With the rock-and-soul ensemble set to play Acrisure Amphitheater next week, writer Dave Gil de Rubio interviews Susan Tedeschi about the band’s new album and current U.S. tour.
On the Road Again: Tedeschi Trucks Band spends about 200 days a year touring. (Photo/David McClister)
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Consider the time-worn adage, “Many hands make for light work.”
It’s certainly the case with the Tedeschi Trucks Band (TTB), a 12-piece outfit that’s been driven by the marital tandem of Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks dating back to the band’s Grammy Award-winning 2011 debut, “Revelator.”
Since then, the rock- and soul-fueled outfit has not only pumped out five more tasty albums (including a 2022 four-album opus, “I Am The Moon”) that have earned the band a rabid and loyal fan base, but further cemented this relationship via a storied reputation as one of rock’s best live acts.
Never a band to rest on its laurels, TTB are back with a sixth studio album, “Future Soul,” which tapped Mike Elizondo (Eminem, Carrie Underwood, Sheryl Crow) to co-produce the project with Trucks. The latter brought Elizondo into the fold after crossing paths with him a number of years ago while Trucks was working with Eric Clapton.
Having seen the producer play in a band with Doyle Bramhall II and Abe Laboriel Jr., the Florida-born Trucks was keen to get into the studio with Elizondo. Tedeschi quickly agreed with this choice and was more than happy with the co-producer’s contributions to this latest batch of songs.
Susan Tedeschi: ‘Future Soul’ was ‘a fun record.’ (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
“Mike is just such an incredible musician and we’d heard such great things about him,” she explained in an interview earlier this year. “He came up in the mix and we thought we needed to [work with him]. He’s just so sweet, easy to get along with and an incredible musician.
“He’s super musical and has really great ideas on arrangements, sounds and adding cool keyboards and different weird things — and how to get cool tones from all different kinds of amps. It was a lot of fun.”
For Tedeschi, who’s quick to admit to not being enamored with the recording process, this particular experience was rich and rewarding. It took place at the TTB spread in Jacksonville, Fla., where beyond Elizondo’s contributions, a large part of her enjoyment came from the collaborative nature that not only birthed the new record, but a currently unnamed EP set to drop later in the year.
“I usually don’t like making records because I’m so neurotic in the studio. I’m so used to performing that it’s such a different thing. But it was a really fun record,” she said. “I really enjoyed all the songwriters and all their contributions to this record. Some of these songs came about naturally and organically, just sitting around and getting some ideas. Derek would have an idea and he’d play it, I’d sing something and it would go one place.
“Somebody like Gabe [Dixon] comes in and helps finish the lyrics, because he’s such an incredible lyricist. I think we made a really nice record. It’s fun to listen to and to play live. I’m just really excited about the songwriting on this record for sure and the playability of it.”
A TOUR FEATURING NEW MATERIAL AND FAN FAVORITES
The band is proving that “playability” on its current U.S. tour, which stops at Grand Rapids’ Acrisure Amphitheater at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 25), with opener Alabama Shakes. Tickets, $73.85-$333.05, are available online here.
Part of “Future Soul’s” charm comes from the odd creative quirks that sparked collaboration within the band’s ranks. Tedeschi, a longtime Bob Dylan fan, considers the icon’s 1964 album, “The Times They Are a Changin’ ” “absolutely instrumental in making me who I’ve become in a lot of ways.” Her love for the artist popped up on the new record via the song “Who Am I.”
“My idea behind the lyrics at first was that I’d had a dream the night before about Bob Dylan,” Tedeschi explained. “It was like I was on a date with Bob Dylan in the ’60s. I was like, ‘You had me at hello/poetry and the wine flow/And in the dream you were mine.’ Then Gabe said it must be about me and Derek, so then it became more of a love song in that way.”
With the creative rocket fuel of new material to bring to the world, TTB is loaded for bear on its summer tour. Upping the ante are a number of dates with a host of famous friends — including Alabama Shakes and others such as The Black Crowes, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit, Sheryl Crow, JJ Grey & Mofro, Lukas Nelson and Molly Tuttle.
‘A Well-Oiled Ship’: Tedeschi Trucks Band (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
With the band generally spending upwards of 200 days on the road each year, Tedeschi embraces the idea of being in full live music mode and promises wildly varying set lists, particularly given the wealth of music from which the band can now draw.
“[Fans] can expect to hear some stuff from the new record, which we really enjoy playing,” she said. “We’ve been mixing it up so the set lists are very different every day. There’ll be a mix of this new record mixed in with past hits like ‘Midnight in Harlem.’
“Some nights you’ll get that and you’ll get ‘Bound For Glory’ and some of the old classics. But you’re going to get a lot of the new stuff and you’ll get maybe some deep cuts from some other albums that maybe you haven’t heard in a while along with some new fun covers.”
Working toward the same creative goals is at the crux of the band’s longevity, according to Tedeschi.
“We’ve managed to make it work for so long because we’re a well-oiled ship, and plus, my husband is an excellent bandleader,” she said. “We just have a lot of great musicians and people seem to really like it. I think it’s just a lot of hard work, a lot of great people with a lot of great minds coming together, plus we’ve got a lot in common.
“I think it’s one of those things that works. We keep on creating, so we’re never really stale. So that keeps it going. And also, we never take time off, so we don’t have time to think about not being together. We just work every year, like 200 days a year.” – By Dave Gil de Rubio, Last Word Features
VIDEO: Tedeschi Trucks Band, “Future Soul” (Live for ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’)
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