ROBERT RANDOLPH & THE FAMILY BAND
''LICKETY SPLIT''
JULY 16 2013
50:43
1. Amped Up /3:18
2. Born Again /4:21
3. New Orleans /4:12
4. Take The Party [feat. Trombone Shorty] /4:10
5. Brand New Wayo [feat. Carlos Santana] /4:36
6. Lickety Split /4:03
7. Blacky Joe [feat. Carlos Santana] /5:51
8. Love Rollercoaster /3:13
9. All American /2:44
10. Get Ready /5:09
11. Welcome Home /6:12
12. Good Lovin' /2:54
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
For Robert Randolph & the Family Band, the three year break after 2010's somewhat stilted-sounding We Walk This Road was well deserved. By Randolph's own admission, their 280 date-per-year touring pace had taken its toll: playing music, let alone trying to find time to create it, had become a chore. Their Blue Note debut, Lickety Split, features an expanded FB lineup that includes vocalist Lenesha Randolph and guitarist Brett Haas; the group has gone back to its earliest recorded efforts for inspiration while furthering their new music considerably. The end result resembles their live sound more than any studio record in their catalog. Co-produced by the FB with Randolph's songwriting partners, it was primarily engineered and edited by Eddie Kramer, and mixed by Jim Scott. Opener "Amped Up" delivers the FB's trademark party-time meld of screaming hard rock, funk, gospel, blues, and R&B, all at full-tilt and in the raw. "Born Again" delivers the band's signature gospel message with celebration. The gorgeous call-and-response vocals between the Randolphs, and guest Bekka Bramlett, and the meaty, contrasting guitar interplay between Robert and Haas, are irresistible. Soul, Cajun-country, and gospel are at the heart of the dreamy yet earthy Lenesha-led, "New Orleans." Speaking of NOLA, Trombone Shorty lends his horn and energy to the gospelized, Crescent City-flavored stomp of "Take the Party." Carlos Santana makes two appearances here as well. On the driving funk of "Brand New Wayo," he delivers a fine, overdriven B.B. King nod when prompted by Randolph, while bassist Daniel Morgan lets his Bootsy freak flag fly and pushes the tune into the red. The rangy, pulsing hard rock gospel blues in the title track gets high marks for Randolph's tasty fills and the soulful vocal exchanges. The cover of the Ohio Players' "Love Rollercoaster" has its horns supplanted beautifully by the color palette from Randolph's pedal steel, and Morgan's knotty, funky bassline. The other cover here is an off-your-seat-and-on-your-feet reading of the Rascals' "Good Lovin," with Dwan Hill adding his B-3 to the mix and trading fours with Randolph, sending it all off in party-down version of a Möbius strip. Lickety Split is not only a joyous, unhindered return to form, but the group's finest studio offering to date.
MORE REVIEW
Robert Randolph, the slide guitar jam/rock/blues phenomenon who’s been captivating global audiences for a decade, announced to reporters assembled at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Music Festival in Madison Square Garden that his long-awaited new album is titled Lickety Split. The new record is Randolph’s first for Blue Note and is to be released July 16. Lickety Split represents the first new studio album for Randolph & The Family Band in three years.
“This record has elements from all of our earlier records,” Randolph explains. “There are cool songs with lots of guitar and we can see the growth of our band in the new recordings.” “With this record we got to reconnect with the originality and creativity that fans fell in love with from the very beginning. This is the music that we started out playing and now that we are back on a roll I’m sure we won’t keep our fans waiting three years for the next album.”
Randolph co-produced the 12-track album and co-wrote 9 of the 12 songs. Randolph has reconnected with songwriting partners such as Drew Ramsey and Shannon Sanders, with whom he composed such Family Band hits as “Ain’t Nothing Nothing Wrong With That” as well as Grammy Award winner Tommy Sims, perhaps best known for “Change The World”. Any one familiar with Randolph’s high energy live performances are familiar with his love for reinterpreting classic songs Family Band style. Lickety Split honors that tradition with enthusiastic interpretations of The Ohio Players’ dance-groove “Love Rollercoaster” and The Rascals’ (and Olympics’) “Good Lovin’.” Randolph recorded the album with his longtime bandmates and actual family members, The Family Band, including Marcus Randolph (drums), Danyel Morgan (bass, vocals), Brett Haas (guitar, keys) and Lenesha Randolph (vocals) along with special guests Trombone Shorty and Carlos Santana. The album was engineered by Eddie Kramer [Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin] and mixed by Jim Scott [Tedeschi Trucks].
