Unclassified (CD - 2003)

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

Personnel: Robert Randolph (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, pedal steel guitar); Lenesha Randolph, Ricky Fowler (vocals); Danyel Morgan (acoustic & electric guitars, bass, background vocals); John Ginty (piano, Hammond B-3 organ); Marcus Randolph (drums); Leon Mobley (percussion); Neal Casal, Candice Anderson (background vocals).

Producers: Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Jim Scott.

Recorded at Cello Studios, Los Angeles, California.

UNCLASSIFIED was nominated for the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album. "Squeeze" was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

Personnel: Robert Randolph (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Daniel Morgan (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar); John Ginty (piano); Marcus Randolph (drums); Lenesha Randolph, Candace Anderson, Neal Casal (background vocals).

Audio Mixer: Jim Scott.

Recording information: Cello Studios, Los Angeles, CA (02/2003).

Photographer: Danny Clinch.

Listening to the musical mastery displayed on UNCLASSIFIED, it's hard to believe this is only Robert Randolph's first studio album, arriving on the heels of his in-concert debut record LIVE AT THE WETLANDS. Randolph comes out of the Sacred Steel tradition that mates gospel music with virtuosic pedal steel guitar playing. With the Family Band, he takes that sound a step further by incorporating the jam-band-friendly rock format that's found huge success with live audiences.

By turns funky and bluesy, he weaves his fiery-but-lyrical steel lines in and around a groove-based rhythm section, through songs that leave plenty of room for instrumental prowess. The gospel rave-up aspect of it all is what gives UNCLASSIFIED such a distinctive feeling, giving the proceedings a particularly celebratory, somehow redemptive feeling. Whether you get the spirit or not, the bombs-away jamming that is the group's stock-in-trade is undeniably exciting, and Randolph's work is downright soulful. minimize