Tedeschi Trucks Band

00:00:15 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Today we have Susan Tideski and Derek Trucks of Tedeski Trucks Band live from the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Derek Trucks made his name as a slide guitar prodigy with a Hall of Fame pedigree. He's a nephew of Butch Trucks, drummer of the Allman Brothers band, which Derek toured with extensively throughout the two thousands, all while leading his own group, the Derek Trucks Band. Somewhere along the road, Derek met another great guitarist with a Berkeley pedigree, Susan Tideski, who in my view, is one of the best singers working today. Susan was also leading her own group when she and Derek met. Eventually the two fell in love, got married, and merged their bands into one colossal family band. In twenty ten. The Tedeski Trucks Band has twelve members, which, just for perspective, is about the average number of players in Duke Ellington's Big band. Derek and Susan are clearly an adventurous couple and it comes through in their music. Although the blues is the band's foundation, none of their albums sound all that similar. This year, they managed to achieve that same diversity of sound on their I Am the Moon Project, a collection of twenty four songs across four different albums. It's inspired in part by the isolation of early pandemic life and the loss of longtime keyboardist Kofi Burbridge. On today's episode, I speak with Susan and Derek about the beginnings of their band and romantic relationship, and how the I Am the Moon Project came to be. They also play some of their new songs live from backstage at the Greek Theater just for us. This is broken record liner notes for the digital Age. I'm justin Richmond. Here's my conversation with Susan Tadeski and Derek Trucks of the Zadeski Trucks Band. Susan Diddesky, Derek Trucks, thank you so much. We're doing it. Yeah, man, thanks for doing that. Thanks for having us. It's incredible. Never been backstage here, been here many times. I was wandering around and I saw like a a sign that said and it was like for a room. I said, TTB rehearsal room. I was going to ask you guys about how often you guys work songs out and rehearse on the road, And I feel like I got to see a little bit of it right now. We rehearse every day. Yeah, he makes us it's a twelve piece bad. It's a lot of moving parts. It Actually it's good because it really just forces us to all be in the room together and get like our minds kind of as one and just kind of started as that as just just getting together with twelve people. You don't want to first see each other when you hit the stage, like we want to spend a little time together, so we kind of we set up like a forty minute rehearsal leading up to the gig every night, where I mean sometimes you play two or three songs, sometimes you play one or two, but it's really just to get everyone in there and kind of you might play one or two songs for forty minutes now, I mean there's a lot of just hanging and kind of talking about the set and we don't always use all it depends on how many like when we after we write our set list, how many songs we need to go over and if we're rusty or not, or if we have new songs to work out, so it can be one or two songs, or can be ten. Yeah. The first show with US West Coast run, we wrote a set list and we're like, oh, there's three or four we've only played one time. We should probably run over those. So you know, you get the whole band in a room and you play through the tunes one time to make sure there's something you need to work on. The time goes quick. Was that one of the new songs or some of the new songs that you guys had only played once or two? Yeah? Yeah, I mean that's kind of the beauty of all these records coming out, as there's so much new material for us to dig into, so the shows are really fresh. Like we're writing set list now, you kind of can't get everything you want to play in. You have to kind of pick and choose what goes into making a set list for you guys. If we're on the road playing multiple nights in a row, I know there's certain songs that take it out of Sue or the singers, so you put those on the third night of a three night run, or you don't do them every or yeah, but we I mean we keep track of what we played in the venue or in a town the last five ten years we were here, and you look at it and if you repeat it a song every year, you kind of leave it all for Yeah, we try to mix it up and make it different every time we play somewhere, you know, and if you're playing in San Diego, LA, it's like a few hours away, like this is a lot of people that will make the trip, so you don't want to repeat the show. There's a lot of bands that play the exact same set every night. We are not one of those bands. I know this from experience that you guys are not that they are not. But we do have a lot of songs that will put in the rotation. You know. We'll definitely have songs that people usually request or like, like Midnight and Harlem or Bound for Glory, Made Up Mind, you know, some of those will just throw in the mix and then we'll do all the new stuff. I mean, now we have all these new songs. We have three of the four records we just released it are out, so we have what fifteen songs that we can play. Now. You don't want to wear tunes out, So if you play a tune starts seeing a little less than inspired, you just shove it for a minute. I've been and a lot of bands that have been around a long time, and when you see somebody fall out of love with an incredible song, it's kind of heartbreaking. Like, yeah, there were certain songs Greg Aman just didn't want to do because he did it so long, and I was like, yeah, I don't want to get to that point. I mean, sometimes it's the arrangement. Sometimes you have to shake it up and rethink it. And sometimes songs start in a place maybe it's a four minute song and then before you know it, it's a twenty minute song and Greg's like, that's not really what I wrote? Can we get back to that thing? And so, you know, these things go through a lot of lives and changes, so we try to constantly stay on those things. And it's a creative band. Part of having improvisational