I can’t remember the last time I was blown away by a musical act that I saw on a network TV show, but tonight after watching them on the David Letterman, I became a fan of Robert Randolph and the Family Band and their funk/gospel sound.r
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Here’s what Rolling Stone has to say about Robert Randolph and the Family Band: r
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“In 2000, Robert Randolph took his pedal steel guitar out of the House of God church in Orange, New Jersey, where he had perfected his craft, and across the river to the New York nightclubs. The mostly self-taught instrumentalist developed a new repertoire: He began re-purposing gospel jubilees and hymns and organized the music around his justifiably lengthy solos — which transformed the boxy pedal steel, that weepy staple of Nashville ballads, into a lightning bolt of heart-stopping pure tone. Within months, the Family Band, which includes two of Randolph’s cousins, was exploring Hendrix and old-school funk in performances that retained the zealous evangelism of Sunday services while celebrating more carnal pleasures.
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“Unclassified, Randolph’s first major-label studio effort, achieves that same elusive balance via a series of rumbling funk vamps and blues evocations. Now seeking transcendence through the almighty bomp, Randolph sings expressions of devotion to a lover or a higher power (such as “Nobody,” which culminates in a revival-tent roar) with a believer’s conviction, then relies on his wailing, writhing, soaring-at-eagle-altitude guitar lines to bring his point home. The material isn’t terribly ambitious—the shoop-shooping “I Need More Love” is little more than a looped refrain—but that hardly matters. Like his influence the Meters, Randolph squeezes truth from everything he touches, proving again the old adage: It’s not the song, it’s what you do with it that counts.”