Last night, The Word opened up its four show late-December run with a performance at the Webster Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut. The group, which consists of the North Mississippi Allstars along with Robert Randolph and John Medeski performed two sets of music, each of which lasted for 80 minutes. ‘Without God’ from The Word’s 2001 studio debut opened the night, after which the quintet offered up most of the songs from its lone release, including ‘Joyful Sounds,’ ‘Call Him By His Name’ and ‘I’ll Fly Away.’ As Luther Dickinson suggested in his recent site interview, the group also developed a number of jams around musical keys and also the work of artists such as James Brown and The White Stripes (‘7 Nation Army’). In addition, the band incorporated a cover of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Inner City Blues’ which began the second set, as well as Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Chile’ which closed things out. The Word will appear in New York City this evening at Terminal 5.