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

Susan, Derek and Charlie in 2003

Derek receives his first-ever producer credit on a pair of songs where Tedeschi is backed by the DTB. “Gonna Move” is an invigorating take on a Paul Pena tune, an artist the couple first encountered through the Genghis Blues documentary. “Feeling Music Brings” is a collective composition originally recorded for a Derek Trucks Band album. Tedeschi contributed the melody and lyrics by which “I wanted to communicate how I needed to get back down to the roots of life and music and forget all the other crap. Just get to the purity of it and start doing it for the right reasons, rather than trying to please other people.”

This ethos led her to jettison any traditional tour plans in support of the album. Instead, she accepted an offer from Phil Lesh to spend a few weeks on the road adding harmony vocals to the Other Ones. “I thought it would be a good challenge for me to learn some harmonies and all those crazy tunes because they have more than a hundred and every night we’re doing different stuff.” (Her favorites to sing on include “Sugaree,” “Shakedown Street,” “Mason’s Children,” and for obvious reasons, “Mr. Charlie.”) On many nights she walked directly off stage to nurse Charlie before returning, as the Other Ones shows also marked Susan’s first tour as a performer since the birth of her son.

The Son

Susan and Charlie’s visit to the Webster Theater on November 21 was just one instance of family travel that will likely transform many off-days into travels days. A few nights earlier Derek embarked on a similar trip to watch Susan make her debut with the Other Ones. Despite this perpetual movement he remains sanguine, his eyes open wide to “just watching the freshness of my son. He’s always on the go and everything is a marvel to him at all times. When you first hear your baby gut laugh it is such an amazing thing that you can’t believe it’s happening.” Trucks approaches life with such equanimity and hearty spirit that one suspects his attitude will endure.

Yet Tedeschi doesn’t deny there are hardships. “It’s difficult because Derek doesn’t get to see Charlie as much as he should, which isn’t easy, and I’m off by myself traveling. I may have someone out with me but I’m his mom and it’s a lot of work.” However, she tempers this with the observation that “he’s never been in day care. I’ve had him with me the whole time. We’re also fortunate because we get to play music and do what we love to do.”

Plus Charlie has a unique opportunity to engage music, from pounding on Bob Weir’s guitar at soundcheck to perking up at Srinivas’ Rama Sreerama, a favorite from the womb. While most babies respond to song, few have the opportunity to experience such a palette of sounds with immediacy. Charlie was only ten days old when he took in his first snippets of an ABB performance at the Beacon Theatre. Susan mentions that her son now recognizes his father’s guitar tone—“Whenever he hears Derek he knows who it is and gets excited. And when he hears me singing he screams and gets mad because he wants to be up there where I am.” Indeed, while complications still loom, for now, all three members of the household remain “thankful for this feeling that music brings.”