Souls Searching
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January_February 2014 T Bone Burnett . Shonna Tucker . Les Claypool . Sharon Jones . moe. Free CDInside! relix Tedeschi Trucks Band Trucks Tedeschi Jonathan Wilson Anders Osborne Anders Jonathan Wilson The Gentle White Denim Spirit Returns Chris Robinson Brotherhood Chris Robinson Anders Osborne Improvising on Tradition moe. White Denim Shonna Tucker The Music Is the Message Hard Working Americans Working Hard Tunde Adebimpe Te d e s c hi Tr uc ks B and Souls Searching Golden Ears Chris Robinson Brotherhood Meet Their Match Issue 253 January_February 2014 $6.99 www.relix.com 49 TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND S O U L S SEARCHING Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi turned heads when they both put their successful solo projects on hold to pursue the new, 11-person Tedeschi Trucks Band in the middle of an economic recession. Now, two studio albums and hundreds of dates later, their new family band has grown into much more than a short-term side-project. By DEAN BUDNICK Photo by MARK SELIGER JANUARY_FEBRUARY 2014 | WWW.RELIX.COM 50 | Tedeschi Trucks Band “ Nice.You can’t go wrong with Hendrix.” Derek Trucks shares his enthusiasm at the outset of an impromptu listening connection he had with Phil party on the second floor of Swamp Raga Studios. Nestled comfortably and [Bill] Kreutzmann—that trio especially—when you listen within a plush chair while his wife Susan Tedeschi settles in on an adjoining to the tapes, it’s like a band couch, the pair salute the selection of longtime crew member and studio within a band. When these engineer Bobby Tis, who carefully removes Axis: Bold As Love from its dust three guys lined up, it was like jacket and dutifully cleans the album. Tis proceeds deliberately—a sonic this little sports car inside of this really loose Salvador Dali cleric preparing an offering for the turntable. painting.” At the close of his Phil and He cues it up and the results place. It was like jumping into eventually accepted a two-week Friends run, Trucks, who was are nothing short of a revelation. warm water.” stint of Phil and Friends dates, still living with his parents, A true Jimi Hendrix Experience Yet while Swamp Raga offers stepping in for guitarist Steve returned home to find a check delivered as originally intended, a familiar, comfortable setting Kimock, who had departed in the mail for his efforts. with exquisite clarity and for Tedeschi Trucks Band, a mid-tour. (Trucks originally However, upon opening the separation. place to call their own, it is not indicated that he would need envelope, he was reluctant to Though they have heard this just a home studio.Rather, to postpone his involvement cash it, fearing that there may album many times before, situated 40 yards from the by a few days to honor prior have been an error. Trucks Tedeschi, Trucks and Tis soon house where the group’s commitments with The Derek had agreed to a salary that he chatter excitedly about their married namesakes first settled Trucks Band, but two Deadhead believed was a lump sum for discoveries from this go-round. in together and are now raising club owners agreed to the entire tour, yet the check They marvel at the interview their two children, it truly is a postponements as personal was 12 times that score. After segment that opens the record, home studio. favors to Phil.) Phil’s office validated the as Mitch Mitchell’s voice drifts “Those two weeks on that amount of the unexpected to the right side of the room **** Phil gig were pretty amazing, windfall, confirming that the before abruptly careening in the SWAMP RAGA WOULD NOT going in pretty green to the agreed-on compensation had opposite direction with a hard exist but for the largesse of two whole thing,” Trucks remembers. been for each gig and not the left. Eyes open and ears wide, renowned benefactors. “Every day, I would get a tour in total, Derek decided to they exhibit the animation and In late October 1999, a cassette tape of the Dead doing go house-hunting. Trucks and energy of like-minded music 20-year-old Trucks had just versions of tunes we would play Tedeschi were dating at the buffs. walked offstage following a that night, so I would sit down time and he invited her to Of course, they’re much performance with his own with headphones, make crude join him in the pursuit, which more than that because the self-titled group at The Attic charts and then, I’d just wing it. resulted in the purchase of floor