players on stage and people that can think quick and thinking around the corners, they also get bored easily. That's always been a challenge. I mean, back when Kofe Burbage is in the band, probably the greatest musician I've ever played with, you want to constantly throw things at him. So he's it's first thought, best thought. That's where the greatest stuff happened. So we challenge ourselves that way too, which is saying something if he's the best musician, because you've played with Eric Clapton and all my brothers and Herbie Hancock and Santana, there's there's I mean people. Yeah, I mean Kobe was different. He was an alien. I don't know where he came from. Yeah, man, I mean Elvin and McCoy, I mean those are all of that was incredible. I had seen McCoy a handful of times that the Blue Note in New York, and and the guy that ran the Blue Note was doing a record with McCoy called Guitars where he had different guitar players I think Scofield and it wasn't just it was called Guitars, but Baila Flag. It was interesting. But uh he asked me, and I was like, of course, intimidated, but I'd love to do it. I got to go buy McCoy Tyner's apartment and hang with him for a bit and we went out to lunch, and the whole time I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I'm not gonna ask him John Coldrank question they're just not gonna be that guy. And we sit down at lunch having coffee and he just starts telling Coltrane stories that I'm thinking, yes, but it was beautiful, Like his eyes just lit up, man, like he was twenty years younger when he was talking about that stuff. It's just and I heard a similar thing about the Muscle Shoals, guys like David Hood and and Roger Hawkins and all those guys that played on those Aretha records, Like when they talked about those sessions in particular, like just this thing happened to it just they got a look in their eye and it was away with my uncle with Butch Trucks when he talked about playing with delayne Ahmand in those two or three years that they were a banded Like, it's just every once in a while when you really ring the bell, that stuff stays with you. I wonder by the like I wonder if it's like a chicken or egg thing, Like is it that intensity and love for each other and music that they had that made that music so incredible or is it the fact that they somehow made this like celestial, divine music. I mean, I think it's all of it. I really think it's you know, it's the right people, right time, right place. The right chemistry definitely will help ate the music because it frees you up, you know what I mean, It frees you up to just let it flow out of you. I think, especially if you're on the same page, like those guys were on the same wavelength. Yeah, you know they can read each other's behind them lost at that point. There's that Elvin Jones quote talking about that quartet and he's like, to play the way we play together, you had to be willing to die with a motherfucker. You're like, that's what it sounds like, that's what it and that's how. That's how those Almond brothers, those are that original band and the crew they were that way, I mean Red Dogs the ROADI he would have taken a bullet for any one of them without thinking. And they're all I mean, Duyne Almond and Barry Oakley are buried together in a cemetery in Making And now Greg's there, and now my uncle's ashes are there like the six original Yeah, the original six members are all going to be I've never heard of that beautiful and Chank who just passed away, who was Gregory's best friend for many years. He used to go and he told Derek too, like he didn't he bring you? He picked me up there after after greg passed away, we went by the graves and he's like, I've been coming here for like forty years at least once a week when I'm home, and I'll just come. He just go roll a joint smoke and just talk to them, like just fill them in on things I was. I was like changing if I ever have a friend that's one thousand, Like, how lucky well I by, you know, having a smoke. I'm almost ten years old. Speaking of like chemistry, Like it's kind of amazing that you guys have a twelve piece band forty minute rehearsals aside, Like how do you find a way to get twelve people in a room in a room on the same page, communicating until the back engaged, wanting to push themselves? You know, yeah, it seems an impossible task. Sometimes we don't all fit in a room. Sometimes, you know, you have like the horns in the hallway and singers in the bathroom, and you know, everyone kind of bleeding into a room because we don't always f into backstage rooms. But for the most part, we're kind of in like little groups. So you'll have like the horn section together, you'll have the three singers together, then you have Derek and I and Brandon, and then you'll have the drummers. It feels more streamlined because the drummers are a unit and the horns are a unit, and the singers are a unit like so it makes it almost feel like a six piece fan everyone's thinking that way. Even more than that, it really is about the chemistry, and it's about when you're on the road for years and years you meet people along the way and you think, someday I want to play with that person, and you kind of keep that in the back of your head. It's like when we started talking about this band and we started talking about a horn section, she was like, do you know Kebby Williams. I was like, yeahs who I was thinking about. Kevin. He's the guy like he's just got five for days. He's just he's got such a unique so tone and melody and he can play anything, any kind of style of music, anything. But he also just the vibe, like you said, his chemistry with everybody. Is such a good person and he's so sweet and yeah, and that has to be a big part of it, right, It's a big part of big personality, that good attitude to each other. He definitely likes to party, get out there and sit in and you know, play with different people all the time too, which is really nice. He has a lot of friends and a lot of places, and we're very lucky to have him. I mean, and it's great. Like this band, we'll get done with the show and if we're staying overnight, sometimes within fifteen twenty minutes