Album: Robert Randolph & the Family Band

Unclassified, Warner Bros

Robert Randolph is the most prominent exponent of "sacred steel" music, a form of gospel built around the pedal steel guitar. His credentials were established with 2002's Live at the Wetlands, which revealed him to be a dynamic musician who brings a fiery attack to an instrument usually restricted to whining meekly behind country balladeers: think of rock players like Al Perkins, Buddy Cage and B J Cole, rather than Nashville stalwarts such as Buddy Emmons, Red Rhodes and

Pete Drake. Or even, in places, think of Duane Allman's slide guitar razoring its way through "Statesboro Blues", from the Allman Brothers' Live at the Fillmore East - Randolph can play just as fierce and cutting, with dazzling flurries of notes which suddenly veer off at wild tangents. Sadly, this studio debut suggests that like many a gifted virtuoso, Randolph suffers from a shortfall of strong material, with most songs just perfunctory vehicles to carry his solos. What sets the Family Band 's style apart are the funk elements, such as the popping bass and falsetto vocals on "I Need More Love", and the gospelly chorus vocals on tracks like "Nobody". But ultimately, one suspects it's a more potent live experience than studio exercise.