The Slide Brothers, standard bearers of the sacred steel tradition, will release their first studio album, Robert Randolph Presents: The Slide Brothers, Tuesday, February 19, on Concord Records.
GuitarWorld.com presents the exclusive premiere of "Motherless Children," a track off the new album, via the SoundCloud player below.
The Slide Brothers are Calvin Cooke, Chuck Campbell, Darick Campbell and Aubrey Ghent, each of whom was raised worshiping and performing in The Church of the Living God. They were an ad-hoc family, traveling and learning from the other dominions in their communities in cities from Nashville to Chicago to Newark.
Calvin Cooke was born into a musical family in Cleveland in 1944 and would go on to become known among the ranks of Nashville’s premier country steel guitarists as “the B.B. King of gospel steel guitar.” Cooke is hailed as the most influential living pedal steel guitar master within the Sacred Steel tradition.
On the new album, the Slide Brothers, who were inspired by Robert Randolph to emerge beyond their positions within the Sacred Steel community, tackle rock, funk and blues with a ferocity that will startle fans of Duane Allman, Derek Trucks and Muddy Waters.
“Growing up in church, traditional blues music always came off to us as a little bit sloppy,” Chuck Campbell says. “It was not as precise as Sacred Steel where it is always about mimicking the voices heard in the church. We wanted to play these songs with the same conviction we have in church—playing the steel so that you can almost hear the words as if they were sung by a voice.”
Damian is Editor-in-Chief of Guitar World magazine. In past lives, he was GW’s managing editor and online managing editor. He's written liner notes for major-label releases, including Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'The Complete Epic Recordings Collection' (Sony Legacy) and has interviewed everyone from Yngwie Malmsteen to Kevin Bacon (with a few memorable Eric Clapton chats thrown into the mix). Damian, a former member of Brooklyn's The Gas House Gorillas, was the sole guitarist in Mister Neutron, a trio that toured the U.S. and released three albums. He now plays in two NYC-area bands.