of the gig being over, somebody will call, like, I'm at this jazz club and Ephraim and Kevy are here sitting in already. They're incredible, man. They just like they're just always looking for me. They they are looking. They're like they're mixing it up you wherever we are in the world. Like I've ran into Kevy on the street playing some guys trombone. It's incredible he does they I mean, they beat people everywhere and it's it's a fun band that way. Actually, we have band members literally ranging in four decades because we had people born in the sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties. Wow, in this band, so if you think of it that way, it's kind of not only it's an American band, and it's very diverse, you know, ethnically, religiously, all of that, which is so beautiful, and you know, it also just helps the audience understand, you know, this can be done, like we can do better in this world, like look at us, Look how much we love each other. And then they're like, holy crap, you do, and then they have a more open mind, and then they start to love more people, and you know, we're just trying to spread love. At the end of the day, we're trying to make people get along. You know, I became aware of you guys. Maybe I must have been sixteen, two thousand and six, twousand and seven, twenty ten. You gotts start to dusky trucks by that point, and you guys were married. But it quite realize you guys have been married so long since two thousand and one. You guys really are like a family band. Like I imagine why you guys ended up merging your two separate bands is because you wanted to spend more more time together. Yeah, totally. He was ready to do this project. And then when he asked me, I was like, well, I better hop on the bandwagon. I don't want to miss out, you know, even though I was like finally getting centered and you know what, having my solo band do good. But at the same time, I was like, heck, yeah, the idea of like creating art with your spouse or with any family and you must know this from your time with the Allman Brothers, like it feels like that can be a fraud experience. Well, I mean we waited a long time to jump into this. I mean we bought a house together, we got pregnant, and then we got married. We were together for ten years, and we were like, I think maybe we could probably start thinking about putting a band together. Like were like, we didn't jump into it. You know, we thought long and hard about it, and you know, we had been on the road. We'd even experimented going out with her solo band and mine, and then we put a before the Tadesky Trucks band, we did like the Revival, which is kind of half of her band, half of my band, and just to kind of feel out how it would go. When you're that passionate about what you do and your sole focus when you're on the road, is that you have to make sure that your thing is compatible because you know, you both love what you do, but you don't know if it's gonna work. And it took us a while to really find our thing, but a good portion of it existed right out of the gate, like our chemistry when we played together. It's kind of one of the things that brought us together. So I think we always knew that we wanted to do something. It was kind of inevitable. Well, his guitar playing in my vocals, like it was always very easy and natural, like almost like we could finish each other sentences, you know, on stage. That was kind of right out of the gate. Yeah, right out of the gate. So we definitely have that connection. But then it was cool too because you know, he obviously comes from more of a jazz world. Even though I went to jazz college. He knows a lot more than I do about jazz. It's just more in his wheelhouse where I think with me, it was more I guess country and gospel music. You know, folk music people like Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson are just like that, Mahali Jackson, stuff like that. But then he also loved Mahealia, so he's like, you love Mahle, Yeah, I love Mehelia. You know, I'd be like, oh, do you have this record? He's like, yeah, I love Beeby King and Albert King and Freddie King and you know. So we realized a lot of the things that we had in common, but then also we turned each other on to stuff. He turned me on to Sun Raw. That's a good first date. Yeah, He's like, do you know this. I'm like, no, space is the place. It was. Well, actually we brought her on the bus. It was me and Otel Burbridge and we would travel with Greg on his bus. Yeah, Greg Alvin, And then we brought Susan over for a hang and had this sun Rob film. We watched some of that, and then we put on like a Liberaci Christmas like this is incredible, wow it this is the place. Yeah. Yeah, well my Favorites was totally bizarre, like makes no sense, but it's like such a cool one. Yeah, like history is history, mystery is my story. I was like, yeah, I love this guy so fantastic. I was like, wait, he's got tinfoil on his head and he's talking of Saturn. This is great. I'm in And he doesn't even do drugs. It doesn't do drugs. The youth center in Oakland. Yeah, of course had to try to turn you onto people. I think I turned you on a Magic Sam, you know, Sam Maguettah and h and Funny enough, Magic Sam and Sunra were on the same label in Chicago. I would not think that you're the one turning her onto a sun Run and she's turning you on the Magic. You know. Between starting playing and where we met, I ran into Colonel Bruce Hampton at about twelve years old. And who is he? So? Colonel is from Atlanta, Georgia. He's kind of like a Frank Zappa character but different, more southern and mystical and out. But he just man. A lot of incredible music came through the Colonel. He would always say, I'm a I'm a minor league baseball coach, just getting people ready. But at twelve years old, I met him and he just turned me onto the most incredible music. I mean, he bought me my first son Ra record. He bought me a Love Supreme when I was thirteen or fourteen. He turned me on to Christian Murdy like he was. He was always one of those guys that he would find young musicians. And his thing was all about intention and about you know, why are you doing it? Where