With the release of Soul Food, fans of The Word’s instrumental gospel finally received some worldly satisfaction after waiting over a decade for the follow-up to the group’s 2001 self-titled debut album. John Medeski, Robert Randolph and the original North Mississippi Allstars trio of Luther Dickinson, Cody Dickinson and Chris Chew first joined forces after Medeski and the Allstars bonded on the road over Arhoolie Records’ sacred steel guitar compilations. Then they discovered Randolph, who had just started performing secular shows.

Since 2001, the quintet has picked up occasional gigs, but logistical challenges kept them out of the studio until they finally reconvened to record Soul Food. “We tried to do it, but we weren’t able to get together and schedule it,” recalls Randolph. “Every time we talked about it, it was like, ‘OK, let’s try it here. Let’s try it there,’ but everyone sort of didn’t have the time. Then about a year and a half ago, we finally decided to make time to go into the studio and just see what ideas we had.”

One notable presence at those sessions was Chew, the Allstars’ founding bass player, who hasn’t been touring with the group as of late. Randolph explains, “I mentioned, at the beginning, that if we were going to do this, we have to have Chew there. He’s an original member of The Word and that’s just what it is. Everybody in the band agreed, the label agreed and it was great to have him there. He’s such a great, honest person. He doesn’t hold his tongue. If something is a bad idea, he’ll let us know.”

Hopefully, Chew will take to the road with The Word later this year. Following a smattering of summer festival dates (including an appearance this week at Gathering of the Vibes), the band is planning to embark on a proper fall tour.

While The Word focused on traditional gospel songs, Soul Food primarily draws on the band’s original music. Randolph explains, “We had all this energy when we entered the studio. I had tunes going on in my brain, Cody had a lot of tunes and Medeski had a lot of different ideas. So we went through them to see which ones we wanted to explore and which ones we wanted to come back to later. Some of the songs that we’ll play live are not even on the record.”

New Word Order

“New Word Order” is a tune that Cody wrote for The Word. His story is that he had gotten the chorus and/or rhythmic part from a Dr. Martin Luther King speech. I don’t know how he got it, but that’s what he came up with. It was, “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, we’re free at last!” I guess he came up with this chord progression that matched that. He presented the tune and started playing the chords on the guitar and we said, “OK, let’s try that.” So we went for it and that sound is the signature Word/ sacred steel kind of sound.

Come By Here

This one started out with just Cody and me in the studio. We came back from a break, and we just sat down and started playing. Cody was on drums and I started playing that riff. All of the guys ran in and asked, “What is that?” and I said, “I don’t know, I’m kind of just making it up as we’re going along.” It was really a 12-minute jam. We had all of the elements for the song, and we edited it down that day in the studio. Then, we got onto Jam Cruise, and we decided that we should add some sort of chorus or theme to the song. Medeski was saying that it felt like a peace song met a rock song. So we recorded background vocals in Medeski’s cabin on Jam Cruise. We had it set up with microphones and a Pro Tools rig. I think it was at 3 a.m., and we all went in there and sang it. [Ed. Note: Jennifer Hartswick joined Chew, Medeski and Randolph for the session.]

When I See the Blood

“When I See the Blood” is a traditional gospel song. The arrangement is from the Pentecostal and Baptist church. It’s funny because my grandmother actually said, “You have to do a version of ‘When I See the Blood’ featuring your gospel roots and all that.” And I told her, “Oh, you’re right!” So when I got back to the studio, I said to the guys, “Let’s try to do it. We can definitely pull it off. We’ll get Ruthie Foster to sing it and she’ll add that sort of Pentecostal vibe to it.”

Play All Day

“Play All Day” came exactly after “Come By Here.” It’s all sort of one jam that we made into two different songs. We just played on, and then we realized that we had two different songs. I think that’s one of the great things about The Word. When you listen to the Allman Brothers and a lot of stuff like that, you can kind of envision that vibe going on in the studio with those guys.

Also, what I’ll say to kids when I’m giving them advice is: “If you’re going to jam, jam with some melodies and a theme so it can become a piece of music.” Sort of like Miles Davis—you can’t just jam and not have any melodies. So the title became what it was: “I guess we’ll just keep playing all day!” [Laughs.]

