Wait For Me

Susan Tedeschi

Tone-Cool Records
www.tonecool.com

review by Kevin ‘Bad Dog’ Shenefield

It’s no wonder that Susan Tedeschi has the set of pipes that she does. She has been singing since the age of four, made her singing “debut” at the age of five, and by thirteen (when most of us were still reading comic books and playing ball) she was singing professionally with local bands … and in fact wrote her first song, “Somebody Watches”, at the age of fourteen. I don’t think I was even allowed to use sharp instruments such as pencils when I was fourteen. By the age of twenty she had already graduated from Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in professional music, with emphasis on arranging and performance. You don’t even want to know what I was doing when I was twenty. Anyway, following college, she immersed herself in the Boston blues scene, performing with members of the Toni Lynn Washington band, and formed what would turn out to be the first incarnation of the Susan Tedeschi Band in 1993. The Susan Tedeschi Band then went on to win the Boston Battle of the Bands in 1994, and then placed second in the National Blues Talent Competition in Memphis (it was widely felt that the band only placed second due to exceeding the time limit). In 1995 Susan and her band were named “Best R&B Act” by “Boston” magazine, and won “Outstanding Blues Act” in 1995 at the Boston Music Awards. Due to intense fan demand for a recording, she borrowed money to record and release her own CD, titled “Better Days”. 1996 brought yet another “Outstanding Blues Act” Boston Music Award, and she recorded a cover of Bob Marley’s “I Know A Place” for “The Vineyard Sound, Volume III” CD that was released in 1997. “I Know A Place” was released as a single in Jamaica in 1997 on Marley’s own Tuff Gong label.

Then, in 1998, Susan’s Tone-Cool Records debut, “Just Won’t Burn” skyrocketed up the charts. The Susan Tedeschi Band went on to win four Boston Music Awards in 1999 (more than anyone else) with Album of the Year for “Just Won’t Burn”, Single of the Year for “It Hurt So Bad”, Outstanding Female Vocalist, and Best Blues Act. Tedeschi won two Handy Awards (the Blues equivalent of a Grammy) in 1999 for “Best New Blues Artist” and “Contemporary Blues- Female Artist of the Year”. Then she won two AAA national radio Gavin Awards for “Artist of the Year” & “Album of the Year” and another Handy “Contemporary Blues- Female Artist of the Year” award in 2000. She also was presented a prestigious “Orville H. Gibson Award” in 2000 for best female blues guitarist, given to the best guitar players in the world … even though she didn’t even begin to play guitar until 1994. In 2000 she was also nominated for a Grammy Award for “Best New Artist” and, although she didn’t win, it was “a victory for everyone searching for a rock & roll oasis in an arid teen-pop wasteland,” as Rolling Stone put it.

Until now, Susan hadn’t released another album since “Just Won’t Burn”, but she certainly hasn’t been sitting around doing nothing. She has shared the stage with many big name acts, as well as having appeared on several albums by other artists in that time … including albums by Toni Lynn Washington, Weepin’ Willie, Little Milton, Tom Hambridge, Willie Nelson and, most notably, the highly acclaimed 2001 Double Trouble CD “Been A Long Time”, which included the song “In The Garden” (which also appears on this CD) and a killer cover of the classic Led Zep tune “Been A Long Time”. Then, in 2001, Susan and guitar prodigy Derek Trucks (famous for his own band, as well as for the Allman Brothers and Phil Lesh & Friends) were married, and they had their first child, Charlie, in 2002. Naturally, a few perks and fringe benefits came along with Susan’s new family life too. Through her new husband Derek, Susan hooked up with the late Tom Dowd, whose producing/engineering resume includes classic recordings such as the Allman Brothers’ “Live at the Fillmore”, as well as Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Eric Clapton and countless other Hall of Famers. She also got all four members of the Derek Trucks Band into the studio for two tracks on this aptly-named CD. Originally slated for a much earlier release, “Wait For Me” had to be recorded in starts and stops around Tedeschi’s pregnancy. What she ended up with was much more mellow and relaxed than most of the material on “Just Won’t Burn”, probably due to the fact that it was recorded right after Susan’s marriage to Trucks and during the subsequent pregnancy with her first child.

The first cut, and Susan’s first single from the album, is the searing “Alone”, which was written by Tommy Sims (who also co-wrote Clapton’s “Change The World”) … a bittersweet tune that I thought sounded so much like Bonnie Raitt that it was almost scary. The next song, “Gonna Move”, was actually written by frequent Raitt songwriter Paul Pena. It has a cool, upbeat groove, and features Trucks on guitar. ‘’Wrapped in the Arms of Another” is a more contemplative tune that was penned by Tedeschi, as was “Till I Found You”, which sounds most like the Tedeschi we heard on “Just Won’t Burn”. The title tune, “Wait For Me”, is a very soulful belt buckle polisher, just dripping with lots of tasty horns and piano. Tedeschi wrote the gospel flavored “The Feeling Music Brings”, while on a plane ride with her husband to a session in Lousiana. The Derek Trucks Band cut an as-yet-unreleased version immediately, and this one again several months later. Ironically, Tedeschi plays lead guitar on the track for Derek’s record, while Trucks plays lead on hers. “In The Garden” is a more ethereal version of the song she did on the Double Trouble CD, with some really tasty violin added to the mix. The fun and funky, Tedeschi-penned “Hampmotized” also features Col. Bruce Hampton of the Codetalkers on guitar (The Col. Is alleged to be the Godfather of alternative Southern music, although he claims to have chromosome test results which will prove his innocence). Next is a distinctive version of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”, from 1963’s Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album, which Tedeschi first learned to play with her father. “I was always really drawn to it,” she says. “It’s a beautiful song, a classic song that people love. I could sing it every night.” The exhilarating “I Fell In Love” is a rockin’ honky tonk tune featuring piano from Chuck Berry collaborator and rock ‘n’ roll forefather Johnnie Johnson. This is the closest thing on the disc to rocking like “Rock Me Right” off of Tedeschi’s last album. Finally, the CD closes with the outstanding acoustic “Blues On A Holiday”. Written by label-mate Paul Rishell, the song features Paul on guitar and ex-band-mate Annie Raines on harmonica. A very cool tune, and a very cool end to a very cool album. It was well worth the wait.

Needless to say, Susan Tedeschi is pretty happy with her life right now. A new husband, a new baby, a new album … and “Just Won’t Burn” has just officially gone ‘gold’ … having sold over 500,000 copies. “I’m just so happy to be playing again,” she says. “I love being a mom, I love my husband, I love my songs and I just feel very fortunate these days, very thankful to all the fans and the people that got behind us and supported us. I love doing what I do, so I’m just happy other people like it too.”