is it coming from? He didn't care all good. You were like if you mean it, and you were and you were not bs And then he was your biggest fan on the planet. And he I mean, he was an incredible human being, incredible life he lived. But yeah, he took list entertainer. He played on Frank Zappa's first record, Oh No what. Yeah, he was just a fascinating character man, and he he changed a lot of musicians lives like Oteel Burbridge and Jimmy Herring came through Colonel the Quare and Rescue Unit. A lot of US guys, yeah, fish that whole scene. They all revered Colonel Bruce. And I knew Colonel before I knew Derek. Really, yeah, we both did. I knew him when I was like twenty six. I didn't meet Derek to us twenty eight, So I met Colonel about two years before I met Derek, and he had taken you under his wing. Yeah as well. Yeah, he would let me sit in with him and he was like, God, what I've never seen this is outrageous. You're a girl doing what blues. Unbelievable. I didn't even know that you even knew what that was or whatever. You know, he just say slowly stuff. Yeah. He was so sweet and so fun and he was a one of a kind. They only made one of him and he went out on stage with you guys, right. He had a lot of the people that were influenced by him on that stage with him and a sold out show and everybody in the audience screaming his name. Bruce seventieth birthday, seventh birthday, seventy a birthday party, and in the middle of his favorite song, turned on Your Love Light he ever sang on stage and the last song pretty wild, fourth song on he made it to the encore. Yeah to his favorite song, seventieth Birthday and yeah, yeah, and that was that, which was what happened. He had a massive hearted Yeah. But you know, he was such a he was such a character or like he just did he did outland his stuff his whole career. He was like almost Andy Kaufman esque with some of his stuff, Like he would just do just the most absurd stuff. I mean. At one point early on he opened for three Dog Night at this festival, and he had his band play all three dog Night songs, but just but just bent, just bent of it got so bad that to get a police escort out of there. Like he was he was just fearless man. He was like he was just out of head. Yeah, So he would do stuff like old drummer Yon Rico Scott. He played with Colonel for a year. When I met Rico, he's playing with Colonel. I mean he would do stuff like he called it the dead Thorax. He'd be in the middle of a show and he would he would give some signal and everybody on stage would go limp from the waist up, just drop it, just stand there for an uncomfortable amount of time to the crowds, like what is happening. So when this happened on stage at the Fox with Bruce, like everyone thought it was almost like a James Brown going down, and so no one reacted. You know, it was you didn't know, and it felt like a Bruce move like it was. Really his whole thing was He's like, myth is just as important as truth, Like it's just like it's just as important he prepared us for. Yeah, it was almost he changed a lot of lives. He was made a lot of musicians better. You know, he taught you the things you needed to know any and he broke you of bad habits. And he did an ego being the biggest one. And actually two of our band members were in bands with him, so Falcon our drummer and Brandon and at different times they were both in Colonel's band. Yeah, it's kind of a lot. So the four of us are definitely his children. Colonel Bruce speaking of that, it kind of ties in with the Passaquon stuff. Passaquons a spot in middle Georgia where this guy Eddio and Martin Saint Ome he changed his name to. He was a little bit like the White Southern Sun, raw but visual artist. He took this place he lived in and just turned it into this just living art piece and it just became acres and it got bigger and bigger and it's still there. Diferent mediums, but it would concrete, he would have you know, it looks like you're draining, and you know, he would use ten and stuff like a like all over the roof and everything. So it really is gorgeous. It's really incredible, and it's called Passaquon because he believed in these people that were the Passaquonians, which were all different races that got along and lived in harmony. And so he really believed that there were these people from outer space. But Saint Omes thing though, he like it was kind of a safe haven for a lot of the hippies and freaks in the early mid sixties. So Colonel Bruce would go and hang with Saint Ome and met his best friend there and like, so we have this connection to this place. So when when Colonel passed, we finally got by there, we realized that our farm and Georgia's maybe forty minutes from Passaquon, and so we went and visited this place and it's just incredible. Like if you ever area, yeah, that's in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't make any sense that this place exist or that they didn't run about it. Yeah, it sounds beautiful though. Yeah, it's it's quite something, man. I mean, that's the whole story for another day. It's amazing. It seems like that spirit too, Like you guys have that same thing going on, and you guys are just instead of having Passaquon, you guys are on the road. Yeah, those are our touchstones, you know, and that's where we made a lot of all the films for these four records that just came out. We actually filmed it at Passaquon, so when people see those and they're like, where is this place? Yeah, And we brought a camel to tie in the Layla imagined and Persian twelfth century poem by Nazimi. And apparently it's easy to rent a camel in Atlanta because on the film, because a lot of them and a lot of Nativity scenes, you can't get them around November December, it's hard to get a camel. Things you have to think about busy season for camels. And that's incredible. I want to talk about the poem you just referenced, but maybe before we do that, you guys up for playing Here my Dear, first record of your four discs. Absolutely we're gonna pop on our stamps when we come back. Derek Trucks and Susan Tadeski performed their new song here my Dear from the record I Am the Moon, Volume one Crescent. We're back with