Soul Stew renaissance

I'm gonna tell you right now that I can't do it. In words, I can't explain what it was like to be at the Tedeschi Trucks Band show at the Beacon Theater on Sept. 10, 2011.
Because if I say that Susan Tedeschi might just be the best singer I've ever heard and if I tell you that there's seemingly no way that Derek Trucks can get better when he was already on the top of his game and atop the guitar world, it's gonna sound hollow and false.
But that's the way it was.
And I don't use those words lightly, I've seen a lot of great shows -- Susan and Derek's, separately and together, among them. A couple years ago, spent a fabulous weekend in New England catching two shows in their first incarnation as "Soul Stew Revival." (Which reminds me that the seemingly only flaw in their armor is a boring band name, the Soul Stew moniker was very, well, hearty.)
And the Soul Stew shows were amazing. A lot of fun and great, seamless music. But somehow they've found a whole different level.



Susan has always been off the beaten path, something I tend to take to across the board when it comes to declaring favorites. Kinda like early Bonnie Raitt, with the unfathomable ability to be spectacular on two fronts, singing and playing the guitar. I've seen her sing counterparts off the stage, but I never had tears welling in my eyes as many times as she made that happen at the Beacon.
And her guitar playing was just incendiary, her solos were just as powerful. You have to see this petite woman with the small speaking voice belting out the tunes like a rock 'n' roll torch singer and using her high heels to pump the wah-wah pedal to believe it.
As I mentioned earlier, I've seen Derek quite a few times in different bands. And I don't know why, but during those shows, I never really thought back to the first time, when he was a 14-year-old novelty act. A kid who could wail on a slide guitar practically bigger than he was. And everyone was so knocked out because he sounded like the guitar gods we'd all love to be able to emulate.
Well, he's one of them now. And right now, he feels like the best of them. In order to ascend to that plane, you have to be reverential about the music that inspired you, but somehow make it your own. And that's something I haven't really found to be true about the guitarists of his generation. In the truest mold of a blues musician, he's taken what he needs from what went before and created something that sounds like Derek Trucks. Without seeing him, you'd know in a heartbeat it was him.



But that's short-selling the equation, because Tedeschi Trucks Band is not just about the blues. It's about music across the board and all kinds of sounds -- soul and country and funk and rock 'n' roll.
And it's not just about Susan and Derek either, because they've put together a really great group of musicians who can spin on a dime. Lots of familiar names in the mix too -- the Burbridge brothers (dynamic Kofi on keyboards -- and note from Mark, sigh, flute -- and Oteil burning up the bass), Mike Mattison stepping to the side to do killer backup vocals with Mark Rivers, drummers Tyler Greenwell AND J.J. Johnson really driving the action in perfect syncopation by beating the snot out of their skins and the brassy trio of Kebbi Williams (sax), Maurice Brown (trumpet) and Saunders Sermons (trombone) in perfect co-existence.
So they blazed their way through a set that included "Don't Let Me Slide" (this has a separate life in one of the other six obsessive-compulsive tracks that run through my brain, so I was glad to put that aside quickly), the life-affirming "Space Captain" as part of the perfect mix of songs from the new album (and yes, they did release it on vinyl and I have it in that format) "Revelator" and covers they've claimed as their own.



"Until You Remember," "Midnight in Harlem," "Come See About Me" and "Learn How to Love" are all examples of how to take what you record and then take it somewhere else entirely when you get on stage. All very distinctive and atmospheric and just an example of what music can be at its very heart.
The covers also span a wide array of style and moods. "Anyday" is a Derek and the Dominos classic that Derek and Susan have been doing together for years that doesn't even feel like it belongs to Eric Clapton anymore. Stevie Wonder's "Uptight (Everything's Alright)" is another example of a song everyone knows and loves that got a completely fresh take and gave the whole band a chance to show off their musicality and showmanship.
So many people know Ray Charles' "The Night Time (Is the Right Time)" from a very entertaining episode of "The Cosby Show," in which the family lip-synchs to the record to celebrate an anniversary. Well no lip-synching on our front, and the vocalists really dazzled on their respective turns. (Video here is from their previous show, but I think it still makes the point.)
Mark called Tedeschi Trucks Band a modern-day Sly and the Family Stone, and that's a spot-on representation. If we needed further evidence of that, they barreled through a very engaging "Sing a Simple Song/Higher."



And since the Beacon is the de facto home of the Allman Brothers, Derek's most basic roots couldn't be and weren't left out. He delivered very tasty solos during "Coming Home" and "Anyday" so reminiscent of that sound that you recognize it immediately as being Allmanesque, but it reiterated how much he's grown since he joined forces with that group of relatives and friends.
So there's been a lot of praise dropped here, but I consider this last part to be of a pretty high caliber. In the middle of the worst time of year for me, it is far too easy for me to be "turned off" by something, even something I love. And I had some fear of that when we were walking up to the Beacon -- which reminds me of a totally unrelated story about how we were stopped because they were filming a Jeff Buckley movie ... the bad one. Anyway, it has happened before that I've gotten irritated and generally disinterested in something that I have great affinity for because of the stress quotient.
Not this time, baby. Exactly what my soul needed. Hey, I found the right words.