Susan Tedeschi on her Roots : Craig Shelburne Interview | Don’s Tunes

Susan Tedeschi: I played acoustic growing up, starting at 14 or 15. My dad gave me one of his old Martins when I was about 15 for Christmas one year and I cried because I was so excited. I wrote a bunch of songs on that, and that’s when I first started songwriting. I didn’t play electric guitar until I was about 22 or 23. I had graduated college at 20, so I was out of college for a couple of years before I ever picked up a guitar, other than acoustic. I was playing acoustic at shows but it was more folky and songwriter-y kind of stuff.

Then I fell in love with blues. I had some friends who used to play at Johnny D’s in Somerville, Massachusetts, every Sunday for the blues jam. They needed singers so they asked me to come down, and then I realized, “Well, shoot, this would be a great place to try out playing the guitar.” There weren’t a lot of people there and it was pretty chill, so that’s what I did. I would go down and sing a few tunes, then I’d start playing rhythm. I never really soloed for the first couple of years on electric. I just wanted to learn to learn how to play rhythm and play along with stuff so I could try to accompany myself while singing.

I played along with a lot of Freddie King and Johnny Guitar Watson and Otis Rush and Magic Sam – and I fell in love with blues. I wore out Big Mama Thornton’s Hound Dog record and Koko Taylor and all sorts of stuff. I fell in love with it and I realized, “This is what I want to do. I want to be Freddie King and Johnny Guitar Watson!” It’s funny because I did a tour with Etta James and she asked me, “Who are your influences? Who do you want to be?” I said, “I want to be Johnny Guitar Watson.” And she said, “Ah! That’s who I want to be!”

Craig Shelburne Interview

photo by David McClister 

Don's Tunes

Now I have said before I am less han convinced by Susan’s husband Mnsr Trucks but I do seriously prefer Susan’s playing, she seems just more authentic and Derek’s slide I am critical of. 

Hey ho! Nice to feature something that doesn’t hide her light under a bushel of other stuff for once

Susan Tedeschi - It Hurts So Bad (Live at Farm Aid 1999)

Birthdays: Susan Tedeschi

 Happy 55th birthday to Susan Tedeschi! 

Photo: Taylor Crothers

"I played acoustic growing up, starting at 14 or 15. My dad gave me one of his old Martins when I was about 15 for Christmas one year and I cried because I was so excited. I wrote a bunch of songs on that, and that’s when I first started songwriting. I didn’t play electric guitar until I was about 22 or 23. I had graduated college at 20, so I was out of college for a couple of years before I ever picked up a guitar, other than acoustic. I was playing acoustic at shows but it was more folky and songwriter-y kind of stuff.

Then I fell in love with blues. I had some friends who used to play at Johnny D’s in Somerville, Massachusetts, every Sunday for the blues jam. They needed singers so they asked me to come down, and then I realized, “Well, shoot, this would be a great place to try out playing the guitar.” There weren’t a lot of people there and it was pretty chill, so that’s what I did. I would go down and sing a few tunes, then I’d start playing rhythm. I never really soloed for the first couple of years on electric. I just wanted to learn to learn how to play rhythm and play along with stuff so I could try to accompany myself while singing.

I played along with a lot of Freddie King and Johnny Guitar Watson and Otis Rush and Magic Sam – and I fell in love with blues. I wore out Big Mama Thornton’s Hound Dog record and Koko Taylor and all sorts of stuff. I fell in love with it and I realized, “This is what I want to do. I want to be Freddie King and Johnny Guitar Watson!” It’s funny because I did a tour with Etta James and she asked me, “Who are your influences? Who do you want to be?” I said, “I want to be Johnny Guitar Watson.” And she said, “Ah! That’s who I want to be!” [Laughs]

Craig Shelburne / BGS Interview

"The Sky Is Crying" Tedeschi Trucks Band 12/1/17

Susan Tedeschi | Don’s Tunes

 

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Jeff Bender

Susan Tedeschi: “When I was little, my dad would play me Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt, a lot of that country folk-blues kinda vibe. And I liked it, but it wasn’t my main thing. But then when I graduated college, I had some friends running a blues jam and they asked me to come sing.

"So I started diving into the record stores and bought all these records by T-Bone Walker, Big Mama Thornton, Koko Taylor, Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson. That’s when I started diving into the blues on a massive level. They just really got me hooked.

“And they also got me playing electric guitar: I didn’t really play anything other than acoustic until I started getting into the blues. It was an exciting time. That music was soulful and inspiring, and I was really angry that growing up, we didn’t have that kind of music on the radio.

"But I’ve realised since that what we’re spoon-fed on radio is kinda all the baloney, the weakest of the lot. So you have to search out the really great stuff, the really soulful stuff. People can relate to the blues. It moves them. It can help to heal you. I think the blues can be very beneficial on a medicinal level.”

Personally I prefer her work to her husband’s but hey, whatcha gonna do! She sings beautifully and plays better to (IMHO) . . . . . . oh and she’s better looking!

Susan Tedeschi "It Hurt So Bad” [Recorded at KFOG's KaBoom 5/10/2009]

P.S. some poor deluded soul on Flickennabokk stated (more than once) that this photo is AI generated! It isn’t! and perhaps they would care to check out the superb Jeff Bender here go on ask him! I dares ya!

Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi ( and Warren Hayes) Play for The President (Obama that is!)

 

After finding too many clips where I thought Derek wasn’t really cutting it, comes this! [there was a clip of the couple practicing behind the scenes which I thought was awful but when it depended upon it here he comes!) For POTUS Obama! This actually is him bringing his ‘A' game! 

