Pribek

Hey, this ought to be good, Robert Randolph has a new disc, produced by T-Bone Burnett, that will be out in September.

From Billboard.

“We really always wanted to work with T-Bone, whose idea was just go back and try to get the roots of where we come from — to try to do something really original that sounds good and sounds big and sounds energetic,” Randolph says.

“So that’s what we tried to accomplish, and by him hanging around Bob Dylan and doing the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss record, he just wanted to do something with me that people will look at as the kind of career-defining recording,” he adds…

“I was able to pull in some of the older guys from my church,” Randolph says. “That’s where I got my pedal steel, lap steel playing from. So we kind of created this sort of ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ and ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou’ record.”

T-Bone is another one of those guys that I pay attention to. He has a knack for capturing and/or coaxing that special performance. So, if one wanted to get a “career-defining recording”, he would be a good guy to have around.

As for Robert Randolph, here’s something that really impressed me; a few months ago I watched the Crossroads Festival DVD with my 18 year old stepson and his girlfriend, out of all the performers on that show (Clapton, Back, Robert Cray, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, John Mayer, Vince Gill, John McLaughlin, Derek Trucks, and more!), the one thing that got them really jazzed was Robert Randolph. The guy is just fun to watch on top of being a great player. It’s entertaining to watch him having so much fun with it and it transmits enough that a couple of teens, who have never heard of him before, became fans on the strength of watching a DVD.

Once again, I went to YouTube looking for something specific and found something cool instead.

This time, it’s a raw and ready, 1976 live version of “Idiot Wind” by Bob Dylan. I think the band is maybe T-Bone Burnett and that bunch but, I’m not up on my Dylan time line.

They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.
I can’t help it if I’m lucky.

I love that kind of stuff.

This one’s not for the squeamish. If you don’t like loud, jangly guitars, sarcastic delivery and ragged but right swagger, don’t watch.

Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your mouth,
Blowing down the backroads headin’ south.
Idiot wind, blowing every time you move your teeth,
You’re an idiot, babe.
It’s a wonder that you still know how to breathe.