{"id":4129,"date":"2011-11-03T21:51:58","date_gmt":"2011-11-04T04:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4129"},"modified":"2011-11-03T21:51:58","modified_gmt":"2011-11-04T04:51:58","slug":"derek-trucks-susan-tedeschi-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/derek-trucks-susan-tedeschi-2\/","title":{"rendered":"DEREK TRUCKS & SUSAN TEDESCHI"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>DEREK TRUCKS & SUSAN TEDESCHI<\/h1>\n

Two guitar aces making beautiful music together\u2014onstage and off<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cMusic is supposed to be\u00a0medicinal,\u201d says Derek Trucks. \u201cIt should be uplifting and it should be a tool for relief. That\u2019s the point of a band like this.\u201d The group he\u2019s talking about is the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the 11-member ensemble (including two drummers, background vocalists and a horn section) he leads with his wife and fellow master guitarist Susan Tedeschi. The idea, according to Trucks, is to have \u201ca big, crazy army that writes together and bleeds together and allows everyone to shine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trucks and Tedeschi have long envisioned forming such an act together. Married since 1999, the two often shared the same stage, played on each other\u2019s albums and even vied for Grammy honors in the same category. But other commitments\u2014Trucks had his own Derek Trucks Band and a steady gig with the Allman Brothers Band; Tedeschi had her solo career\u2014kept them from uniting for a record. \u201cWe were both charging ahead with our individual careers,\u201d Trucks says. \u201cNow, we\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s debut album, Revelator<\/em>, offers up a simmering mix of fiery blues rockers, gospel-tinged ballads and soulful R&B. Trucks\u2019 stinging slide work and Tedeschi\u2019s smoldering rhythm chops are duly showcased, but the emphasis is less on solos than on songcraft and Tedeschi\u2019s bluesy vocals. Trucks and Tedeschi talked to us about their goals for the band from their home in Jacksonville, Fla., where the couple recorded Revelator <\/em>in their own studio.<\/p>\n

Why do this now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TRUCKS: It was a multitude of things. Our kids are a bit older, the Allman Brothers are doing fewer dates, and it was time to take a break after 16 years being on the road with my band. Plus our relationship is at a more mature point. We\u2019ve been through the fire, musically and personally, and we\u2019re more adult now. It was now or never.<\/p>\n

TEDESCHI: We\u2019ve always had an understanding that someday we would put our other projects aside and make an album together. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve been anticipating the whole 12 years we\u2019ve been together.<\/p>\n

Why emphasize the vocals?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TEDESCHI: Having our own studio allowed me the time to try various microphones. In the past I haven\u2019t had that luxury. We found a mic that I really felt comfortable with. Jim Scott [who co-produced with Trucks] and [engineer] Bobby Tis have a beautiful gift. They hear things in a pure way, and they know how to capture that on tape. This is a revolutionary album for me. We did some daring things, like recording my vocals very dry without much reverb. A lot of producers would\u00a0never do that.<\/p>\n

TRUCKS: I\u2019ve heard Susan sing in many different situations, and I know how powerful, beautiful and nuanced her voice can be. That had never been represented properly.<\/p>\n

What microphone did you use?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TEDESCHI: A Neumann U 47. It was bought specifically for me, but this album is the first instance I\u2019ve gotten to use it. I tried other microphones as well and a lot of them have great qualities, but they missed various parts of my range. The U 47 captures all parts of my vocal range.<\/p>\n

How did you find your songwriting collaborators for the album?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TEDESCHI: I felt certain that Gary Louris from the Jayhawks was someone Derek would click with\u2014and sure enough they hit it off right away. The three of us wrote a song in 10 minutes. And then there was John Leventhal, who I had written with,\u00a0and David Ryan Harris, who Derek\u00a0brought in. I didn\u2019t know David, but I fell in love with a lot of the melodies he came up with. His approach is like Stevie Wonder\u2019s\u00a0in a way\u2014very soulful.<\/p>\n

Why double drummers?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TRUCKS: Part of that idea came from listening to some of the great James Brown recordings. There\u2019s that low sizzle you get with two drummers, a simmering sort\u00a0of thing that feels like an army approaching. Plus I knew from playing with the Allman Brothers all these years that when that train gets going there\u2019s nothing like it. Any time I\u2019ve been in a situation with two drummers it\u2019s always felt epic. Our drummers, Tyler Greenwell and J.J. Johnson, have such a special connection that sometimes you can\u2019t even tell both are playing. They complement one other in a way that sounds\u00a0like super-stereo.<\/p>\n

How did you approach the guitar?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TRUCKS: I was more conscious of making every sound that came out of the guitar serve the song, especially when it came to solos. There are one or two songs where I just air it out, but for the most part it was about playing in the spirit of the song. I wanted the guitar solo to complement the mood, if not an outright extension. The beauty of the album is that from song to song it feels like a scene shift, like theatrical changes. The moods are strong and different from song to song, and I didn\u2019t want to disrupt that illusion.<\/p>\n

TEDESCHI: Playing guitar is as important to me as ever. Part of the reason is that there aren\u2019t a lot of women who do it. I can\u2019t tell you how many little girls\u2014actually women of all ages\u2014have said to me how I\u2019ve inspired them to pick up the guitar. That\u2019s important, because it still is such a male-dominated industry. It\u2019s important that women know they can play electric guitar, too. Most women play acoustics and play chords, but they\u2019re not really improvising or creating melodies based in the moment. Bonnie Raitt is a rare exception, but she\u2019s really a slide player. You don\u2019t hear her ripping leads very often. Derek understands all this, and he\u2019s been very supportive in that way. He\u2019s a big fan of my guitar playing. That means a lot to me, because I think he\u2019s the best living guitar player in the world.<\/p>\n

Why the title Revelator<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

TRUCKS: It refers to the revealing of simple truths. Music is supposed to help you navigate through life. It\u2019s supposed to make you feel better and express things you can\u2019t in any other way. That\u2019s our goal. You show up in a town and try to make things better for a few hours. When I set aside time to listen to an album, that\u2019s what music does for me. And it asks something of you, too. You have to participate in order to get the most out of it. This band has a unique opportunity to touch on many different things. The musicianship is strong enough that it can go in any direction. I don\u2019t see a ceiling for what this band can do. This album is the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n

\u2013Russell Hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DEREK TRUCKS & SUSAN TEDESCHI Two guitar aces making beautiful music together\u2014onstage and off \u201cMusic is supposed to be\u00a0medicinal,\u201d says Derek Trucks. \u201cIt should be uplifting and it should be a tool for relief. That\u2019s the point of a band like this.\u201d The group he\u2019s talking about is the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the 11-member ensemble […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[2315,1634,970,2434],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4131,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4129\/revisions\/4131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}