Robert Randolph (guitarist)
| Robert Randolph and the Family Band | |
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Randolph in 2016
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Orange, New Jersey, United States |
| Genres | Funk, soul, jam, gospel |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Labels | Sony Masterworks, Warner Bros. |
| Associated acts | The Revivalists, The Word |
| Website | www |
| Members | Robert Randolph Marcus Randolph Lenesha Randolph Brett Haas |
| Past members |
John Ginty Jason Crosby Danyel Morgan |
Robert Randolph and the Family Band is an American funk and soul band led by pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph (Robert Jermaine Randolph, born August 8, 1977, Irvington, New Jersey). Other band members include drummer Marcus Randolph, vocalist Lenesha Randolph, Ray Ray Randolph (bass) and Brett Haas (guitar). Danyel Morgan (bass), Jason Crosby (keyboards and fiddle) and John Ginty (organ) are former members. Rolling Stone included Robert on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. The band also plays before every Friday-night New York Knicks basketball game.
Frontman Robert Randolph was trained as a pedal steel guitarist in the House of God Church and makes prominent use of the instrument in the band's music. The instrument is referred to in many African-American Pentecostal churches as "sacred steel". Randolph was discovered while playing at a sacred steel convention in Florida.
The group's sound is inspired by successful 1970s funk bands such as Earth, Wind & Fire and Sly & the Family Stone. Randolph himself has explained that in his adolescent years before being discovered by the secular community, he was almost completely unaware of non-religious music, saying "I never heard of The Allman Brothers Band, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, none of them. I wasn't into that music, only the church thing."
Before releasing albums with The Family Band, Randolph was selected by avant-garde jazz organist John Medeski to join him and the North Mississippi Allstars on their 2001 jam project, The Word. Just prior to the release of The Word's debut album, Randolph was brought to the attention of music fans through a review by Neil Strauss in the New York Times in April 2001. On their first non-church tour of the East Coast, Randolph's new Family Band opened for the North Mississippi Allstars and then rejoined the musicians after their set, with Medeski, as The Word.
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