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Robert Randolph On World Cafe

Robert Randolph's latest album with The Family Band is called <em>Got Soul</em>.
Courtesy of the artist
Robert Randolph's latest album with The Family Band is called Got Soul.

Robert Randolph has built an entire life and career on the gospel that music is religion. His musical education began in Orange, N.J., at the Pentecostal House of God church, where the walls ring out with a lively, powerful style of music called sacred steel. It's based around the pedal steel guitar — a 13-string instrument that found its way into African-American churches in the 1930s, and has since become an integral part of praise.

Along with his Family Band, Randolph has fused the sound of sacred steel with funk and soul on original secular records — including the band's new album, Got Soul. Randolph and company have turned arenas, clubs and concert halls into places of worship, and they're introducing a new generation to an ages-old tradition. In honor of Black History Month, Randolph digs into some of the history of sacred steel music — from its pioneers to his mentors to the incredible focus and devotion it takes to become a pedal-steel virtuoso.

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Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.