Growing family
Tedeschi Trucks Band keeps rolling with new energy, members
Rock bands typically describe themselves as a family. For Derek Trucks, that designation has real meaning.
He co-leads the Tedeschi Trucks Band with his wife, the Boston-raised Susan Tedeschi (and brothers Kofi and Oteil Burbridge, on keys and bass respectively, were two early members). Trucks rose to fame playing slide guitar in the Allman Brothers Band with his uncle, drummer Butch Trucks. Sadly, over the past few years the younger Trucks has said goodbye to too many members of his literal and musical family — Butch and musical mentor Col. Bruce Hampton died in 2017; Kofi Burbridge passed away in January.
“You can’t replace these people,” Trucks said ahead of his band’s annual run of shows at the Orpheum — this year Thursday, Friday and Saturday. “Take Kofi, you can’t recreate that role, he just had his own feel and soul.”
And yet, to continue as a band, someone needed to sit down behind the keyboards and jam with the masters. Gabe Dixon has taken over on keys and, filling what has often been a revolving position, Brandon Boone has joined as bassist.
“We didn’t want someone to try and be like Kofi, we wanted someone who had their own energy,” Trucks said of Dixon, who he met about two decades ago when the two shared bills. “Right out of the gate, Gabe was amazing. He took every song and made it his own.”
Trucks feels Boone is another perfect addition. Of course, the bassist came with a key reference.
“Our drummer, Tyler Greenwell, who lives in Atlanta, mentioned that
Brandon had played with the Colonel when he was in his early teens, that got his foot in the door,” Trucks said with a laugh — Trucks’ projects and Col. Bruce Hampton’s bands overlapped in the scene for years. “It’s a small circle and a friend of the Colonel’s is always a friend of ours. And when Brandon stepped in it was immediate. He got it.”
Naturally, Trucks and Tedeschi have already met the new guy’s whole family.
“His older brother is a drummer who plays in the Count Basie Big Band and his father led a lot of gospel choirs,” Trucks said. “You could just tell from his family that they are the reason Brandon is such a good dude.”
“After a year like we just had, I don’t know how we would have managed, or even if we would have wanted to keep grinding at it, if Gabe and Brandon’s spirit hadn’t been so great coming in,” Trucks added. “When you go through loss, the people you lean on are your family, whether that is through blood or not.”
What began as (another) brutal year, ends in the band’s second home in Boston. Tedeschi and Trucks live, record and raise their kids in Jacksonville, Fla. They often start their summer tours in the city. But they say farewell to the year at the Orpheum (this will be their fourth three-night stand at the concert hall).
“The last shows we did with Kofi were at the Orpheum so it will be tough,” Trucks said. “These runs at venues start to have good and hard history to them, more so in Boston. But we always get the whole band in a room at the Orpheum and talk about the year and make a toast and send everyone home to their family. And we are thankful to get to do that again.”