Complete here  . . . . 

Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, & Warren Haynes Perform "I'd Rather Go Blind"

Derek Truck and Susan Tedeschi play for the President (no no not that one, this one!)

 Trucks and Tedeschi play for Barack Obama! Rollin’ and a Tumblin’!

Now this is where we get contentious before we retire to the snug in the West Wing

I think this is more evidence were any needed( it IS it IS! -ED) that Derek isn’t really a very good guitarist and like many others learned his chops growing up in the public eye but his style of slide here is the worst I have heard in a long time and he sounds like someone learning to play! I got told off when clearing to not dampen behind the note other wise you sound like this and his wobbly technique is peculiar to slide players learning in that they aren’t really hitting the note on the nail so waver around it find it as they play!

Awaits howls of derision!

Tedeschi Trucks Band last month at Red Rocks Park

 

Tedeschi Trucks Band 7/26/2024 - show open - Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre

at risk of alienating a whole tribe of guitar based freaks and fans of Derek Trucks I found this from the always fascinating Facebook page of Tommy Bolin Archives but I thought this really poor. Is it the recording? Not sure I haven’t really been taken by Trucks’ guitar style and am not totally sure why I don’t seem to share the opinions of the American fan base (Bolin describes this as “incredible” which I struggle with. To me he sounds out of tune and the arrangement and quotes with the piece seem clumsy and cluttered). I thought it was awful!  . . . curiously I seem to have no such similar problem with Susan Tedeschi and always enjoy hearing her play. Derek has an upstroke finger style  style that irritates me and the SG is under used here (and always!) his slide work is sort of okay but nothing special to these ears. Dickey Betts he aint, SRV he ain’t and he isn’t in the same league as Clapton, and American guitarists like Duane Allman (who again folks know I am not such a big fan of) and isn’t fit to stand alongside Sonny Landreth, Billy Gibbons, or say Steve Vai or  Joe Satriani let alone the Carlos Alomar’s or Adrian Belew . . . . its just an opinion people nothing to get hung about 

Enjoy anyway you fans . . .

Today’s haul of pictures . . . .

  Heroes, Heroines, Super Stars n Swingin’ guitars

Billy Jean and Hank - ain’t she purty? And remember folks, Hank started the 29* club - speed kills!

So I’ll add another picture in tribute to Jeremiah who dropped by to comment . . . . . . great singers of the beginnings of ‘pop’!

Woody Guthrie & Lilly May Ledford, New York City. 

a pensive Nick Drake . . . how we often think of him

although he did smile sometimes . . . . . . happier days

Johnny Cash with a Martin guitar (with F holes no less - anybody any idea how much that would be worth now?! £4,000? More? $24,000? who knows - I’ll try n find out!)

Stephen with some of his collection whilst touring . . . . . phew!

Husband and Wife team, Patti Smith and Fred ’Sonic’ Smith  - I should start a series on couples or husbands and wives?!

Great shot of our Susan Tedeschi - look at those hands! Woman can PLAY!

So who do you reckon this is?

well I’ll tell you! The guitar connection is key here and of course it is an early shot of Les Paul! However did you know he is also known for being credited with the invention of the harmonica frame so you could play it hands free!? Know otherwise? Could be apocryphal but could be a complete myth too. Me, I choose to believe it!

* as dear pal Jeremiah ( he was a bullfrog you know?) rightly points out Hank Williams didn’t start the 27 club died at 29 and that ‘honour’ (sic?) goes to Robert Johnson long before anyone else! 

Here Robert Johnson with what we think is his beloved Kalamazoo (I have one for that reason!) the poor man’s Gibson, during the recession in America and Gibson rebranded a budget machine with the same woods and simpler structure and innards, mine is dated 1936! which would make it amongst the first ever made like his as he recorded with it that year!  I love it, have I said ?! Rings like a bell!

My Kalamazoo KG11 His was a KG14 - its in the frets! 1936 I am told - my pride and joy

 GUITARIST of THE WEEK

SUSAN TEDESCHI

Woman can play!

Oh you wanted her PLAYING!?

How about this then with His Bobness and there’s a moment where she look across at the other band members as much as to say “Holy Crap! I’m playing HIGHWAY 61! with Bob Freakin’ Dylan!”

It’ll do!

oh and the girl can sing too . . . . . . how about a Harry Styles cover? Yes really!

I like him, boy can sing                                                                          and so can she!

FLOPPY BOOT STOMP : Susan Tedeschi - Spring Strawberry Music Fest 2005 |Silent Way

Susan Tedeschi - Spring Strawberry Music Music Festival 2005

Susan Tedeschi - Spring Strawberry Music Fest
Camp Mather, CA.
May 26, 2005
Soundboard 

Broadcast on Hog Ranch Radio (HRR) for concert attendees and local residents.

 Set List:

1 Intro - 00:15
2 You Can Make It If You Try - 02:10
3 The Feeling Music Brings - 06:00
4 Lost Lover Blues - 07:05
5 Voodoo Woman - 04:47
6 Burn - 05:04
7 Alone - 04:58
8 Tired Of My Tears - 03:05
9 Share Your Love With Me - 04:26
10 Evidence - 04:26
11 Don't Think Twice - 05:03
12 I Know It's True - 03:21
13 In The Garden - 04:51
14 Get Up Stand Up - 05:12
15 Hurts So Bad - 05:21
16 Wait For Me - 05:58
17 Angel From Montgomery - 04:14
18 Sugaree - 02:22

FLAC and MP3 (320)