The new album kicks off with the vigorous anthem “Amped Up” capturing the high-energy excitement that is so identified with Randolph’s legendary stage performances. That celebration of creative renewal continues with “Born Again.” “It’s about finding the joy again,” says Randolph. “At first it was more of a love song, about the sense you get when you find the right person. Then, as we were recording this new music with a whole new sense of direction and feeling free again it all came together. It’s not a religious thing, it’s just new energy—which is really the old energy that I had at the beginning of my career.”
Randolph also notes that the title track of Lickety Split is one of his favorites. The song features Randolph joined by his sister Lenesha on vocals. “What’s great about that one is that it’s something we actually played in church, just like that,” he says. “There’s a section in the service called the ‘Jubilee Jam Session Time’.
Robert Randolph & The Family Band first gained national attention with the release of the album Live at the Wetlands in 2002. The concert recording was taped at New York’s historical Wetlands Preserve Club before it closed in 2001. The band followed that acclaimed live album with their first studio recording Unclassified, attracting the attention of Eric Clapton. Since then, the band has toured with Clapton, Santana and the Dave Matthews Band and, as a headline act, has developed a large, passionate following built upon legendary performances at such major festivals as Bonnaroo, Crossroads, Hard Rock Calling, Montreux Jazz, Austin City Limits and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Later albums, Colorblind and We Walk This Road, enjoyed critical and commercial success led by signature Randolph composed songs such as “Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That”. Rolling Stone named Robert Randolph one of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists,” the only pedal steel player so honored, calling him “one of the most intense live acts in all of jamdom” and citing his solos as “perpetually cresting, lightning-fast explorations.”
“Robert Randolph is an American Original,” says Don Was, President of Randolph’s new label, Blue Note Records. “He has mastered what is, arguably, the most complex instrument in the world and developed a unique voice that is equal parts street-corner church and Bonnaroo. This album finally captures the energy and excitement of his legendary live performances.” Fans worldwide have taken notice of this American original, with audiences and critics alike singing the praises of this unique superstar. “I’m the only one who does what I do,” sums up Randolph, simply. After years away from the recording studio, Robert Randolph & The Family Band have finally come back with Lickety Split.
BIOGRAPHY
by Ann Wickstrom
A virtuoso on the pedal steel guitar, Robert Randolph set the music world on fire in 2000 when he began playing his first club dates in New York City. Randolph started playing the instrument as a church-going teenager in Orange, New Jersey, a small city just outside of Newark. He regularly attended the House of God Church, an African-American Pentecostal denomination that had been implementing steel guitars (or "Sacred Steel") in services since the '30s, with the pedal steel in particular being introduced during the '70s. Randolph learned to play by watching other steel players during church services; years later, he updated that sacred basis with a secular mix of funk and soul, giving a new multicultural facelift to an instrument that had often been associated with country music.
In early 2000, Jim Markel heard Randolph play at the Sacred Steel Convention in Florida and subsequently introduced him to his friend Gary Waldman. Together, Waldman and Markel began to manage Randolph's career, which took flight after Matt Hickey, a talent buyer at Manhattan's Bowery Ballroom, signed Randolph on as the opening act for the North Mississippi Allstars. Within a month, Randolph had graduated to the Beacon Theater, where he played alongside Medeski, Martin & Wood. Keyboardist John Medeski enjoyed Randolph's playing so much that he asked him to record an instrumental gospel/blues album with the band. The resulting record, The Word, was released in August 2001 to great critical and popular acclaim.
Randolph's own group, the Family Band, includes cousins Danyell Morgan and Marcus Randolph (bass and drums, respectively) and John Ginty (Hammond B-3 organ). The band's career began with opening gigs for a variety of blues, jazz-funk, and jam bands such as the Derek Trucks Band, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, and Soulive; headlining gigs became the norm within a few months' time. Robert Randolph & the Family Band released Live at the Wetlands in fall 2001, capturing the band's live performance at the legendary Wetlands venue shortly before it closed. The group's studio debut, Unclassified, followed in 2003 and introduced Randolph to an even wider audience. One new fan was veteran guitarist Eric Clapton, who brought the band out on tour and appeared on Robert Randolph's third release, Colorblind, in 2006. In 2010, Randolph teamed up with producer T-Bone Burnett and released the album We Walk This Road which featured guest appearances from Ben Harper, Leon Russell, and Doyle Bramhall II. Randolph spent the better part of three years touring with the Family Band; they signed to Blue Note Records in the interim. Lickety Split appeared in 2013 with guests Trombone Shorty and Carlos Santana.
