Robert Randolph Announces Solo Album ‘Preacher Kids,’ Shares New Song

Talking with Rolling Stone last year, Robert Randolph recalled the unusual complaint he received when he was working on a new album in LA. Apparently, the bass amplifier he and producer Shooter Jennings had placed in a hallway was too loud, and a couple of people in the building — T Bone Burnett and Robbie Robertson — told a receptionist it was too loud. As Randolph said, Robertson walked into the studio and said, “Oh, that’s you down here? You guys are getting funky in here.”

Robertson, who passed away last year, didn’t live to hear the finished record, but the rest of the world will when Randolph releases Preacher Kids, which he’s dubbed his “rock & roll album,” on June 27.

Randolph’s first project since guesting on Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter — and his first for the classic Sun Records label that gave us Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich and many more — Preacher Kids is billed as Randolph’s solo debut after two-plus decades with his Family Band. Largely produced by Jennings, the album includes collaborations with country rebel Margo Price on “King Karma” and R&B-soul stylist Judith Hill on “When Will the Love Rain Down,” and a cover of J.J. Cale’s “Like to Love You Baby.”

With its greasy slide, bass solo and Randolph yelps, the first single, “Sinner,” reflects a looser, less inhibited side of his music heard on the album. “Over the years, I have heard people talk about how Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin would just roll the tape and write songs while jamming,” Randolph said in a statement. “That’s what we did on this album. Everybody was like, ‘What was that thing you played?’ And we’d be like, ‘We just made it up!’”

It’s been almost a quarter century since Randolph began blending gospel with pedal steel guitar, known as the sacred-steel style. Since then he’s recorded six albums with his Family Band, appeared on albums by Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Matthews Band, Rob Thomas, and Ringo Starr, and played on the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis and on Jon Batiste’s Grammy-winning We Are album.

Last year, Randolph landed his highest-profile gig yet when he was featured on two tracks, “16 Carriages” and “Ya Ya,” on Cowboy Carter. As he told RS shortly before the album’s release, “Beyoncé already had an idea of what she wanted to do. She wanted to do something with some playing, with some country fire. She said she liked the way I make my instrument sound like a singer.”

As for the title of his album, Randolph explained, “Everyone involved in this record — from the band to the people who inspired it — shares a similar story. We’re all preacher’s kids. This album feels like our collective diary, rooted in gospel and shaped by the journey from the church to the stages of rock and blues.”