Robert Randolph Comes to Kalamazoo

Jim Peter · Post by **Jim Peter** » 8 Jan 2002 8:02 am

Robert Randolph opened for Greg Allman last Saturday at the State Theater in Kalamazoo and put on a great show. Although a lot of people did not quite understand what they were seeing they knew what they were hearing and most of them enjoyed it tremendously. Since I am not all that big a of a Greg Allman fan I spent some time during Greg's show visiting with Robert at his booth. It was great to see the number of people that came up to Robert and tell him how much they enjoyed his show. Here is the review from the local paper.

Robert Randolph and The Family Band opened. Newcomer Randolph is being cited as the new master of the lap-steel guitar.
Randolph got a lot of screaming, feverish sounds out of an instrument that's long provided the wail to country and western. He did a little Grateful Dead-ish country, but most of his sound was based in slide-guitar blues boogie.
Randolph's only problem is that he has to sit down while playing his instrument-he had to jump up and dance a couple times after getting exited by his own music. His excitement was contagious; he brought the crowd to its feet, which is something warm-up acts rarely manage to do.

Robert, if you are out there, I enjoyed you show and I had a great time visiting with you. I hope you can come back sometime when you are not so rushed and can play a little longer.

For what is worth, a lot of people were exposed to the steel guitar that night and came away with a favorable impression of it

Jim Smith · Post by **Jim Smith** » 8 Jan 2002 10:49 am

Was he really playing a lap steel instead of his 13 string Fessy?

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Jim Smith jimsmith94@charter.net
-=Dekley D-12 10&12=-
-=Fessenden Ext. E9/U-13 8&8=-

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 8 Jan 2002 3:58 pm

Even while seated, he is quite animated. There's a lot of hand movement that coincide with the sounds that he gets (I know, duh) but for people not familiar with steel, it is a visual thing, and exciting at that.

Craig Stock · Post by **Craig Stock** » 9 Jan 2002 7:07 am

In this sunday's Opinion Section of the New Jersey (Newark) Star Ledger, they listed ten people to watch in 2002. Robert was listed, and basically said that if he hooked up with a good record company and could record a studio album that matched his live shows, he could be the next biggest thing in music.

It was nice to see his picture amoung other high profile people in the Jersey side of the 'Big Apple'

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Regards, Craig

Bob Bowden · Post by **Bob Bowden** » 12 Jan 2002 11:14 am

Jim, I don't think that many of the non-playing community(outside of country fans) can tell the difference between a lap steel or pedal steel. Robert Randolph is coming to Vancouver on Jan 19 and the local "entertainment" paper(Georgia Straight) also called him a lap steel player.

HowardR · Post by **HowardR** » 12 Jan 2002 10:37 pm

They did just the opposite with Cindy Cashdollar at Jazz Fest. The local newspaper called her non pedal T8 a pedal steel. At least it's more accurate than Arthur Godfrey calling Jody Carver's steel guitar a "keyboard." Will they ever learn?<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by HowardR on 12 January 2002 at 10:38 PM.]</p></FONT>