Artist

The Word

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A blues/jam rock supergroup consisting of brothers Cody and <a href="spotify:artist:1YLrCQC8gRomtIs7kc9Eyk">Luther Dickinson</a>, and Chris Chew (collectively, they formed <a href="spotify:artist:714osTgzZrkyf3SGjggpfY">North Mississippi Allstars</a>), <a href="spotify:artist:46IQ7Q0jkW6dW0l4e15FFD">John Medeski</a> (one-third of jazz-funksters <a href="spotify:artist:2Hg4SUNDuIn8xIidz9GxFw">Medeski, Martin & Wood</a>), and gospel/pedal steel phenomenon <a href="spotify:artist:0u7gssqdwWaO1aMaSuvXtx">Robert Randolph</a> (of the famed Sacred Steel series on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Arhoolie%22">Arhoolie</a> and his Family Band). Long a dream project of the Dickinsons and <a href="spotify:artist:46IQ7Q0jkW6dW0l4e15FFD">Medeski</a>, the gospel album finally came to be with the inclusion of <a href="spotify:artist:3c8BXo73tAg7XZiNHJugZm">Randolph</a>, a player whom the two had long admired and tried to seek out, though he, 22 years old and a law clerk by day, had recorded only one commercially available tune ("Without God," included on Sacred Steel Live). By the time Dickinson and <a href="spotify:artist:46IQ7Q0jkW6dW0l4e15FFD">Medeski</a> tracked him down through <a href="spotify:artist:2UBTfUoLI07iRqGeUrwhZh">Steve Earle</a> sideman/producer Eric Roscoe Amble, <a href="spotify:artist:3c8BXo73tAg7XZiNHJugZm">Randolph</a> had played only one non-church gig, at New York's famed Bowery Ballroom. Three days of jamming and recording in October 2000 at <a href="spotify:artist:2Hg4SUNDuIn8xIidz9GxFw">MMW</a>'s Brooklyn studio yielded The Word, released in July of the following year. The group toured briefly that summer in support of the album. Given how busy each of the collective’s various members subsequently became, they didn’t record a follow-up for 14 years. Soul Food, featured all the original members plus guest vocalists <a href="spotify:artist:2lL4ckeM1A2Qo2Fe64dP0F">Ruthie Foster</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4LBsb3buEAjllAzNraGYtU">Amy Helm</a>, was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Vanguard%22">Vanguard</a> in May of 2015. ~ John Duffy, Rovi

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