below is where Tedeschi in Greensboro, N.C., when he No one plays like Phil. You’d the house along Jacksonville’s Trucks Band have recorded two noticed a few missed calls from know where he was going—he Julington Creek where they heralded studio albums, most a 415 area code. would spell it out—but it’s all still reside today. recently Made Up Mind, the “I didn’t know anybody from improv and it’s all him taking it Their studio was a product follow-up to the group’s 2011 415, but my number was the to different places. It was a lot of Trucks’ period on the road debut. community phone for the band of fun just following him. with Eric Clapton in 2006 and “Every night, when we’d get so everybody’s family would “Learning that material, 2007. Eager to spend more done tracking, we’d come up call if it was an emergency. you get a quick appreciation time at home, he envisioned here and listen to it on this There was a message from for what’s great about it. I creating a rehearsal space in his system,” Trucks explains. “That Phil Lesh, and I recognized the think people underestimate backyard for The Derek Trucks way, we’d know we were not name but I couldn’t fully place how unique the songwriting Band. So he grabbed a legal pad bullshitting ourselves. These it. I knew there was a Grateful was with the band. It’s pretty and a measuring tape, jotting things are relentless.” Dead connection there but I advanced stuff harmonically; down a rough outline of a small “If you come up here with a didn’t know that stuff at all.” there’s a lot going on. And building that could replace his half-assed mix…” Tis remarks. Trucks returned the call and Garcia was one of a kind. The fishing shack in the backyard. “It exaggerates the wrong,” “I remember showing this to Trucks adds with a laugh. Bobby and he said, ‘Let me By all accounts, these wrongs show these to my dad,’ because were few and far between his dad [Bob Tis] builds studios, during the creation of Made Up “ We usually paint a pretty picture but it’s not and I got back these proper Mind. As vocalist Mike Mattison perfect all of the time. It’s hard. Derek’s used to drawings for a room. The timing recalls, “The first time everybody being a leader and having things flow smoothly. was great. The Clapton tour was getting used to how this I’m sort of like a big stick in the wheel and he has had just happened and I said, would work—finding a routine to deal with me on top of it. I have to deal with him. ‘We’re going to pretend this and finding a method—but with We’ve been really lucky that we’ve been able to didn’t happen and we’re building this record, that was already in communicate.” SUSAN TEDESCHI a studio.’ No new car, every check WWW.RELIX.COM | JANUARY_FEBRUARY 2014 Tedeschi Trucks Band | 51 Derek and Susan “Bound For Glory” at Lockn’ would go to David [his brother, for the world of sports, this 2000s, the musicians and crew precursor to Tedeschi Trucks the second of four Trucks mantra from the 1989 baseball took a detour one afternoon to Band. It drew together members children—Derek is the eldest fantasy film Field Of Dreams is local batting cages. With the of the couple’s respective followed by David, Duane and altogether apropos when pitching machine set to fast, touring groups. On one hand, Lindsey], who was overseeing describing the genesis of the Tedeschi was the only one to it was an attempt by the family the project. We had a lot of Tedeschi Trucks Band and their make contact with every pitch. to be together while the couple’s friends and people cutting us debut recording at Swamp Raga. “I’ve got good hand-eye son Charlie and his younger deals on anything they could Back when she was growing coordination but I’m not a sister Sophia were out of school but it was still expensive. We up outside Boston, Susan power hitter—I’m more like an during summer vacation. Beyond cut corners without cutting Tedeschi attended a basketball Ichiro [Suzuki, who celebrated that, Trucks acknowledges, quality. My dad and brothers camp run by former Celtics his 4,000th professional hit in “In the back of my mind, it was did the roof.” center Dave Cowens. She is 2013].” an unspoken audition for us— “I soldered most of the stuff still a tenacious defender when In July 2008, while touring to see if it made sense, if we in this place myself,” Bobby drawn into the “musicians with the Derek Trucks & Susan enjoyed it, if it was something attests, “because I had spent all ball” games that the group Tedeschi Soul Stew Revival, we wanted to do.” the other money.