Cutting his teeth in the church groups of his native New Jersey, guitarist, pedal steel player and singer Randolph’s eclectic collective’s fusion of soul, blues, gospel and funk has had many American critics heralding him as a Sly Stone for the 21st Century. The 17 tracks on this, his band’s third album, offer persuasive corroboration for such claims: a spectacularly spicy melting pot of styles that’s Curiously, the UK release nothing less than an all-points history of black popular music.
Travelling Shoes, co-written with producer T-Bone Burnett (the perfect pair of ears for the job), mixes Staple Singers testifying with wailing Stevie Ray Vaughan blues licks, while Back To The Wall revisits the rhythmic intricacies of Stevie Wonder’s early 70s purple patch, before Bob Dylan’s Shot Of Love is reinvented as a Hendrix-like hard rock workout.
Randolph’s choice of covers surprises throughout, most deliciously on the spiritual funk of Prince’s Walk Don’t Walk and the fuzz guitar shuffle of John Lennon’s I Don’t Want To Be A Soldier. In lesser hands, such bold attempts to graft so many styles together might suggest a directionless hit-and-hope mindset, but Randolph has come up with an incredibly focused album that’s breathtaking in its energy and execution.