Derek Trucks and Susan Tideski's performance of their song Here my Dear from backstage at the Greek Theater n La. This is a song that Derek started. He wrote this song and then we sat around and wrote the lyrics together. But this is really a Derek song, really beautiful, and it really reminded me like at the time, you know, going through the pandemic and being in that moment when we really started writing for this record and we thought it might just be one record. We didn't know at the time it was going to be four records and part of this whole thing. But um, but it really kind of it makes you think about like where we were at that time, and almost everybody can kind of remember where they were in March of twenty twenty when all of a sudden the world shut down. I think about this song as kind of, you know, the beginning of the creative process really for this band, for him and I, you know, whereas Mike was writing songs at home and Gabe was writing songs and Falcon and but this is the first one that I remember that really hit me when we were doing this project. And it's the first song on the first first song on the first yea on Crescent. Yeah, it's kind of a nice introduction to the story too, kind of tracks a little bit with the with the poem. But yeah, here mind being characters, and yeah, as we watch the world go by, there's so much we search to find, the lots memories go play. Knowing this so much more to say, won't keep sauce feeling. It's feeling, that's don't wig lose. Here my deed is your meladeed, So sorry it tooks love. I was loved a wild days and that's where I hurt our shove all the times I'm made cry and the dreams be left behind. Let's make the future aust hold, and I'll be there as we grow old. The being a song I believe. Don't the wee bro keeps a turning and turned in, that's the weakers. Hear my deed as you melade I'm so sorry it took so love. I was the louill and that's where I heard a song. Hear my deed is you meladeed? I'm so sorry it took so love. I was the war, but I swear I saw here my deed huality, So sorry took a love. I was lo the willness, but I swad swans he had a soul. Here my deeds, it's humlady, So sorry it tooks love. I was lost still wills, Oh, I swear I had a soul here. My deeds is humanity. I'm so sorry it took so low. I was not singing wilderness. Oh well, that's well. So I was lost, lost in the wilderness I was. We've all been there. How do you sing like that? Oh, it's pretty incredible. How do you sing like that? Have you always heard a voice like that? I've been singing a long time. My mom said, I sang in the crib before I spoke, and then I used to speak in Chinese to them. I told him I was from China before I came. I was a strange kid. I don't know. I've been singing though my whole life, and honestly, I wasn't always good, and my brothers made horrible fun of me, and I was just so stubborn. I said, I'm going to prove you wrong, and then I just kept working at it. What would you sing like? Early on? Well, I started you in theater. I mean I've been on stage since I was about five or six. So I did a lot of musicals growing up. And then I started being in like rock bands at like thirteen, fifteen, sixteen, and then went to college at seventeen, graduate college at twenty, and then started my own band. Really not until a couple of years after I graduated college, and then just lucked out right place right time. Won like a battle the Blues bands went down in Memphis, came in second, and the international thing and then the first place band wasn't even like a real band. So we got like all the you know, number one you know prizes, which was go play at this festival and Helen Arkansas, go play in Jacksonville at the Spring in the Blues festival where Derek's front. Getting to play Jacksonville's a pretty sweet prize at the time of ten thousand dollars. I'm sorry ten grand. When you are driving in a van and making five hundred bucks a gig, you're like, whoa, I'll take ten grand. So I won second place at a talent contest in Jacksonville at a country bar, eight one hundred dollars. Take that. It wasn't good. Yeah, one like Entertainer of the Year in ninety one, and we're presented by Marilyn Manson. Oh, there was this magazine in Florida, maybe it still exists. It was called Jam Magazine. And they would do the Jammies every year, and I think I was eleven or twelve and one Entertainer of the Year. Somehow in the next year I had to present the award. I think it was Marilyn Manson and the Funky Bunch they were called at the time, and they all in thee No, no, this is Manson's like Florida band because he was from Yeah, he had this and they all wore like skirts and had little lunchboxes and like it was a whole thing he was doing. Then. I've been looking for photos of this and I cannot find it. It's from like ninety one or ninety one. I saw that it was very early on. But yeah, might have given it in ninety two to him, I think, because ninety one is the award. I think I turned over entertained through the year. Yeah it was. It wasn't the most comfortable hang. Yeah, we didn't really have a lot to say to each other. Oh yeah, I gotta find that if anyone has those pictures or videos. Meanwhile, I was so excited because we got to play Hell in Arkansas and I got to hang out with Robert, you know, Junior Robert in your Lockwood and and you know who. Actually his mom used to date Robert Johnson, so he would get lessons from them, but he would only hear him in the other room, and he would learn a couple of turnarounds and stuff from him. Wow, isn't that crazy. You're one person removed from Robert Johnson. Yeah, it was really trying to him. And honey Shines and honey Boy Edwards, the one Honeyboy was still alive, that honey Boy Edwards right, because and he just sam large. Honeyboy was incredible. Honeyboy was great. And actually Jack Owen was there too. I have a picture of me with my back to Jack Owen, who I didn't know at the time, and I was talking with Al Hubert and then we have a painting of jack Owen in our house now. But I was like, oh my gosh, I'm touching him and I didn't even know. You guys came along at like such a cool time because not only talent, but it's like, yeah, people