The Word

A blues- and jam-rock supergroup assembled around brothers Cody and Luther Dickinson along with Chris Chew—all three already known as North Mississippi Allstars—plus John Medeski, the keyboardist from Medeski, Martin & Wood, and pedal-steel virtuoso Robert Randolph, whose early recordings appeared in Arhoolie’s Sacred Steel series and whose own Family Band would later gain notice. The Dickinsons and Medeski had long envisioned the project, yet only Randolph’s involvement finally brought the gospel-focused album into existence; the two had admired his playing and sought him out for years. At the time, the twenty-two-year-old Randolph balanced church performances with a daytime job as a law clerk and had issued just a single commercially available track, “Without God,” featured on Sacred Steel Live. Dickinson and Medeski finally reached him via Steve Earle’s sideman and producer Eric Roscoe Amble; up to that point Randolph had performed only once outside a church setting, at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. In October 2000 the musicians spent three days improvising and tracking at MMW’s Brooklyn studio, resulting in the album The Word, which appeared the following July. A short summer tour followed in support of the release. Because each participant’s schedule grew increasingly crowded afterward, fourteen years passed before the collective reconvened. The 2015 album Soul Food, again issued by Vanguard, reunited every original member and added guest vocalists Ruthie Foster and Amy Helm.