The Tedeschi Trucks Band is the proudest kind of throwback, showing remarkable affinity for an era of music that happened largely before Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks were born (that would be the glory days of FM rock radio, roughly 1969-71). But they treat that era as a well to draw from, to fuel their own personal explanations.
Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. Photo courtesy of the band.
Friday night’s show at the Saenger Theater had two sets that typically went all over the map. They shake up the setlist from night to night, which is typical enough for jam bands—but not all that typical for 11-piece bands with a horn section, a team of backup singers, and a preference for keeping the arrangements fairly tight. On a good night there’ll be a bit of everything—R&B revue type songs, bluesy jams, occasions for Trucks to unleash on guitar and for Tedeschi to shine vocally. And ideally, a song or two that you never expected to hear. The first Saenger night had all the above.
They drew from the ’69-’71 well often enough, starting the night with an Allman Brothers Band song from that era, “Stand Back,” (which Trucks of course played as a band member many decades later). The inevitable choice for New Orleans, Dr. John’s “Walk On Gilded Splinters” featured some of Trucks’ slinkiest slide guitar, while “Presence of the Lord” (Eric Clapton’s composition from Blind Faith days) had a Tedeschi vocal that compared favorably with Steve Winwood’s original—and a guitar jam that, like the original recorded one, was over as quickly as it began. George Harrison’s “Wah-Wah” got more of a makeover, putting its underlying melancholia a little more upfront.
The one ringer in their covers was a song that started up like an Allmans-style rocker, in fact the hardest-rocking tune of the night—but wound up being a redefined version of Prince’s “D.M.S.R.” In a world overloaded with reverent covers of “Purple Rain,” this was a reminder of how much pure fun there was in Prince’s music (the title stands for the four essentials of life—dance, music, sex, romance). It also provided a moment of glory for Mike Pattison, whose role in the band— nominal lead singer when Tedeschi takes most of the vocals—is a bit of a thankless one.
The only downside was the short shrift given to the band’s latest release(s), the four-LP series I Am the Moon (all released over three months in 2022). Inspired by the Arabian legend of Layla and Majnun—yes, the same story that fired Clapton ’s imagination way back when—it brought Tedeschi Trucks Band music into new realms of poetry and psychedelia, turning those classic-rock inspirations into something more individual. They’ve already done a tour around it, so on Friday it was down to just four songs—including the night’s high point, a segue from the ballad “Hear My Dear” to the spacey funk of “Playing With My Emotions,” both beautifully sung by Tedeschi. We get it that jam bands usually aren’t into flogging the latest album, but that’s worth reconsidering when it’s also your peak to date.
Not surprisingly, the band played an entirely different setlist at the Saenger the next night. Saturdays setlist had different choices from the Allmans (“Come and Go Blues,”) Clapton (“Keep On Growing”) and Prince (“1999”), plus a different New Orleans standard in the Meters’ “It Ain’t No Use,” for which George Porter Jr. joined in.
Tedeschi Trucks Band
