Sure, you love your family. But would you want to tour together, night after sweaty night, on stages large and small, where the slightest squabble can fester and erupt for all to see?
Not so fast.
Robert Randolph, who brings his Family Band to Morristown’s Mayo Performing Arts Center on Aug. 8, 2013, can hardly imagine life on the road without his sister Lenesha on backing vocals and cousins Marcus Randolph on drums and Danyel Morgan on bass.
“I’ve seen bands break up over the most petty stuff,” says the pedal steel guitar virtuoso. “If they were related to each other, most of these bands would still be together.”
Not that Robert, 33, really has any choice. The Irvington native has been jamming with relatives since childhood Sundays in the House of God Church, “a very rock and roll church.”
“You can’t really escape from your family,” he says with a laugh. “There’s only just so much ‘mad’ you can do. And then you have to talk to aunts, uncles, cousins, all saying, ‘Why are you doing so-and-so?'”
In church parlance, pedal steel is Sacred Steel. It’s a horizontal, fretless instrument that is plucked with finger picks while foot pedals and knee levers alter the pitch.
Robert was “discovered” while playing at a sacred steel convention in Florida. The energy of his church gigs came through on the first Family Band album, Live at the Wetlands, a 2002 release that also featured Morristown native John Ginty on organ.
Undeniably, a certain confidence comes from playing with people who share the same physical and musical DNA.
It’s a comfort level that breeds spontaneity. Or rather, spontaneous combustion. Robert estimates that 70 percent of The Family Band’s songs are hatched during live shows. That’s where several tracks on Lickety Split, the band’s rollicking debut CD for Blue Note Records, took shape.
The forgiving side of family comes in handy, too.
“You only can continue to grow by making mistakes. You have to be humble and accept criticism, and take it as love,” says Robert, whose extended musical family includes guitar gods Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton.
Sometimes they copy his licks. Robert is, after all, the only pedal steel player on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 100 greatest guitarists.
In return, these legends have shared their hard-earned wisdom. They warned him to avoid the trap of record labels seeking familiar sounds.
“They said, ‘You’ll be around longer than the people at the labels. What will make you continue on as an artist is to keep growing, and being original,'” Robert recounts.
Carlos Santana, who plays on Lickety Split along with Trombone Shorty, told Robert: “Your records won’t sound like anyone else’s. You don’t want them to be.”
And so Robert Randolph & The Family Band will bring a unique mix of get-up-and-dance rock, soul and funk to Morristown, where Robert lived for nine years before settling in South Orange.
“I had to move. Morristown was getting too wild for me!” jokes Robert, who still returns to watch football games with friends at the Famished Frog and Grasshopper Off the Green.
He’s a fan of Morristown Mayor Tim Dougherty–“the best Mayor in New Jersey”–and they are talking about an outdoor concert for next Memorial Day.
Robert also is working to create the Robert Randolph Music and Arts Program, as charter schools in Irvington and Newark. He wants to give poor kids some hope. That’s what musical families do.
“We were once troubled kids,” Robert says. “We’re looking to give back, trying to solve some problems.”
ROBERT RANDOLPH & THE FAMILY BAND
with Big Sam’s Funky Nation
Aug. 8, 2013, at 8 pm
Mayo Performing Arts Center
100 South St., Morristown
Tickets: $29-$59
973-539-8008