still around. Yeah, a little Milton and you know, like getting to play with all your hairs, I mean leave on and er leave on out, like oh incredible. One of the nicest people ever. Another coronelism. He's like certain people Hubert something Dondre and I are good friends being those are angel race people like they just they are when they're in the room. You feel better, Nelson than beautiful people amazing, you know, Hubert. I feel like we were very lucky to come along at a time because some of our heroes were still alive. But also it was kind of it was pre internet. It was pre I mean we could play two three hundred days a year and some yeah still record stores, but some shows be recorded. But it wasn't like everything you played was on YouTube the next day, like you could. You could experiment and exactly you could be not great and work on it every night. Does the idea of that that what you're doing could end up on the internet the next day or that night. Does that effect which you do? The way it affects us is we when we release a record, we don't play another the new material to the records out where before you would just work that stuff up until and then you really have it down who exactly yeah anymore and puts it on YouTube. And then when a record comes out, nothing's new, It's all material everyone knows. So we have to be careful with that stuff, but I don't. We don't think about it, at least I don't when we're up, when we're playing playing. I mean, you kind of right what it is. It's so in your face all the time that you kind of forget that it's yeah, so you're not so self conscious, But there are some things you have to think about. Like the tune Soul Sweet Song that was going to be the one single from the four records. We had worked it up and wanted to play it, like we really can't until it's out, like you got to kind of hold on to it. We didn't play any of the tunes till each record dropped. But that's kind of fun. It gives us mid tour something to kind of sink our teeth into. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we need to remember all these songs that we wrote and recorded a year ago. Don't know all of them? We don't. We know a bunch of them. I mean a lot of the tunes we wrote and recorded, write when it happened and then on the spot. Yeah, I mean some of them. One of them literally, like one of them to Gary, you had written the music and then I was writing the lyrics as I'm singing it in the recording session and that's what's on the record, like, and I was like, all right, do it again, and I have a second verse now I'm like jotting it out as it's coming out, and it just poured out. Yeah, So were you just like recording a jam and then all of a sudden it it turned into a song. Well, he had the music, Yeah, you know, we arranged it at twenty thirty minutes with the band kind of figuring out where the moves are and what's what, and then it just kind of took on a life of its own, and Susan her vocal booths, humming melodies and singing along and was like, oh, what's that melody? Do that? And I'm like okay, and I'm like I think I have something that goes with that. He's like, okay, we're gonna play it again. And then we'd play it and then it would just pour out and we'd record it, and then all the Love was a lot like that, except for the bridge that we went in and wrote when I was when I went back in to sing it. But the other stuff, I mean, it all happened in the moment too. Yeah, it's gonna be twenty four songs total, which is staggering because you guys are like on the road all the time. Obviously, March twenty twenty when things kind of yeah. So in March twenty twenty until May of twenty twenty one, we didn't tour, and then May of twenty twenty one was the first time actually Derek and I did a duo group, like just the two of us, which was weird. We've never gone out as like a duet, you know kind of thing. So we did a few of those, and then we brought Falcon with us, so it was trio, and then we started building it and then it was four piece. And that's how the Fireside Session started, was because we were close enough to some of the band because being in Florida, and then our guys in Atlanta, and then Gabe who was in Nashville, so Gabe could drive four hours or five hours to Atlanta and then we could drive four or five hours up to Georgia. We all met and then we started writing for this project, and then we did the Fireside Sessions, which was that band, which was really a six piece with my road. How many people can we cram in one tour bus with a trailers. Yeah, so we literally did a tour with just a six piece band and all the crew on one bus, which was great. It was actually really cool. So we did that for a few months until August of twenty twenty one where we first got the whole twelve piece back together when we played Locke and Music Festival in Arrington, Virginia and then back on the road. Twelve piece did that break in like that space toward life load you guys to writing, No doubt about it. Absolutely. I mean we've never been in a situation where you just have time to eighteen months to think and be, you know, sitting in a room together and work on these things. There's there's always a deadline. There's always something in the back of your head that you're thinking about, Like, all right, we have five days to write work on a record. But then we really got to start thinking about the Beacon Theater run in those eight shows and how many Like at some point you pivot to rehearsal or there's always something which is great. But once tours started being canceled, we're like, oh, we're not working until the end of the year at best, right, Like so we're down on the studio writing and we're up at the farm riding with the band, and there was just this beautiful sense of a wee can stay in this place. Like Mike had this great idea to dig into the source material of the Derek and the Domino's Layla record, which is Leila imagine on this beautiful twelfth century poem by the Zombie, which Lord Iron thought was the inspiration for Romeo and Juliet, Like it's an incredible story, super rich lyrically, and but Mike's idea was the Layla records incredible, but it's just this guy that can't