New Orleans will be getting a double dose of The Word in April as the pedal steel guitar driven gospel and blues band comes to town for Jazz Fest.

The band, composed of Robert Randolph, John Medeski, and Luther Dickinson, Cody Dickinson and Chris Chew from North Mississippi Allstars, will play the Joy Theater on April 26 and will appear at Jazz Fest on April 30.

The Word is on tour in support of their new album Soul Food, their first recording in 14 years, which will be released on May 5 by Vanguard Records.

The album will include John Medeski’s “Swamp Road,” a tune inspired by New Orleans pianist James Booker and previously rendered on an obscure session with DJ Logic.

It will also feature a song inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Free at Last” speech.

The album is also a reflection of the band’s geographical scope, beginning in a New York studio and finishing at the home of Hi Records in Memphis.

The Word came together in 1998 with the melding of Medeski, Martin & Wood with the North Mississippi Allstars driven by a common interest for sacred steel, an ecstatic pedal steel guitar used in sanctified churches played with the authority and scale of a church organ.