Tedeschi Trucks Band
Tedeschi Trucks singer and guitarist Susan takes on the apocalypse, laptops and her husband’s ever-changing facial hair.
Singer and guitarist Susan Tedeschi takes on the apocalypse, laptops and her husband’s ever-changing facial hair.
Oblivious to clock and calendar, immune to fashion and technology, the Tedeschi Trucks Band are blissfully adrift in their own era. Released in February, fourth album Signs found vocalist/guitarist Susan Tedeschi, guitarist Derek Trucks and the couple’s virtuoso 11-piece band hopping aboard the soul-blues time machine. But with the last year bringing political upheaval – and a tragic loss within their lineup – Tedeschi can’t shut out the here-and-now entirely.
How did you feel about the reaction to Signs? People seemed to really enjoy it. And it was extra-special, because Kofi [Burbridge], who was in our band, passed away the day it came out, but he did such brilliant work on the strings and everything. We were actually playing a show, and we found out a few hours ahead of time that he’d passed away, but we had to go on. It was really intense. Because Kofi had made it through the hard part of the surgery, and we thought he was gonna be on the up and up. So it was a big shock, and extrahard for Derek, because they were so close. He’d been playing with Kofi for basically twenty years.
Did you find yourself writing about the world around you on Signs? Well, if you look at a song like Shame – there’s a lot of that going on in the world, particularly amongst political leaders, and not just in our country. It’s a crazy time right now. It seems like there’s a lot of kids – like Greta Thunberg – that are really on it and are trying to educate the adults, who are stubborn and greedy. It’s the kids leading the anti-gun movement here. They have to. Can you imagine going to school and having to worry about a shooter? We didn’t grow up like that. We didn’t even grow up with cell phones.
It’s about to get even weirder, with the US elections next year… It’s terrifying, honestly. I think I’m just baffled at how you could show support for somebody who doesn’t even really care about our country.
What are the best bands and records you’ve heard this year? Well, we recently saw The Wood Brothers, and they were incredible. Our kids are both pretty hip and turn me and Derek on to a lot of stuff. My daughter likes Greta Van Fleet a lot, so I end up listening to them in the car, because she’s usually the one taking over the controls. She’s turned me onto The Jacks, and Billie Eilish, who I actually really like. She recently discovered Ozzy Osbourne and Led Zeppelin, and she’s quite a fan of Jim Morrison.
How will this past decade in rock’n’roll be remembered? Well, I hope people remember bands like The Wood Brothers, and Doyle Bramhall II, and our band, and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. But who knows? Are they gonna think of Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey? It kinda baffles me what is popular.
The Tedeschi Trucks Band started out in 2010. What was your mission? Well, it was more Derek’s vision. He was the one that was like, ‘Hey, I’m putting this band together, and scrapping my band, and you should scrap your band and come with me’. It was a big jump, but I was like, ‘Well, I’m not gonna pass up this opportunity, because he’s one of the best musicians I’ve ever known’. And we could have done a smaller band and made more money, but we thought it would be cooler to say, ‘What is your dream?’ And it was to play with a big band with horns and singers.
Derek started the decade clean-shaven – now he’s got a huge beard. Which do you prefer? I like the beard. I think the beard is great. He looks kinda like a professor.
There’s been lots of new music software released in 2019. Will we ever see a laptop on your stage? No. We’re anti-laptop. I think it’s important to play real music. People can feel the difference. I’ve seen people with laptops, and they can’t really stretch out and improv as long as they want, because then they run out of tracks. That actually happened once, when Derek went to sit in with, like, The Doobie Brothers, and they ran out of tracks and they didn’t know what to do.
Do you think the guitar will survive for another ten years? Of course. Guitar has always been the weapon of choice. You can pick it up, carry it with you. You can’t do that with a laptop. You can’t always get service. You can’t always have electricity. You can sit round a campfire in the woods and play a guitar.
What are your hopes and fears for 2020? The best thing would be that we would get a new president that cares about the climate, gun safety, healthcare, and all these things that we’re trying to fix. And the worst thing is that the planet is just gonna blow up and spit us out and we’re all gonna be extinct [laughs].
“It’s a crazy time right now. It’s the kids leading the anti-gun movement here. They have to.”
As music connoisseurs, do you listen to the usual corny Christmas songs – or are they banned in your house? Oh yeah, we play ’em at home. I mean, it’s more like Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, that kind of stuff. And there’s some great Christmas records by people like Mahalia Jackson, Donny Hathaway, Freddie King. And who’s the other girl I’m thinking of, who you always hear, who’s got that classic Christmas song…?
I’m guessing you don’t mean Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You? No, we don’t listen to that [laughs]!
The Tedeschi Trucks Band play SSE Wembley Arena on February 1.