Growing up in the House of God Church in Orange, New Jersey, pedal steel virtuoso Robert Randolph wasn’t exposed to secular music until he was in his late teens. “I would tell people that I wanted to play my instrument how the other guitar players played theirs,” Randolph says. “Then this guy gave me a tape of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and told me, ‘Maybe you should try to play like this.’ Ever since that day, I’ve been trying to play like that.” Randolph plays Tipitina’s Saturday night, and he went on to revolutionize the instrument, breaking through in the jam band scene in the early 2000s, being named one of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time by Rolling Stone mid-decade, and crossing over to mainstream popularity as he toured and record alongside acts such as the Dave Matthews Band and Santana in the process. With master craftsman T Bone Burnett helming his latest release We Walk This Road, Robert Randolph and his Family Band return to their roots, spicing up a set of old spirituals and choice covers that spans the history of American music. Just call it rocks-pel. I caught up with Robert as he made his way to Austin City Limits en route to a stop in New Orleans on his current tour.

In the liner notes of We Walk This Road, you mention how important it was for you to find the right producer. How did you get hooked up with T Bone Burnett?

I was able to get things going with him through Warner Brothers. It was great. We had this shared vision of bringing in a producer that really understands the history of American music and understands what I do and where I come from – growing up in church, and making music that would cross over to gospel and blues.

It’s definitely an intriguing intersection between gospel and blues. One tends to go down to the crossroads, and the other is very uplifting. Tell me about the connection you have with the two.

Growing up in church, everything was always uplifting. Even when you’re down, the reason you go to church is to be uplifted, to seek some sort of spiritual guidance. That’s my whole outlook on life, not to go down to the crossroads, but to give people through my music and guitar playing a sense of spirituality as well as a chance to enjoy themselves, and lyrics and songs that they can remember for years to come. That’s, for me, what music is really about.

The album definitely captures that spirit, and makes a powerful statement. What was it like putting it together?

It was really based on getting with T Bone to have fun and record a lot of music, you know, spending time with T Bone and all of his friends, guys like Gregg Allman, Leon Russell, Elton John, Robert Plant, and Robbie Robertson, hanging around the studio, and taking it all in. It was such a treat being with him throughout this process and learning about so much music, going through iTunes and finding all of this old music like Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Leadbelly, just a lot of older, obscure stuff that I hadn’t been turned on to. T Bone was more like, “Man, I’d sure like to see what you would do with this stuff, Robert.”

It’s really interesting the way you draw from traditional gospel and blues numbers. Tell me how you went about reworking them.

Take “Dry Bones.” When you get to it, it’s got to sound like “Dry Bones.” The idea was just to let the song play and jam around it. The next thing you know, the jam turned into something else. When we found something that worked, we’d start around the structure of the song and take it somewhere else. With “Dry Bones,” we rewrote the lyrics to match the context of what’s going on in the world today.

There are also a couple of interesting covers on the album. How did you find those?

We were just searching for songs and ideas. When we’d go into the studio, we’d either work on writing a song or finding something cool to get into. We found that Prince song towards the end, “Walk Don’t Walk.” It just sounded like a Robert Randolph and the Family Band thing.

I thought the exact same thing about Bob Dylan’s “Shot of Love.”

That’s what a lot of people say. When I heard “Shot of Love” for the first time, I said, “Man, that’s a song I want to do, right there,” and T Bone got with it. It just fell right in line with the Robert Randolph and the Family Band story.

You were talking about jamming with a bunch of T Bone’s friends earlier. You’ve also got a great mix of collaborators on the album. How was it recording with your friend, Ben Harper, on the song “If I Had My Way”?

“If I Had My Way” was another one of those songs where we were just messing around. We looped it just to see what would happen. We had played the music, jammed to it, and kept the Blind Willie Johnson thing in the background. We had written a couple of different version of it. Then one day I called Ben Harper to work on some other stuff, but that song was playing.

He was like, “Man, what’s that?”

I said, “It’s just this thing we’re trying to fix up.”

“Well, let me take a crack at it. Is that, that Blind Willie Johnson thing?”

He came in and just killed those choruses, man. The next thing you know we had a whole song. Then we went back and re-cut the song with Ben’s choruses. It turned out to be this cool, great shuffle that we’ll be singing for a long time.

There are definitely a lot of fireworks going on. What about recording “Salvation” with Leon Russell?

It was sort of the same thing with Leon Russell. We had that song (“Salvation”). It was a song that I had collaborated on with a guy named Steve McEwan and a few others years ago. Leon just happened to be in town meeting with Elton John. He had told T Bone that he wanted to come to the studio because he was a big fan of ours. So he came in, and we were playing, and he was just sitting down. Then he asked, “Do you mind if I play a little bit of piano on this one?” We didn’t have a plan. He just went for it.

The last time I saw you play was at Voodoo Fest 2009. A cold front had come through that weekend. It was rainy and muddy, just miserable weather. But you had people jumping the barricades and climbing on the stage to dance with you. What is it about your music that gets people going?

It gives off this sort of cool, spiritual feeling, but at the same time it brings about this joyful energy. Sometimes dancing and having good time becomes contagious, especially when it’s done in a positive setting and the lyrics make you feel good. It brings about a great party atmosphere. It makes you want to hug somebody, dance sing, and have a blast.

You’re certainly no stranger to New Orleans. You’ve played Jazz Fest, Voodoo, and you’ve hit up most of the clubs in town. You’ve even recorded with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. How do you relate to the city and the music of New Orleans?

It’s got that same vibe, that life should always be great. I’ve been to a funeral in New Orleans and seeing how they do it, that’s how we did funerals in my church growing up. It’s a home-going. It’s a celebration. People sing and dance, and there are horns and tambourines, and the guitar gets going. There’s such a similarity with the way we do things.

When I first saw you, it must have been about eight years ago. You came through a small club in Baton Rouge. Since then I’ve seen you pack venues, play to rock festival crowds, and trade licks with Eric Clapton. What’s you’re favorite setting to jam in?

Man, I’d have to say when you play a hot, sweaty club and everybody’s on top of you – a place like Tipitina’s – that’s the best kind of vibe. It’s a contagious thing. It feels good. It’s hot and sweaty, and everybody is just jamming out. Guests are coming by. People are coming in town, hanging out. That’s a real great feeling.

Robert Randolph and the Family Band play Tipitina’s Saturday night with John “Papa” Gros opening. Tickets are on sale now.