Robert Randolph Unclassified CD

UNCLASSIFIED was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album. "Squeeze" was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

Listening to the musical mastery displayed on UNCLASSIFIED, it's hard to believe this is only Robert Randolph's first studio album, arriving on the heels of his in-concert debut record LIVE AT THE WETLANDS. Randolph comes out of the Sacred Steel tradition that mates gospel music with virtuosic pedal steel guitar playing. With the Family Band, he takes that sound a step further by incorporating the jam-band-friendly rock format that's found huge success with live audiences.

By turns funky and bluesy, he weaves his fiery-but-lyrical steel lines in and around a groove-based rhythm section, through songs that leave plenty of room for instrumental prowess. The gospel rave-up aspect of it all is what gives UNCLASSIFIED such a distinctive feeling, giving the proceedings a particularly celebratory, somehow redemptive feeling. Whether you get the spirit or not, the bombs-away jamming that is the group's stock-in-trade is undeniably exciting, and Randolph's work is downright soulful.

This debut studio album resurrects the spiritual fervor of gospel, gutbucket soul of the blues, earthy power of R&B and raucous energy rock. Led by pedal steel guitarist Randolph, who has been compared to Stevie Ray Vaughan, Duane Allman and Jimi Hendrix. Enhanced with behind the scenes footage. Digipak. Warner Bros 2003.

Recorded at Cello Studios, Los Angeles, California.

Full performer name: Robert Randolph & The Family Band.

Personnel: Robert Randolph (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, pedal steel guitar); Lenesha Randolph, Ricky Fowler (vocals); Danyel Morgan (acoustic & electric guitars, bass, background vocals); John Ginty (piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Marcus Randolph (drums); Leon Mobley (percussion); Neal Casal, Candice Anderson (background vocals).

Producers: Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Jim Scott.

Personnel: Robert Randolph (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Daniel Morgan (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); John Ginty (piano); Marcus Randolph (drums); Lenesha Randolph, Candace Anderson, Neal Casal (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Jim Scott.

Recording information: Cello Studios, Los Angeles, CA (02/2003).

Photographer: Danny Clinch.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.Rolling Stone (12/25/03, p.109) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2003"
Rolling Stone (8/21/03, p.73) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Randolph sings expressions of devotion to a lover or a higher power...with a believer's conviction, then relies on his wailing, writhing, soaring-at-eagle-altitude guitar lines to bring his point home..."
Entertainment Weekly (8/8/03, p.75) - "...[Features] a signature sound that suggests Sly's own Family meeting the brothers Allman and Doobie at a gospel throwdown." - Rating: B
Q (3/04, p.110) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Brothers and sisters, blues-rock is back with a vengeance."
CMJ (8/11/03, p.7) - "...UNCLASSIFIED is Randolph's boldest statement yet, packing the good-time fury of his live shows into compact radio nuggets....you will be moved."
Living Blues (9/03, pp.48-9) - "...Always inventive - and thanks to his choice of instrument, never derivative - Randolph is single-handedly constructing his own genre of blues- and gospel-influenced rock..."