DoWnLoAd
''LICKETY SPLIT''
JULY 16 2013
50:43
1. Amped Up /3:18
2. Born Again /4:21
3. New Orleans /4:12
4. Take The Party [feat. Trombone Shorty] /4:10
5. Brand New Wayo [feat. Carlos Santana] /4:36
6. Lickety Split /4:03
7. Blacky Joe [feat. Carlos Santana] /5:51
8. Love Rollercoaster /3:13
9. All American /2:44
10. Get Ready /5:09
11. Welcome Home /6:12
12. Good Lovin' /2:54
REVIEW
by Thom Jurek
For Robert Randolph & the Family Band, the three year break after 2010's somewhat stilted-sounding We Walk This Road was well deserved. By Randolph's own admission, their 280 date-per-year touring pace had taken its toll: playing music, let alone trying to find time to create it, had become a chore. Their Blue Note debut, Lickety Split, features an expanded FB lineup that includes vocalist Lenesha Randolph and guitarist Brett Haas; the group has gone back to its earliest recorded efforts for inspiration while furthering their new music considerably. The end result resembles their live sound more than any studio record in their catalog. Co-produced by the FB with Randolph's songwriting partners, it was primarily engineered and edited by Eddie Kramer, and mixed by Jim Scott. Opener "Amped Up" delivers the FB's trademark party-time meld of screaming hard rock, funk, gospel, blues, and R&B, all at full-tilt and in the raw. "Born Again" delivers the band's signature gospel message with celebration. The gorgeous call-and-response vocals between the Randolphs, and guest Bekka Bramlett, and the meaty, contrasting guitar interplay between Robert and Haas, are irresistible. Soul, Cajun-country, and gospel are at the heart of the dreamy yet earthy Lenesha-led, "New Orleans." Speaking of NOLA, Trombone Shorty lends his horn and energy to the gospelized, Crescent City-flavored stomp of "Take the Party." Carlos Santana makes two appearances here as well. On the driving funk of "Brand New Wayo," he delivers a fine, overdriven B.B. King nod when prompted by Randolph, while bassist Daniel Morgan lets his Bootsy freak flag fly and pushes the tune into the red. The rangy, pulsing hard rock gospel blues in the title track gets high marks for Randolph's tasty fills and the soulful vocal exchanges. The cover of the Ohio Players' "Love Rollercoaster" has its horns supplanted beautifully by the color palette from Randolph's pedal steel, and Morgan's knotty, funky bassline. The other cover here is an off-your-seat-and-on-your-feet reading of the Rascals' "Good Lovin," with Dwan Hill adding his B-3 to the mix and trading fours with Randolph, sending it all off in party-down version of a Möbius strip. Lickety Split is not only a joyous, unhindered return to form, but the group's finest studio offering to date.
MORE REVIEW
Robert Randolph, the slide guitar jam/rock/blues phenomenon who’s been captivating global audiences for a decade, announced to reporters assembled at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Music Festival in Madison Square Garden that his long-awaited new album is titled Lickety Split. The new record is Randolph’s first for Blue Note and is to be released July 16. Lickety Split represents the first new studio album for Randolph & The Family Band in three years.
“This record has elements from all of our earlier records,” Randolph explains. “There are cool songs with lots of guitar and we can see the growth of our band in the new recordings.” “With this record we got to reconnect with the originality and creativity that fans fell in love with from the very beginning. This is the music that we started out playing and now that we are back on a roll I’m sure we won’t keep our fans waiting three years for the next album.”
Randolph co-produced the 12-track album and co-wrote 9 of the 12 songs. Randolph has reconnected with songwriting partners such as Drew Ramsey and Shannon Sanders, with whom he composed such Family Band hits as “Ain’t Nothing Nothing Wrong With That” as well as Grammy Award winner Tommy Sims, perhaps best known for “Change The World”. Any one familiar with Randolph’s high energy live performances are familiar with his love for reinterpreting classic songs Family Band style. Lickety Split honors that tradition with enthusiastic interpretations of The Ohio Players’ dance-groove “Love Rollercoaster” and The Rascals’ (and Olympics’) “Good Lovin’.” Randolph recorded the album with his longtime bandmates and actual family members, The Family Band, including Marcus Randolph (drums), Danyel Morgan (bass, vocals), Brett Haas (guitar, keys) and Lenesha Randolph (vocals) along with special guests Trombone Shorty and Carlos Santana. The album was engineered by Eddie Kramer [Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin] and mixed by Jim Scott [Tedeschi Trucks].
