When Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks performed together on New Year’s Eve in 2008, it was a normal day in many ways. The musicians had been married since 1999 and performed together on plenty of occasions between commitments to their solo careers, with Tedeschi being a five-time Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter and Trucks playing guitar with the Allman Brothers Band and his own group, the Derek Trucks Band.
After that night, however, they made the decision to focus their creative energy on a new project with both musicians at the forefront. Two years later, they played their first show with the Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Savannah Music Festival in Savannah, Ga.
Since then, the blues-rock ensemble has remained on the road while also releasing three studio albums, including its Grammy-winning 2011 debut, “Revelator,” and two live records. The band’s most recent release, 2017’s “Live from the Fox Oakland,” scored a 2018 Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album.
The Jackson Free Press recently spoke to Trucks about his life as a musician and bandleader, and what he learned from making the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s latest live record.
The band’s 10th anniversary is still two years away, but this year will make a decade since you and Susan decided to officially start performing together. What’s it like to reach that milestone?
It’s surprising, man. The time flew. I mean, it still feels pretty new as a band, so that’s a good thing. There’s just a lot of musical ground being covered still, so it surprises me that it’s been 10 years. But it comes quicker as we go.
What would you say is the biggest difference in the way you approach the group now compared to when you started?
You know, you learn as you go. You learn people’s strengths and weaknesses, and that includes your own. You learn how to band-lead a little more as you go. But I think it’s just really about following what works, and it’s just little tweaks here and there that can change the course of the way the band feels and the way the band is playing. But you can never get complacent. I think that’s one thing I keep re-learning. You always have to keep either changing the material or the arrangements or just how you approach things to keep it fresh for everybody. I mean when you have that many talented people onstage—especially people who are prone to improvising—you have to keep it fresh.
What’s something you wish that you knew as a bandleader earlier on?
It’s a lot of subtleties. It’s really about learning the people that you’re playing with, and I think every musician is entirely different. You know, sometimes, you maybe misread people out the gate or certain ways to approach things or play things, or sometimes, you just miss entirely. [Laughs] But I honestly wouldn’t change a whole lot of it. I feel like all of the changes and ups and downs that go along, that gives you a story, that gives you something to play about and a common history as a band. The people who have been around the whole time, there’s a lot to lean into when you’re writing music, or just hanging and playing together. I think all of this stuff adds to the depths of what you’re doing.
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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.