Soul Food I and II

We were in the Willie Mitchell studio, called Royal Studios, down in Memphis, Tenn. It’s where Al Green and all those guys recorded their records. The daughters of Willie Mitchell run the studio now, and they had prepared this big soul food meal for everybody. It was some of the best-tasting food I’ve ever eaten. We had thought that we were all going go to go to bed, but it actually ended up energizing everyone.

So I said, “Well, I guess we should go play one more!” Then we went back in after the meal, and that’s what became “Soul Food I and II.” Those songs ran right together. “Soul Food I” is this soulful thing where my guitar is weeping and it almost reminds me of walking into the beginning of a church service. You walk in and the music is playing; you’re kind of getting warmed up and getting ready to let loose, which then becomes “Soul Food II.”

You Brought the Sunshine

“You Brought the Sunshine” is a cover of a song by a famous gospel group called The Clark Sisters. What’s funny about it is that we actually recorded that song during a session at Brooklyn Recording. Then when we got to Memphis and pulled it up on the board and listened to it, Willie Mitchell’s son, who was the engineer and a great producer, said: “Hey, man, I remember my father recorded that track right here in the studio in like 1979!” We were like, “What?!” He said: “Yeah, man! The Clark Sisters were like 18 years old, and they recorded the song right here.” It was so ironic. For me, that is a song my parents used to play when I was a kid. Everybody knows it, from Beyoncé to Al Green, Ne-Yo, Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin. It’s one of the more famous Pentecostal gospel songs.

Early in the Moanin’ Time

This started out where I was just moaning on the guitar. I told the guys: “Here’s this moment when you are in church, where this old deacon or old lady in the corner is sort of moaning and that starts the whole mood.” It’s sort of like a cry of the wolves or something when you hear that old deacon moaning, and that’s what usually gets everybody into this sort of mode of “Alright, let’s see where this is going to take us.” That’s what “Moanin’ Time” is, and it kind of takes us into this different world. 

We have to release the full version of that song. To me, it is one of the best musical moments I have ever recorded. Sometimes we got to stick by the rules and edit it down, but the original, unedited version of that one—and where it went—is completely unbelievable. It just goes into all these other segments and segues. It is like the greatest treadmill song. [Laughs.]

Swamp Road

“Swamp Road” is a song that I think Medeski Martin & Wood used to play. Medeski said that they never really nailed it the right way, and he wanted to record it with The Word. He presented it, and we all got into the room and really made it our own.

Chocolate Cowboy

This is The Word tipping our hats to the country music/gospel thing. The first time we ever played that one was at Bonnaroo 2012, so we sort of had that one in our tank. We kind of messed around with it during soundcheck or during a rehearsal two days before the Bonnaroo set. We were like, “Yeah, let’s try that!” It actually wasn’t called “Chocolate Cowboy” then. I don’t know what we called it then, it was just a thing.

The Highest

“The Highest” was sort of a song I have been working on. I once played it with Eric Krasno and Soulive during one of their sets out in Tahoe. I was like: “Hey, man, check out this thing I got. I don’t know what it’s going to be, but let’s just see.” And he was like, “Oh, man, that’s beautiful! What is that?” I told him: “I don’t know, it just seems like something.” We recorded a version of it with The Family Band, and then we did The Word version of it. It’s this beautiful, melodic thing with me doing these chords on the pedal-steel guitar, and it becomes this somber moment on the record.

Speaking In Tongues

“Speaking In Tongues” was another song that Medeski had presented to The Word. That’s actually one of my favorite songs because it was this whole other sound and whole other feel that he had presented, and I loved it. Luther loved it. It was definitely something that I wanted to do. Medeski songs have such a different flavor to them, which makes it great for this well-rounded sort of sound. I think it is awesome and Luther was really down with it.

Glory Glory

I invented this sort of pedal-steel dobro. The guitar company that I am working with, Jackson Guitars, brought it down to the studio and I was like: “Hey, guys, come here! Let’s try doing an acoustic song!” We all got around the mic and we did exactly what you hear. And to get Amy Helm to sing on there with Chris Chew was sort of the perfect way to finish off everything. It was acoustic—no one was expecting it—all around the mic with this gospel, chicken-pickin’ backwoods thing. And to do it in Memphis brought it all home.