’t know that The Word was actually a tribute to the sacred steel tradition. That’s what it originally did, what it was. When the story started to get out, Medeski, and the North Mississippi Allstars, they’re like, “Hey man, let’s do a gospel style record like this.” At the time, I was like 20 years old or something. They had heard that I was starting to play out. They were like, “Hey, let’s get this guy.”
Because what happened, our church’s history, the reason that it never got it was because the older guys were never allowed to play outside of the church. For many of those guys, that’s all they knew. I was just a young guy at the time. I’m like, “I’m stepping out.” This is a much bigger thing than to be hiding amongst all these people here for 100 years…
JPG: Now, people have discovered Sacred Steel that probably never would have.
RR: Oh yeah. Santana and those guys told me and Clapton, “When we first heard this music, we were like what the hell is this?” And it’s influenced Clapton, Derek Trucks, all these guys, Santana. That’s really what it meant.
It creates a conversation that I had with Carlos Santana. He was like, “Look man, you’re the guy. You’re the guy who’s always bringing this positive church, slide guitar, rock and roll sound to the thing. That’s what you do. Just like I’m the guy that makes Latin music sound, it’s actually African music, but I make it sound Latin and rock ‘n’ roll and sexy, man.”
It’s just one of those things where you know that I’m the guy that’s always gotta provide these messages and outlook. And you look around the world today, man, and what’s going on, thank God for this record.
JPG: It’s funny you mention that because I was going to ask you about feeling a responsibility to be positive during these times. Is that on your shoulders and you are ready and willing to run with it?
RR: Well, of course, I would. I feel that especially in this time, it’s very contradicting and very confusing to people when you look around today and see all of these music artists and they’re speaking up against something. Well, hell. What type of music are you making, man? How you gonna speak up now when all the music that you makin’ is shooting and killin’ and all these other things, disrespecting women and men and all this kind of stuff?
JPG: So, you think they should be making more positive music to go along with their views?
RR: I tell you what. If you go back to the ‘70s and the ‘60s, all those guys were stepping up — Marley, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder — these were the biggest artists in the world. Michael Jackson did it with every single record he did. These are the biggest artists and now everybody’s like, “Hey, I’m going to come out and tweet this. I’m gonna to say this.” Then, they want to go back and make some sort of degrading music.
JPG: For yourself with all the mess-ups with the record companies, and we were just referring to the crazy times we live in, how do you stay positive? Is there anything that you lean on? Is it a struggle for yourself to stay that way?
RR: Man, to be honest with you, I live a good life. Life is short, it’s also long. (laugh) If you allow all these things to really bother you…I grew up a church guy and I already know what the end is and, really, what life is about, and it’s really about us helping one another and picking each other up.
So, if I get depressed, I become one less person who’s joining the depression movement instead of using the voice…Almost every show, I get some kids, some old lady, some middle-aged person, whatever, going, “Man, I just feel so good. This music…thank God for you.” That’s really what it’s about, being an example. That’s all we have is to be an example for someone else. Kids look up to us. Kids look up to me. Other people do when they having hard times. I get it all the time. “Man, your music got me through the day today.” It’s kinda what it is.
JPG: Listening to the new album sure picked me up, especially the opening songs, the title track and “She Got Soul.”
RR: What’s funny is that whole segment of “Got Soul” and “She Got Soul” is taken from an idea if you walked into our church; you would feel that whole segment. You would go outta one thing right into the other; both songs kind of go together. It’s a whole scene where a singer would be playing and here comes the preacher man going, (sings) “Now…wait a minute.”
JPG: speaking of singing, what led you to bring in Anthony Hamilton, Darius Rucker and Cory Henry? Did they say, “Hey Robert, if you ever need a vocalist call me” or did someone suggest them?
RR: I’ve known Darius Rucker for 10 years. What’s funny is we’ve never made music together but we always talked and hung out in Nashville, talked sports ‘cause he’s a big sports guy. He’s a Carolina Gamecocks fan and I’m an Alabama fan. So, we’ve been talking smack about that for God knows how long every college football year. Between Darius and Anthony Hamilton, I’ve known those guys for so long.
What’s funny is “Love Do What It Do” was the last song I wrote on the record, man. We had actually tracked 10 songs and we took a break ‘cause we had a show down in Nashville and we were supposed to come back and spend another two days to record and finish another three songs. So, we had a day off on a Friday in Nashville. One of my buddies said, “Hey, what are you doing?” I said, “Nothing.” “Let’s just get together and see if we could write a song.” I was like, “Alright, I’m not doing nothin’ anyway.” We went over there in the morning, started jamming together, sitting on the porch. Next thing you know, out came that song. We laid the demo down and everything. I tried to sing it. “I can’t sing that way.” I let my sister sing it or one of my other cousins sing it, too. Then, I was like, “It’s got a country twang to it but it got to be a soulful country guy, somebody with soul because we the record is Got Soul. Darius came out to be the perfect choice that we agreed on. I called him up. I sent him the song. He was like, “Hey, I’m down. I’m ready.” It was cool.
