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Growing up an inner-city child in Irvington, New Jersey where he was born on December 20, 1980, Robert Randolph led a double life. “I wasn’t really bad, just a wise guy kid,” he confesses. “I did a lot of knuckleheaded things. I sold some drugs; I beat some kids up, street gang stuff.”
Luckily, Randolph was also active in the black Pentecostal Church of God where, from his early teens, he has perpetuated the tradition of the pedal steel guitar, an affordable pipe organ substitute whose “sacred steel” music has been a central part of religious services for eighty years.
By chance, in 1998, Randolph was given a tape of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s greatest hits. “I was like, whoa! This is what I want to learn, right here,” exclaims Randolph reliving that revelation. Inspired, he applied the passion and invention of Vaughan’s playing to the pedal steel guitar, radically redefining its language and dynamic range.
In a maverick move, he also rescued the instrument’s voice from the sheltered confines of the pews and pulpits of Sunday morning worship and let it shout out to the secular Saturday night of mainstream America. Randolph’s defining moment came at the first annual Sacred Steel Convention in Winter Park, Florida in 2000 where the joyful noise of his string-fretting wizardry burned with a fervour that could not be ignored. Within a year, he had performed on the highly acclaimed instrumental blues-gospel album The Word and was playing gigs in New York City with the Family Band, cousins Marcus Randolph (drums) and Danyel Morgan (bass).
To date, they have released three albums of “rockspell,” an exultant fusion of gospel message, blues feel, rock edge and Sly Stone funk. Colorblind, their most recent, features top-notch musicianship, Randolph’s development as a quality song writer and superstar guests.
Highlights of Randolph’s wild and wonderful excursions include stealing the 2004 Grammy Award show, opening for Clapton’s tour the same year and regular appearances at the Bonnaroo Music Festival. #97 on Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitar Players of all Time list, he has stormed all three of Clapton’s Crossroad Guitar Festivals.
Randolph aspires to be a positive role model for other African Americans. “The main thing music is missing is the full-on honesty,” he says critically. “My musical vision is to remind people that you have to enjoy life. You have to love one another. Life is a party while we are here on earth.”
Randolph has also come to realize that the spirit that informs blues and gospel music have much in common. It’s how you channel it that really matters. “I still have those teachings, to be able to go out and play guitar and write songs and make records and tour and give some of the celebration of life to people who are down and out,” he says with obvious pride.
Rambunctious blues celebration or euphoric churchy jubilation, call it what you want. When Robert Randolph & the Family Band hit the stage it’s going to be a blood-pumping, goose bump-raising, smoking good time! www.robertrandolph.net
Ken Wright
