Robert Randolph & the Family Band

By Debra Akins, contributing writer, gmclife.com

Some albums that come along are real treats, both musically and historically. It’s rare, but when it happens, you don’t want to miss it. We Walk This Road, the latest project by Robert Randolph and the Family Band, presents one of those opportunities that smart listeners will not let pass by.

The New York Times praises Randolph’s proficiency on the pedal steel guitar by applauding “his rip-roaring virtuosity and his gift for making his instrument sing without a word.” And this time around, Randolph was joined by legendary producer T Bone Burnett to assemble what Randolph describes as “a celebration of African-American music over the past one hundred years and its social messages from the last thirty.”

Throughout the two-year recording process of We Walk This Road, Randolph and Burnett uncovered songs decade-by-decade, ranging from blues and rock to field recordings and gospel, which were finally narrowed down to the album’s 11 tracks. Burnett uses old samples of standards like “Traveling Shoes” or “If I Had My Way” from artists like Blind Willie Johnson as “segues” into Randolph’s songs. The combinations are brilliantly matched.

“T Bone opened a lot of doors for me serving as a link between the past and the present,” Randolph explains. “He knows how to take something from the past and bring it into the present while still allowing the artist to make it his own... . I was only allowed to listen to modern Christian and gospel music growing up, so there was so much I didn’t know about. I thank T Bone for being a tour guide into the deepest parts of my musical roots.”

Some of the album’s highlights include “If I Had My Way” (featuring Ben Harper), “Salvation” (featuring Leon Russell) and reinterpretations of Prince’s “Walk Don’t Walk,” Bob Dylan’s “Shot of Love” and John Lennon’s “I Don’t Wanna Be A Soldier Mama.”

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