have this woman that he infatuated with. Ye, that's the yeah, and that's the every song is pretty much that feeling. And he's like, the story is just incredible, and what if we flipped it on his head, like what did Layla think about this? Like what was her take on this love sick nut job? And then from there it was what about all the other people too? Yeah, you know, the two people in society. Yeah, So that this was Mike's idea. So early in the lockdown he had proposed like what if we all read this we can't be together? What if we all read the story and we're just thinking about that theme, and maybe some songs come out of it. Who knows who cares. At least it's something to do on the same thing, and they focus something. Mike, who is the Harvard English major, just incredibly intelligent and incredible writer. He wrote up this beautiful synopsis with all his dark humor and uh and send it to everybody, and that kind of kicks. Yeah, when when he's ready, we will. As soon as he did that, three or four weeks later, we could get tested, and families were letting their loved ones leave and come visit us and live with us at the house for a few weeks, and there was just all these ideas and not having to break and go back on the road. Everyone in the world was stuck at home and your circumstances were not changing, So we didn't have to get out of that mindset. We could stay in that story and we could stay writing and just kind of it was kind of an amazing time. So it was a lot of music that came out of it, and once there was two or three songs that really were tracking with the story. Like we didn't want it. It's not a rock opera. You don't want it. It's not, Yeah, it's not. It's just it was inspired by and then it takes on a life of its own. But when when Gabe wrote the two and I Am the Moon, he sent down this demo he did at home, Sue was crying and she's she's playing a lot accusa guitar, walking around the house just singing that too, and I was like, I think we're onto something like and it really sounded like the poem. We'll be right back with Susan Tideski and Derek Truck's performance of I Am the Moon right after this break. We're back with Susan Tideski and Derek Truck's performance of the song I Am the Moon. As you'll hear, the song was inspired by the old Arab poem Layla and Magic Noon, the same poem that inspired Eric Clapton's famous song Layla can play a verse of that see. I literally was walking around the house like, oh you made ah you fancy I love this song line in my dogness since you love I head all Hello revealed to me. Now there's old thing. I won't sing the whole song, but you get the idea. It was so pretty, and I was like and all and it was so descriptive of a lot of the poem, like he actually I was like, okay, gave us an a plus. Play the chorus once. I can't. I can't bail on the chorus. Okay, it's too good. It's just too good. He's back. I walked these halls like a prisoner. They want to see me from myself. They tell me stories. You've gone crazy. I couldn't use a little ChIL myself. I the movie You are the Son, and look at you flame out from a very one. You are stop. I am stop up her spining alone. No, so Gold, you get the idea. Thanks for that? Yeah, that so yeah. We started talking about the poem and that definitely led to a lot of ideas, and then after that started to record him, and then it got so crazy busy because we got back into it. That actually our recording engineer who's also Derek's guitar tech and our monitor engineer, he had to stay home the month of January to mix all of the four records. We could get it out on vinyl in time for this September. And this was literally like the vinyl thing is like really hard to get in live, yeah, acord, like hurry up and finish so we can get you know, so we could get it done. So it's been kind of, you know, a whirlwind ever since. How did you guys decided to divide the Like once you had all those songs, like did you was you a thought maybe, well, maybe we'll save twelve for like a record a couple of years from now. I mean, you know, we thought about all that, We thought about releasing it all at once. But you know, we when we're recording, we have a listening lounge upstairs, and we'll often go up there after a session and just listen to everything we've done up to that point. And at a certain point it was just too much to take in in one sitting, you know, And then we started noticing. I'm sure it's happened before, but I don't know another group that's released a set of songs this way. But as a listener, it's really nice to be able to feel good thing because it's so much easier. Like Derek was actually made a reference originally to like some of the great records that you love. They're like thirty five to forty minutes long, and they all fit on vinyl perfectly, because that was one of the things that you guys had discussed too, like the fidelity of a record is best at a certain length because you don't want to oversaturate because then you lose quality as well as sound, which people don't always know. So basically that was one of the ideas too. You're listening to Access Bold as Love and I Love Supreme, and they're like thirty two minutes, thirty four minutes. I mean, these are these are my favorite records of all time. When you when it sides done and you flip it, you want to hear it again and so sad. So we yeah, we were making playlists upstairs and when it was around that length that just when it was done, so easy to listen to and you can soak it in and enjoy it and experience like you have experience I have, Like I have a very unique experience with each one. The third one happens to be my favorite, but yeah, that you still are, like, you know, the third one almost was like when I listened to it, it's like reminds me of like Sticky Fingers or of the Night. The songs are all that similar but the same and there was there was a moment where looking at the back of the Love Supreme cover, there's just something that that just feels right. It's in four parts, like just the just the like when you look at that record before you hear it, you're like, this is serious basically feels right. Yeah, And so we started thinking about like the classic story