Twice as much Tedeschi Trucks Band

It was great fun to experience Tedeschi Trucks Band's Beacon residency this year from two different angles.

I went with Mark to the opening show Friday, then with my cousin, Jill, and her daughter, Kristen, on Tuesday. As usual, Mark and I recognized songs two or three notes into the piece, while Jill and Kristen sat back and enjoyed the musicality of performers at the top of their respective games.

The Friday show opener was Amy Ray, perhaps best known as half of the Indigo Girls, but working her "country project" to full advantage. It was an energetic set capped off by the appearance of Susan Tedeschi for the final two songs -- a cover of the Indigo Girls' "Share the Moon" and a tribute to the co-founding member of the Allman Brothers Band entitled "Duane Allman."

Friday setlist: Don’t Know What It Means; Keep On Growing; It Ain’t Easy; Laugh About It; Right On Time; Get Out Of My Life, Woman; Isn’t It A Pity; I Want More; Soul Sacrifice; Within You Without You; Just As Strange; How Blue Can You Get?; Don’t Drift Away; Sticks & Stones; Had To Cry Today. Encore: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere (with Amy Ray) 



Park still refers to the Tedeschi Trucks Band as "Soul Stew," the moniker they used when Derek Trucks and wife Susan Tedeschi first started combining forces on the road together. They've always provided a hearty meal for the senses.

I was particularly thrilled to get Derek and the Dominos' "Keep on Growing" and Blind Faith's "Had to Cry Today" on Friday's setlist. Now mind you, as a purist, I wouldn't just accept any old act covering treasures from two of my five favorite albums of all time. You've got to have A+ game, which Tedeschi Trucks Band always delivers.



It was also a thrill to hear "Isn't It a Pity," which now not only reminds me of the song's author, George Harrison, but also of Billy Preston, who did such a bang-up job combining with Eric Clapton on that tune at the tribute concert for George.

Derek's just my favorite guitar on the planet. I've been watching him since he was 13, and I still marvel at the fact he seems to continue to get better every time despite already being on top of his game. This show featured a lot of echoes of his self-titled band with such Derek Trucks Band standards as "Get Out of My Life, Woman" and the Nina Simone cover, "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free." Mike Mattison took the lead several times, including on the former and the Howlin' Wolf cover "I've Been Abused."

Although there wasn't spoken reference to Derek's other other band, the Allman Brothers during the TTB set, he did get people's eyes bulging out of our collective heads by donning what looked to be Duane Allman's Goldtop Les Paul for a searing cover of Santana's "Soul Sacrifice."

Rest assured, Susan found it pretty easy to carve out some space front and center. Paying tribute to B.B. King, who once made Johnny Moore's "How Blue Can You Get?" his own, Tedeschi did the same by scorching vocally and with the guitar (in B.B. style) until the house was on our collective feet.



The second night featured Dave Mason, who opened with a set that included a lot of Traffic staples, with varying degrees of success. Taking a different tack with "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys" made it stand out over such fare as "Dear Mr. Fantasy," in which the absence of Steve Winwood was more keenly felt. But as expected, the virtuoso guitarist was at his best working the strings of his instrument. I rued the fact that "Only You Know and I Know" was done without Tedeschi's powerhouse vocals, but Jill was kinda thrilled to hear "We Just Disagree." And then we were given a reminder that he has played with all of the notable names of his era with his set closer, "All Along the Watchtower" -- he played acoustic guitar on Jimi Hendrix's legendary cover of soon-to-be Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan's song.

Tuesday's setlist: Goin' Down to Mexico, Let Me Get By, Laugh About It, Bird on the Wire, Just as Strange, Idle Wind, Bitches Brew, Color of the Blues, Don't Know What It Means, Get What You Deserve, I Cannot Make It, That Did It, I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to Be Free, I Want More, Soul Sacrifice. Encore: Night Time Is the Right Time, Feelin' Alright (with Dave Mason).
 
A few overlaps from my first night here, but the overriding takeaway was that the former Derek Trucks Band vibe is becoming more ever-present in the current Tedeschi Trucks Band incarnation. And that's not a bad thing, just an observation. Mike Mattison actually started the show on lead vocals with the ZZ Top cover "Goin' Down to Mexico" before coming out of the back row for the likes of "Get What You Deserve" and "I Wish I Knew How to Be Free." The Miles Davis cover "Bitches Brew" also reminded me of Derek's previous band in that the jazzy element was always a fret away.

Jill and Kristen seemed to get into the show right away. And it doesn't hurt when the upbeat nature of "Let Me Get By" gives way to a glorious cover of Leonard Cohen's "Bird on a Wire." Tedeschi Trucks Band ran the full gamut -- pulse-pounding rockers to thoughtful ballads without dropping a beat. There were moments when I could tell my relatives were blown away -- or they have seriously good poker faces.

One of the highlights of the set came with just Tedeschi, Mattison and Alecia Chakour clustered together for George Jones' "Color of the Blues." We heard tell that Susan guests on that number on John Prine's new duet album. If it's half as good as it was delivered that night, that will be worth the price of a download.



Duane's Gold Top made its way to the stage again for "Soul Sacrifice." Hey, who wouldn't play that any chance they got? Derek delivered another masterful sequence of solos to cap the set. And although, I could watch/listen to him do that forever, he was gracious enough to let Eric Krasno have much of the time and space on the Sly and the Family Stone cover "I Cannot Make It."

Susan again grabbed the guitar spotlight, tearing the house down during the Bobby "Blue" Bland tune "That Did It." I was exhausted after she finished knocking that one out and was glad that she could "take it easy" for the next couple of numbers after that. She probably didn't need to, but I think I did. If we've said it once, we've said it 100 times -- how fair is it that she's got that powerful singing voice and then this supreme talent for scorching the guitar on top of it?



The encores were fun -- first the horn section got to work it out on Ray Charles' "Night Time is the Right Time" and then Dave Mason (and his keyboard player Tony Patler) came out for "Feelin' Alright." Yeah, we were feelin' no pain after that one. Except for the thought of having to wait another year for the next Beacon residency.