One of Rolling Stones' "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," this musician's musician has appeared on the albums of artists as wide-ranging and illustrious as Buddy Guy, Ringo Starr, Santana, Dave Matthews, Elton John, and Soulive. On the flip side of that coin, folks like Eric Clapton, Ben Harper, Leon Russell, and Santana have appeared on his 6 albums.
Randolph grew up in the church playing solely gospel and religious music, where the pedal steel guitar is often referred to as "sacred steel." That is an apt description of his playing, because as soon as he was discovered at a Sacred Steel convention in Florida he was on his way in a much more funk, soul, blues, jazz, and plain old rock and roll direction. In 2001 John Medeski of Medeski, Martin and Wood asked him to join a one-off band project with Medeski and the North Mississippi All-Stars called The Word. Just before that Randolph had started the "Family Band" with his brother Marcus on drums and they released their first album in 2002. Clapton noticed him and invited them to tour the world with him as the opening band in 2004 and again in 2008. He appeared on Randolph's Colorblind album in 2006, and has included Randolph in his Crossroads Music Festival.
So get ready for some high-energy music for Saturday night at NedFest this year and get ready to move because we hear that Robert Randolph will get on your case if you don't dance!
NedFest is a 3-day music and arts festival in Nederland, Colorado on August 22-24. Other acts include Jeff Austin (of Yonder Mountain String Band) and the Here and Now, the Drew Emmitt Band (of Leftover Salmon), and the Kyle Hollingworth Band (of the String Cheese Incident). 100% of proceeds go to local kids' music education programs. For tickets please visit www.nedfest.org.