The new album kicks off with the vigorous anthem “Amped Up” capturing the high-energy excitement that is so identified with Randolph’s legendary stage performances. That celebration of creative renewal continues with “Born Again.” “It’s about finding the joy again,” says Randolph. “At first it was more of a love song, about the sense you get when you find the right person. Then, as we were recording this new music with a whole new sense of direction and feeling free again it all came together. It’s not a religious thing, it’s just new energy—which is really the old energy that I had at the beginning of my career.”
Randolph also notes that the title track of Lickety Split is one of his favorites. The song features Randolph joined by his sister Lenesha on vocals. “What’s great about that one is that it’s something we actually played in church, just like that,” he says. “There’s a section in the service called the ‘Jubilee Jam Session Time’.
Robert Randolph & The Family Band first gained national attention with the release of the album Live at the Wetlands in 2002. The concert recording was taped at New York’s historical Wetlands Preserve Club before it closed in 2001. The band followed that acclaimed live album with their first studio recording Unclassified, attracting the attention of Eric Clapton. Since then, the band has toured with Clapton, Santana and the Dave Matthews Band and, as a headline act, has developed a large, passionate following built upon legendary performances at such major festivals as Bonnaroo, Crossroads, Hard Rock Calling, Montreux Jazz, Austin City Limits and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Later albums, Colorblind and We Walk This Road, enjoyed critical and commercial success led by signature Randolph composed songs such as “Ain’t Nothing Wrong With That”. Rolling Stone named Robert Randolph one of “The 100 Greatest Guitarists,” the only pedal steel player so honored, calling him “one of the most intense live acts in all of jamdom” and citing his solos as “perpetually cresting, lightning-fast explorations.”
“Robert Randolph is an American Original,” says Don Was, President of Randolph’s new label, Blue Note Records. “He has mastered what is, arguably, the most complex instrument in the world and developed a unique voice that is equal parts street-corner church and Bonnaroo. This album finally captures the energy and excitement of his legendary live performances.” Fans worldwide have taken notice of this American original, with audiences and critics alike singing the praises of this unique superstar. “I’m the only one who does what I do,” sums up Randolph, simply. After years away from the recording studio, Robert Randolph & The Family Band have finally come back with Lickety Split.
BIOGRAPHY
by Ann Wickstrom
A virtuoso on the pedal steel guitar, Robert Randolph set the music world on fire in 2000 when he began playing his first club dates in New York City. Randolph started playing the instrument as a church-going teenager in Orange, New Jersey, a small city just outside of Newark. He regularly attended the House of God Church, an African-American Pentecostal denomination that had been implementing steel guitars (or "Sacred Steel") in services since the '30s, with the pedal steel in particular being introduced during the '70s. Randolph learned to play by watching other steel players during church services; years later, he updated that sacred basis with a secular mix of funk and soul, giving a new multicultural facelift to an instrument that had often been associated with country music.
In early 2000, Jim Markel heard Randolph play at the Sacred Steel Convention in Florida and subsequently introduced him to his friend Gary Waldman. Together, Waldman and Markel began to manage Randolph's career, which took flight after Matt Hickey, a talent buyer at Manhattan's Bowery Ballroom, signed Randolph on as the opening act for the North Mississippi Allstars. Within a month, Randolph had graduated to the Beacon Theater, where he played alongside Medeski, Martin & Wood. Keyboardist John Medeski enjoyed Randolph's playing so much that he asked him to record an instrumental gospel/blues album with the band. The resulting record, The Word, was released in August 2001 to great critical and popular acclaim.
Randolph's own group, the Family Band, includes cousins Danyell Morgan and Marcus Randolph (bass and drums, respectively) and John Ginty (Hammond B-3 organ). The band's career began with opening gigs for a variety of blues, jazz-funk, and jam bands such as the Derek Trucks Band, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, and Soulive; headlining gigs became the norm within a few months' time. Robert Randolph & the Family Band released Live at the Wetlands in fall 2001, capturing the band's live performance at the legendary Wetlands venue shortly before it closed. The group's studio debut, Unclassified, followed in 2003 and introduced Randolph to an even wider audience. One new fan was veteran guitarist Eric Clapton, who brought the band out on tour and appeared on Robert Randolph's third release, Colorblind, in 2006. In 2010, Randolph teamed up with producer T-Bone Burnett and released the album We Walk This Road which featured guest appearances from Ben Harper, Leon Russell, and Doyle Bramhall II. Randolph spent the better part of three years touring with the Family Band; they signed to Blue Note Records in the interim. Lickety Split appeared in 2013 with guests Trombone Shorty and Carlos Santana.
DoWnLoAd