JPG: I know you play more than pedal steel so when you write, are you writing on a six-string guitar or pedal steel or piano? How does it come about?
RR: All of the songs on this record, I wrote on the pedal steel. There’ve been songs in the past that I wrote on regular guitar or acoustic but all these songs on this record, I wrote on lap steel, pedal steel guitar.
JPG: Was there a reason for that or you wanted to use that instrument more than the others?
RR: No. Throughout the years, man, I had written songs on the acoustic guitar and we might record it with acoustic guitar. Then it’s like, “There’s hardly no steel guitar in here. Why?” “Well, shoot, I don’t know. I wrote the thing on…We recorded like that and, maybe, I overdubbed the pedal steel or something like that.
This one, we all got in a room. We played ‘em all. Went through ‘em all. It became this thing. You know what’s funny, man? This is like the first record since, “Live at the Wetlands,” that we play every song live. There’s been other records whether it’s “Unclassified” or “We Walk This Road,” people like, “How come you never play that song live?” “Oh shoot, I don’t know, man. Something don’t sound right when we do it.”
JPG: I enjoyed your cover of “I Thank You,” which is more in spirit to the original Sam & Dave version than the slow bluesy version by ZZ Top, which I heard so much while growing up on rock radio.
RR: What’s funny was Steve Jordan, the drummer, gave me the idea to record that song probably eight years ago. It’s always been, “Man, we’ve got to cut this song.” And finally, “Look. We got to do this song right. I’ve got to get Cory Henry. Let’s do it.” So, when we do it live, it will be like Sam & Dave with two young guys. He’s younger than me, organ virtuoso, keyboard virtuoso.
What’s funny about Cory Henry is, he had auditioned to be in the band back in 2009. He was just a teenager then and he had told me, “Yeah, man. I’ll come join the band and I could do this but I just got to fly back home on Sundays to be at church.” I was like, “Hey man. It’s not a game. We in L.A. What do you want us to do? Fly you back to New York for church mass? We got a festival on a Sunday. You want us to fly you all the way back home?” He was like, “I don’t know, man, maybe, I’m just too young.” “I don’t know young kid. You’ll figure it out sooner or later.”
JPG: What we’ve been talking about connects with this quote of yours. “We fit in the category of the jamband scene but it’s changed a lot…I’ve grown to like songs and I like to jam within the song.” That can be heard with Got Soul because they’re 12 solid songs that can be opened up to jamming.
RR: Oh yeah. That’s what we looked for, and that’s one of the great things with Sony. We probably had 20-something ideas and songs. They were like, “Let’s pick the best songs. Whenever you play live you can jam the hell out of it.”
The more and more I got into listening to all of the Grateful Dead stuff, it’s like, “Sheeesh, man! You guys have got like one thousand songs, man.” (laughs) Most people on the outside just go, “Oh, it’s just a jamband.” I’m like, “Man, these dudes got more songs, and their songs are the hardest damn songs to play.”
When I did a jam with Bob Weir at NAMM [National Association of Music Merchants], I was like, “Geez, man. These are some hard frickin’ songs you came up with. Who’s coming up with these changes?” It’s crazy. You don’t think they’re that hard until you start trying to play them. Then, you try to remember all that. You’re like, “Man, just tell when I’m supposed to solo.” (laughs)
JPG: How was that set?
RR: That was a jam for D’Angelico guitars and Bob was introducing his new signature guitar. It was a cool jam. According to one of the guys that was one of the best things he’d ever seen.
JPG: Did you get much chance to rehearse or were you just told what the songs were going to be and jump in whenever you wanted?
RR: After we were done Bob Weir was like, “Listen. Next time we’ll have a rehearsal and we’ll get it all together.” I was like, “I hope so because that was hard stuff to learn how to play. That’s a lot of stuff going on.” (laughs)
JPG: You started playing in New York in 2000, correct?
RR: The first thing we ever did was in 2000. We opened for the North Mississippi Allstars. That was the first show we ever played.
JPG: How has your approach to your career and desires with it has that changed from those early days to now? And if so, in what ways?
RR: We had come right out of church to play any place. Years go on and we were one of those bands that came into the jam scene and making records. We were on Warner Bros. and don’t get me wrong, Warner Bros. did a lot of great things for us but at that time the music industry started changing. Don’t forget there was no social media, and it changed so fast. Everybody had their bright ideas. “Maybe you should write a song with this guy” or “Maybe you should write a song with that guy. Maybe you should try this. Maybe you should try that.” And it was like, “Whoa! What are we doing, man?”
Time moves on. You get older. You get smarter. You really figure out what your niche is, and that’s who we are. I’m here to lift people’s spirits up – song, jam, all these different things. That’s the cool part about it.
