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Robert Randolph

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Released: Jan 1, 2010
Label: Warner Bros.

General Info

  • Genre: Funk / Rock / Soul

    Location Morristown, New Jersey, Un

    Profile Views: 1232838

    Last Login: 4/6/2013

    Member Since 11/8/2005

    Website www.robertrandolph.net

    Type of Label Unsigned

  • Bio

    Robert Randolph ~ We Walk This Road Artist Notes This record is a celebration of African-American music over the past one hundred years and its social messages from the last thirty. Although we cover a whole timeline of different eras on We Walk This Road, what ties these songs together remain their message of hope, their ability to uplift. After we finished our last record, Colorblind, we began searching for a great producer to help guide the follow up. We wanted someone who understood me and the road I’ve walked this far, who understood our connections of my roots within rock and gospel and the church, who would help us put those things in their most compelling context. T Bone Burnett shared the vision of how gospel, blues and rock could be put together in a way that could relate to my history and connect to my present. It was important to us that we make the record we wanted to make, even if the end result was unclassifiable. We just focused on making great songs and great music that spoke to me, and that reflected the way I try to speak to the world. We recorded We Walk This Road over about two years, after T Bone had finished his record with Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. We went into the studio with virtual libraries of songs, whole volumes worth of material to go through. T Bone brought in old archival songs from the twenties and thirties and many of them were in the public domain. I had songs that I had written with the band, or that other artists had sent me, and we sat down and starting sifting through history. When we found something we liked, we would either cover it or re-work it using our own words or melodies. Through this creation came an education. T Bone opened a lot of doors for me serving as a link between the past and the present. 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, in the same way that Hendrix took Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” and made it belong to him. T Bone listens to music that our grandmothers would listen to as children–not even music that our fathers listened to, but songs that go even further back...some from Gospel and Christian blues, the music that people working in fields across the south likely sang nearly a century ago. Those are the real roots of rock and roll, where everything else comes from. I was only allowed to listen to modern Christian and gospel music growing up, so there was so much I didn’t know about. My mind is expanded now. The record is finished and I still feel as if I’m not done. I’ve spent over $5,000 on iTunes in the past eighteen months just catching up. Before this record, I didn’t sift through music past the Seventies. I didn’t know about Blind Willie Johnson, or Chess Records. I thank T Bone for being a tour guide into the deepest parts of my musical roots. We connected the last one hundred years of African-American music in the way people used to: You write your own songs, you cover other people’s material, you re-work older songs. We had some amazing people come in to help. Leon Russell came by to hang out and wound up playing piano on the last track, “Salvation.” Ben Harper plays guitar and sings on “If I Had My Way.” The base of that song came from Blind Willie Johnson, and it was really difficult to get right. It was a country tune for a while. I had honestly given up on it. But Ben came down and said, “Let me get in there! I know just what to do!” He went in there and smoked the choruses, and I thought, “Now we’ve got a tune.” It’s one of my favorite songs on the record. Where We’ve Been I grew up in the House of God church. The pedal steel was a big part of our church tradition. I grew up watching older guys play, and I started playing when I was fifteen. When I was nineteen, someone gave me tickets to a Stevie Ray Vaughan concert. After that, I wanted to play pedal steel like Stevie Ray played his guitar. I wanted to take another path than the people who played traditional pedal steel to take it to a whole new level. We started playing and touring around New York City in 2000, playing clubs like Wetlands, and things started to take off. We were selling out large New York clubs with no record deal, and it started to spread to Philly and Boston. Soon, we signed to Warner Brothers, and word began to get around about us nationally. Great artists like Eric Clapton and Dave Matthews and B.B. King accepted us. Young artists, too: we toured with the Roots and Pharrell and John Mayer. We have been fortunate to be accepted by a wide range of fan bases, and we have been able to build from there. I definitely feel as if everything has been working up to this moment, to this record. Where We’re Going I’m very excited to play these tracks live. Those people who have been our fans and followers should see the progression from our last record to this one, and the road we’ve taken won’t seem too foreign to them. When people come to see us, they know that it’s really about the message, about making them feel good. Hopefully, this record will inspire them in the same way. It certainly makes me feel happy. I can’t see myself recording depressing lyrics, lyrics that leave people without a sense of hope. It’s not in me to use the power of the microphone to make music like that. That’s why this record is uplifting - it’s got great messages. It’s all there. My goal is to open the door for people, in the same way that musical doors have been opened for me. I want to take this musical history and make it relevant to give people a better idea of who I am and where I came from. I think even though I’m a young guy who was born into the era of hip-hop and contemporary gospel, I can help bridge the cultural gap between people who are seventy-five years old and kids who are fifteen years old by reaching back into this history of music. We Walk This Road was done in our belief in what we all need right now: young voices saying something positive without preaching in hopes of inspiring people. When you stick to what you believe in, and with the roots of where you come from, things will always work out.
  • Members

    Robert Randolph, Danyel Randolph, Lenesha Randolph, Adam Smirnoff, Brett Haas
  • Influences

  • Sounds Like

Comments

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  • 9 days ago
  • Mark Mo

    Here's a new startup that's working on a great new music platform for musicians and customers worldwide:

    please have a look and spread the news!

    http://bit.ly/YQjlG6

    You can also find them on facebook: http://facebook.com/startuponline
    or twitter: http://twitter.com/inter_netprofit
    or here with a "Swiss Special: http://spezielle-geschenke.com

    5 months ago
  • Richard Harris


    SPEAK OUT AGAINST INJUSTICE AND TYRANNY Robert!
     