arc. You know, you have the beginning or the overture or the crescent, you know, and then you have the rising action or the ascension, then you have the conflict or the fall, and then you have the resolution or the farewell. Like that's we started thinking about just that bell curve in the story arc, and that's when we came up with album titles. And then it was a matter of finding the songs that felt like secret that part of the movement and you know, and there's a little bit of a through line and the stories about the whole project, but each one has to stand on its own. You know. Usually you get to the third record and it just falls off. But there's so many I think records I haven't heard the fourth yet, so many good songs on it. It's kind of like, wait, what, Like there's still good songs like to come but oh yeah, it's kind of crazy pictures. You think you got your different it's like great bow, Yeah, exactly, get Kershaw coming up, Max Free. I don't know. My great uncle pitch for six sixteen, seventeen years in the Major. He's a fastball pitcher. Virgil fire Trucks. These incredible family. There's some people Claude Trucks, my grandfather and FAM's army. He was something. Yeah, there's some good ones. Actually you're good ones too. But his grandfather's cousin was Virgil, and actually he went to World War Two and when he got back, pitched in the World Series, like two weeks after he got back. Yeah, whoa what's his name? Virgil Fireball Trucks led the league in strikes, two, no hitters and nineteen and was good friends with Satchel Paige and they would go around and Barnes storm together. Yeah, dang, I want to join your family. As what I said, I got to meet Virgin when he was in his nineties and being my dad were there and he was just telling these incredible stories. And when his wife would leave the room, the stories would get really colorful and incredible. And then right when she would walk in he would just turn on a dime and I was like, he's a master and that runs in the family. You have to learn these things. Are you guys okay to play? Well, we'll go out on this last song. Actually, during the pandemic, it was also a time where you know, a lot of kids didn't get to graduate because they didn't get to walk and all that. Everything got shut down in March, as you know, and our son happened to be one of those kids class of twenty twenty, and so we got a couple extra months at home with him before he had to go off to college, but still living in the bubble. Actually wrote this song because I thought it could relate to like watching your kids grow up and then them leaving, as well as it could be like when Layla was taken away from mag None, so it could have multiple meanings. This song, it's basically when you know, one day you wake up and somebody that's always been there isn't there anymore, and like your first Yeah, it's like you're so excited and proud of them and happy for them to move on, but at the same time you're like sad. My one grandpa from Ireland always had Irish bars and that this is a whole, fascinating, whole other day of stories. But I wanted to have like an Irish folk song that also tied in this theme, so it's kind of a dedication to our son moving off. And then also Irish folk drinking song, a drinking song so you can deal with all of the changes to college, right, This is called Ladi da all. They're gonna leave you one monday. Oh we will come without a Monday, no matter how hard you try. All you can do everside as the beat of time marches on lody love loved day don't matter much today, So let's breathe a glass he is high to this bitter sweet goodbye, and we'll see farewell in the morning. Now, I watched you while you were sleeping, and you smile so big while you would dreaming. You do all that youk but sometimes it's hard. You stand by and let you stumble on your way. Oh lordy, lord lord, ay, don't matter much today, So let's breathe on glass. He is high, but to this bitter sweeking bye and we'll see farewell. Human borne name l a don't matter much A So let's breathe a glass, is high to this biting sweet bye, it will see f well. You're gonna not a dumb matter much to day. So let's breathe a glass. He is high to this bit of sweet good bye, and we'll see fairwell. Give them bon day. So let's breathe a glass. He is high to this bit of sweet good bye, and we'll see fairwell in the bonday. Beautiful And you know, having a daughter, I'm sure you watch them when they sleep and how they smile their dreams, like you can totally picture that, right, like, because they're so stink and cute when they sleep, and they're like little angel babies they are, and then they grow up. My oldest is six and she's just got her ears pierced on Sunday. Now she's walk she thinks she's an adult now. Our daughter turned eighteen on this last break and she went and got a tattooed. But it's subtle and it's beautiful and it's great. But you're just like, well, here we go. But she's you know, she's crushing it. Amazing kids, we're really lucky. Well, thank you guys, thank you guys. We'll get it. We'll get well you know, get on out well. Thank you for having us. Thanks to Susan Tedeski and Derek Trucks for coming on Broken Record to share stories about their journey with Tadeski Trucks and their new project. You can check out a playlist of all of our favorite Tedeski Trucks songs at Broken Record podcast dot com. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash Broken Record Podcast. We can find all of our new episodes. You can follow us on Twitter at broken Record. Broken Record is produced with help from me A Rose, Jason Gambrell, Benliday, Eric Sandler, Jennifer Sanchez, and He's edited by Sophie Crane. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like this show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to a Pushkin Plus. Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content an uninterrupted ad free listening for four ninety nine a month. Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple podcast subscriptions, and if you like the show, please remember to share, rate, and review us on your podcast app. Our theme musics by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond.