CD of the Week: We Walk This Road

Robert Randolph and the Family Band's fourth studio album started with a musical education. To find new material, Randolph teamed with legendary producer T Bone Burnett to delve into more than 100 years of music.

"T Bone brought in old archival songs from the twenties and thirties," Randolph writes. "I had songs that I had written with the band, or that other artists had sent me, and we sat down and starting sifting through history." 

The resulting album features a musical gumbo of covers and traditional songs that Randolph and Burnett reworked musically and lyrically, including the single, "If I Had My Way." Based on a Blind Willie Johnson tune, guest Ben Harper contributes guitar work and shares vocal duties on Randolph's new lyrics. More contemporary tracks include covers of John Lennon's "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier Mama" and Prince's "Walk Don't Walk," adding additional fuel to Randolph's already incendiary live show.