    "JACKSON'S LOVE - FOR THE LOVE OF A CHILD" - MY BRAND NEW CD - HAS JUST BEEN RECORDED - WATCH FOR IT SOON @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    TODAY'S THOUGHT IS ABOUT SPEAKING OUT ...

    "First they came for the COMMUNISTS, and

    I did not SPEAK OUT --  because I was NOT A COMMUNIST;

    Then they came for the SOCIALISTS, and

    I did not SPEAK OUT -  because I was NOT A SOCIALIST;

    Then they came for the TRADE UNIONISTS, and

     I did not SPEAK OUT - because I was NOT A TRADE UNIONIST

    Then they came for the JEWS, and

     I did not SPEAK OUT - because I was NOT A JEW;

    Then they CAME FOR ME - and

    there was NO ONE LEFT TO SPEAK OUT FOR ME."

    ~ Pastor Martin Niemoller - A prisoner at the Dachau
       Concentration Camp

    STAND UP AND SPEAK OUT!  DON'T EVER LET

    THE VOICE OF FREEDOM BE SILENCED!

    With LOVE, RESPECT, and PEACE my friend,

    Richard

    www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    Please take a minute and give my music a listen!

    MY ALBUM "LOVE'S SWEET SONG" HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A WAMMIE AWARD AS JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR! LISTEN TO SOME SWEET SOUNDS - AVAILABLE @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    6 months ago
  • Facebook Promoter

    Hey Robert Did you know that theres a New website called Musicpoof.com that can get you 298,000 Myspace friends and visitors to your website...they got me and Jonny 205,000 friends yesterday.......i left you with the link Let me know if it still works for you.......if not i will just send it to your inbox

    www.Musicpoof.com

    6 months ago
  • Richard Harris


    Do you TRUST this man Robert?
     

    "JACKSON'S LOVE - FOR THE LOVE OF A CHILD" - MY BRAND NEW CD - HAS JUST BEEN RECORDED - WATCH FOR IT SOON @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    TODAY'S THOUGHT IS ABOUT MITT ROMNEY'S AMERICA ...

    "I'm not concerned about the very poor."

    "Corporations are people."

    "My job is not to worry about those people.  I’ll never
    convince them they should take personal responsibility
    and care for their lives."

    ~ Mitt Romney

    IF A FREE SOCIETY CANNOT HELP THE MANY WHO ARE

    POOR, IT CANNOT SAVE THE FEW WHO ARE RICH!

    ~ John F. Kennedy

    With LOVE, RESPECT, and PEACE my friend,

    Richard

    www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    Please take a minute and give my music a listen!

    MY ALBUM "LOVE'S SWEET SONG" HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A WAMMIE AWARD AS JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR! LISTEN TO SOME SWEET SOUNDS - AVAILABLE @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    6 months ago
  • Richard Harris


    All That We Are is Because of What We Think Robert!
     

    "JACKSON'S LOVE - FOR THE LOVE OF A CHILD" -  MY BRAND NEW CD - HAS JUST BEEN RECORDED - WATCH FOR IT SOON @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    TODAY'S THOUGHT IS ABOUT TRANSFORMING ENERGY ...

    “Don't hold on to ANGER, HURT or PAIN.

    They STEAL YOUR ENERGY and keep you from LOVE.

    Learn to TRANSFORM the NEGATIVE FORCES in your

    life into POSITIVE ENERGY and PRODUCTIVE ACTION."

    ENERGY AND PERSISTENCE CONQUER ALL THINGS!

    With LOVE, RESPECT, and PEACE my friend,

    Richard

    www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    Please take a minute and give my music a listen!

    MY ALBUM "LOVE'S SWEET SONG" HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A WAMMIE AWARD AS JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR! LISTEN TO SOME SWEET SOUNDS - AVAILABLE @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    8 months ago
  • Mad Mike Borton

    EXCITED!!! I'm goin to see ya in Eugene 08-21-2012 dude... R u ready to rock?.. know ya R... madmikeTV

    8 months ago
  • Richard Harris


    What are YOU LOOKIN' AT Robert?
     

    I AM RECORDING A NEW ALBUM THIS MONTH - WATCH FOR IT @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    TODAY'S THOUGHT IS ABOUT A FUNNY BABY ...

    That's right ~ COME AT ME BRO ...

    I've got something for ya ....

    I'll hit you so with so many LEFTS that

    you'll BEG for a RIGHT!

    HAVE A GOOD LAUGH TODAY!

    A DAY WITHOUT LAUGHTER IS A DAY WASTED!

    With LOVE, RESPECT, and PEACE my friend,

    Richard

    www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    Please take a minute and give my music a listen!

    MY ALBUM "LOVE'S SWEET SONG" HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR A WAMMIE AWARD AS JAZZ ALBUM OF THE YEAR! LISTEN TO SOME SWEET SOUNDS - AVAILABLE @ www.RichardHarrisLive.com

    9 months ago
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