Tedeschi Trucks Band Live (Album and at the Minnesota Zoo)

This a review of the recent album (Everybody’s Talkin’) and of the concert 6/24/12 at the Minnesota Zoo.  Last year’s Revelator album was on my 2011 best-of and seeing Derek Trucks in concert has been on my wish list. On numerous occasions I have missed out on the chance to see Derek and last year’s Tedeschi/Trucks visit to the Zoo was yet another conflict.  Finally this year’s visit to the Twin Cities made my calendar.    When Everybody’s Talkin’ came out this late this spring it was a great appetizer for the main course this past Sunday night.

I am embarrassed to say after 20 years of the Zoo being a concert venue in the Twin Cities this was my first show.   The Amphitheater is a very intimate setting – I was about as far away as you can get stage left and yet I felt incredibly close.  The sound was amazing and the view out over a small lake was a bonus.  It was a perfect weather – which makes an outdoor show special.

I have been listening to Derek Trucks for about ten years, but nothing prepared me for hearing and seeing him live.  His playing was completely transcendent.   It is rare that a musician takes me to a higher  place – but Derek did that with each solo all night.  I can not adequately describe my response to Derek’s first solo.  It was a narcotic and euphoric rush through my body.  I felt sheer joy and I was totally in the moment.  Derek’s tone is so thick and powerful – I could smell and taste it – it was stuck in my teeth like a good caramel – sweet and salty.

Susan Tedeschi is a great addition.  Over the years I have always felt Derek needed a signature vocalist.  Plus my impression is that Derek seems comfortable a bandleader, but not as a front-man.  Susan as a front-woman puts the focus on someone else so Derek can focus on his guitar and band leader duties.  Susan has a great voice and easy-going stage presence.  An added bonus is that she is a legitimate guitar player too.

The set stayed pretty close to the Revelator and Everybody’s Talkin’ material.  I found the concert even more adventurous than the live album.  Each side-man was given a solo.  Solos where perfect – long enough for each player to introduce themselves to the audience, but not so long as to test your patience.

So over all this was one of the best shows I have been to in the last 10 years: a great venue, a beautiful night, one of my favorite artist, an inspired performance and a great concert companion in my lovely bride.  It is rare to have high expectations and  have them exceeded – this happened Sunday night.  As for the live album Everybody’s Talkin’ – it is as good a souvenir as you could have short of a recording of the actual show you saw.  Bravo Tedeschi Trucks Band (AKA Tedeschi and The Trucks).

See StarTribune review by Jon Bream here.