Features

Meet The Parents: Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks (Relix Revisited: 2003)

The Wife

Susan Tedeschi has been Hampmotized herself. She is an acolyte of sufficient degree to record a paean to The Colonel on Wait for Me. The ARU founder and current Codetalker even makes a credited appearance on “Hampmotized.”

Tedeschi laughs when describing her friendship with Hampton. “I often joke that I’ve ruined my career, I’m under his spell.” Her dulcet voice has just a hint of southern lilt, which the Norwell, Massachusetts native may be acquiring via her husband and their southern domicile.“He just pokes so much fun at the institutionalization of music, at the Ization ofmusic.He really gets to the essence of what it should be about, which is being yourself and making the best music that you can.”

She has taken this message to heart. Her 1998 release Just Won’t Burn was something of a surprise mainstream success, yielding two AAA radio staples and eventually achieving gold status. Far more unanticipated was her 1999 Best New Artist Grammy nomination which earned her the right to compete against Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Macy Gray and Kid Rock (alas, Aguilera took home the award).

Some executives at Tedeschi’s label hoped to capitalize on the resulting notoriety by encouraging her to record a follow-up with songs in the Sheryl Crow rock vein. She initially assented but ultimately decided against it, agreeing to assume the recording costs and table any further sessions until she had an opportunity to work on her own terms.“The record company said it was good and I said, ‘Yeah but it wasn’t great.’ They thought it was good enough to release but I didn’t, so I was the one who ate the money. It was worth it to me to wait for something that I could get behind and tour because I wasn’t going to play a lot of those tunes out live. I didn’t feel good about releasing a record where I didn’t want to play the songs.” In the interim, she remained on the road, “and when those pressures died down, I was ready to go into the studio again.”

Tedeschi’s touring allowed time for her band to make collective strides while also permitting her to develop further on guitar. She had focused on voice at the Berklee College of Music and didn’t pick up the instrument with any serious intent until the mid-‘90s. Her cited influences include Johnny “Guitar”Watson, Freddie King,Magic Sam and Wes Montgomery. Charlie Christian likely deserves a place in the canon as well, given the fact that her son is named after the jazz guitarist (Derek reveals, “We were kind of joking around, calling him Django and Charlie when he was in the belly but Charlie just really fit”). Susan has some pleasant associations with the road as it was while opening the ABB’s 1999 summer tour that she began spending time with Derek (they married in December of 2001 with Sacred Steel master Aubrey Ghent officiating).

As for the new release, Wait for Me is her most diverse and engaging offering yet. Tedeschi produced the disc (with the exception of two tracks credited to her husband) and the arrangements have much more room to breathe. “On the last record I felt I was having to do a lot of belting and having to please a lot of people, trying to go over the top with everything. With this one I wasn’t doing thirty takes trying to get it right. I just did one or two. I tried to make a record and not stress about it too much.”

The disc showcases her command of far more than blues vocals. “Wrapped in the Arms of Another,” an original song she had longed to record for a decade, features just herself and Kofi Burbridge on piano. Her reading of Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” is a revelation, as her clarity invests the classic with new resonance (it also features an evocative organ solo by Jason Crosby). The album closes out with Tedeschi in jazz chanteuse mode, as old friends Paul Rishell and Annie Raines join her for the sultry “Blues on a Holiday.” Indeed, the album is an organic whole with only the horn-abetted first track “Alone,” somewhat misplaced.