What did you do in the lockdown? Loll in your mess? Create a side hustle that’s now built a machine harnessing the smugness on social media to power the earth?
Tedeschi & Trucks; Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi did I Am The Moon. They’re well-loved, this often 12-piece collective, and can it really be only 5 albums? They seem to have been around forever, probably because so many talk about them, so many work with them, and so many love them.
The Tedeschi Trucks Band touch Americana, Southern Rock, Blues, Country, and all with excellent musicianship but always with groove and a smile on its face.
So What’s All This Then?
4 albums. 24 songs. One per month. But that’s not all.
4 films. Films which will arrive 3 days before each album. Via their YouTube channel. That’s bold stuff. Alix Lambert will serve us live and studio footage which mixes with photography and images to nestle with the music.
Check out the trailer here;
Susan Trucks says they came up with the idea when they began to think about records they loved, particularly Jimi Hendrix Experience album Axis Bold As Love, she tells us;
‘It’s 36 minutes long. That’s the way to digest a record.’
And if we can have that 4 times, what’s so very wrong with that?
And The Story Tedeschi Trucks Band Is Telling?
Well, Tedeschi & Trucks have revisited Derek & The Dominoes Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs album before.
And an influence on that album was ‘Layla & Majnum’ by 12th-century poet Nizami Ganjavi, a Persian poet. So Tedeschi & Trucks set about finding new connections in the poem; they wrote together and recorded with Derek Trucks behind the console at their studio in Swamp Raga.
And the aspirations are huge. The human experience, love, and faith no less – this is one band who can do it. As Derek says;
‘It’s amazing…There are even chord changes that mirror other tunes on the albums – themes and variations, lyrical allusions, that pop back up. You always want to do something bigger and thematic. This is the first time it happened naturally.’
And When Will We Be Able To Hear It?
Well, in a deluxe way, limited of course, with each vinyl album and other items will be available through the TTB Store and their record label Fantasy Records and the 4 missives arrived thusly;
TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND – I AM THE MOON: ALBUM + FILM RELEASE DATES:
I Am The Moon: I. Crescent Film Premiere: May 31st Album Release: June 3rd
I Am The Moon: II. Ascension Film Premiere: June 28th Album Release: July 1st
I Am The Moon: III. The Fall Film Premiere: July 26th Album Release: July 29th
I Am The Moon: IV. Farewell Film Premiere: August 23rd Album Release: August 26th
I Am The Moon – All Vinyl Configurations: individual LPs + the 4-LP Deluxe Box Available September 9th.
Like a little bit of Summer sun breaking into your life every month.
What’s The First Album Like?
Well, it would be injudicious to say too much. But I can tell you that this Tedeschi & Trucks music is wistful, widescreen, jammy, sassy, and never hurries, even when the industry might tell it to.
It’s the kind of album that shows its beauty early on. And then even more after repeated listens; there’s enough room on this music to allow it to be what you want it to be.
As Goldmine enthused;
‘I Am The Moon totals more than two hours of music, unfolding across a robust tapestry of genre-defying explorations that propel the treasured American ensemble into new and thrilling creative territory.‘
And here’s a little appetite whetter…
Tedeschi & Trucks don’t standstill. They meander beautifully. And now you can walk their marvelous miles with them.