Tedeschi Trucks Band

Tedeschi Trucks Band operates as a twelve-piece blues-rock collective guided by guitarists Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks. The group maintains a relentless touring pace that regularly surpasses two hundred shows each year. Their Sony Masterworks debut from 2011, Revelator, earned a Grammy and displayed a style anchored in roots traditions that merge blues, rock, jazz, soul, gospel, funk, country, assorted African styles, and Indian raga. Live: Everybody's Talkin', issued in 2012, highlighted inventive reinterpretations alongside a clear emphasis on improvisation. Made Up Mind arrived in 2013 and incorporated input from songwriters Eric Krasno and Sonya Kitchell. Let Me Get By, released in 2017, emerged from collective writing sessions involving every member. Live from the Fox Oakland earned another Grammy in 2018. Signs, which followed in 2019, contained exclusively original compositions and marked the final appearance of keyboardist Kofi Burbridge, who suffered a fatal heart attack on the day of its release. In 2021 the band issued Layla Revisited [Live at LOCKN'] featuring special guest Trey Anastasio. Across summer 2022 they unveiled their most expansive undertaking, the four-LP collection I Am the Moon, whose individual volumes—I Am the Moon I: Crescent, II: Ascension, III: The Fall, and IV: Farewell—each arrived with a matching film.

Tedeschi and Trucks had previously fronted independent ensembles for extended periods, with Trucks also serving as a longtime Allman Brothers Band member. Their separate touring commitments often kept them separated for months. The current outfit originated as a summer touring project called Soul Stew Revival, which allowed the couple and their young children to travel together. What started as a practical family arrangement evolved into a permanent musical venture. Soul Stew Revival drew members from both prior bands plus additional guests and delivered high-energy performances of soul, blues, funk, and gospel standards along with original pieces. Following one such run, the pair established a home studio to support independent recording efforts.

The duo contributed a version of “Space Captain” to Herbie Hancock’s Imagine Project and assembled an eleven-piece unit drawn from their own groups, later augmented by horn players and percussionists. After adopting the Tedeschi Trucks Band name they signed with Sony Masterworks. The expanded ensemble, together with guests, laid down more than thirty tracks before selecting the eleven that formed Revelator, their 2011 debut. Lead single “Midnight in Harlem” found radio success, and the album captured a Grammy for best blues album in 2012 while the band itself received another for best live performance. Live: Everybody's Talkin', a double-disc release issued in spring 2012, combined Revelator material with thoughtfully selected and freshly arranged covers. Made Up Mind appeared in August 2013 as a second studio album; at Sony’s urging the group collaborated with Gary Louris, Doyle Bramhall II, Sonya Kitchell, and Eric Krasno, and the record later received a Blues Music Award.

The musicians continued near-constant road work, crafting fresh songs while on tour and assembling an eclectic repertoire spanning blues, rock, soul, jazz, and country, while also incorporating African and Indian elements into live arrangements. After the Allman Brothers Band completed its final tour, Trucks committed fully to TTB, which had grown to twelve members. At Swamp Raga Studio, constructed behind the couple’s Jacksonville, Florida residence, they recorded ten tracks co-written by the full group for the first time, with Trucks serving as producer. Fantasy released Let Me Get By in January 2016; it entered the Billboard 200 at number 15 and earned two Blues Music Awards. Live from the Fox Oakland, a double live album captured during the subsequent tour, appeared in March 2017 and received a Grammy nomination. The following year the band launched its self-released Live from the Swamp series, issuing various concert recordings directly to fan-club subscribers.

Signs reached stores in February 2019 via Fantasy, co-produced by Trucks alongside Bobby Tis and Jim Scott. The eleven-track, all-original set included guest contributions from guitarists Warren Haynes and Doyle Bramhall II plus Allman Brothers Band percussionist Marc Quinones. Its lyrics addressed recent losses, among them the deaths of Trucks’ uncle and bandmate Butch Trucks, Gregg Allman, and Col. Bruce Hampton. Keyboardist Kofi Burbridge, who had experienced a heart attack in 2017 and taken time to recover, performed on the album before suffering another fatal coronary on its release date. Single “Hard Case” reached the Top 40, and the album itself peaked at number 28.

That summer TTB performed a one-time concert at the LOCKN' Festival in Arrington, Virginia. With Phish guitarist and vocalist Trey Anastasio joining as guest, they presented Derek and the Dominos’ 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs in its entirety. The performance appeared in July 2021 as Layla Revisited [Live at LOCKN'].

Throughout summer 2022 the twelve-member Tedeschi Trucks Band delivered its most ambitious undertaking yet. The four-album, four-film project I Am the Moon originated two years earlier after the COVID-19 pandemic halted touring. Mattison became immersed in the hundred-page poem Layla and Majnun by twelfth-century Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, whose story of star-crossed lovers had earlier inspired Derek and the Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, an album that profoundly shaped TTB. Ganjavi’s narrative affected the vocalist differently; after reading the source material he emailed bandmates to propose they revisit it collectively as songwriters. By January 2021 the group had begun recording at Swamp Raga with Trucks producing. They spent several weeks there, composing the entire twenty-four-song, two-hour-plus work both together and in smaller teams. The material was divided into four albums issued monthly, each accompanied by a film. Award-winning documentary filmmaker, graphic designer, and television writer Alix Lambert documented the sessions, interweaving studio footage, performance clips, atmospheric photography, and imagery drawn from Pasaquan, the artistic endeavor founded in Buena Vista, Georgia by folk artist Eddie Owens Martin, later known as St. EOM. While the band resumed touring, each film premiered shortly before its corresponding music. I: Crescent appeared June 3, II: Ascension followed July 1, III: The Fall arrived July 29, and IV: Farewell closed the series August 26. A deluxe box set containing all music and films was released in September.