Consider, the Stax rhythm section of Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson and Donald “Duck” Dunn, which demonstrated that two African-American and two white musicians could help artists turn out tunes that appealed to all races.
With the Tedeschi Trucks Band, guitarist/vocalist Susan Tedeschi and slide genius Derek Trucks expand on that experiment with 12 performers who represent both genders and various races. On their new record, Signs (Fantasy/Concord), this crew comes together in a musical melting pot that realizes the finest aspirations of the country that spawned it. The opening tune, “Signs, High Times,” recalls another multicultural group, Sly and the Family Stone, while on “Walk Through This Life,” Tedeschi and Trucks trade solos in the style of Derek and the Dominos guitarists Eric Clapton and Duane Allman.
The band recorded Signs live to two-inch analog tape at Swamp Raga, the couple’s home studio in Jacksonville, Florida, with contributions from guitarists Warren Haynes, Doyle Bramhall II and Oliver Wood, as well as percussionist Marc Quiñones. Sadly, the writing and recording was marked by several tragedies, including the deaths of close friends and relatives like Trucks’ uncle Butch, Gregg Allman, Aquarium Rescue Unit guitarist Col. Bruce Hampton and Leon Russell. In addition, Kofi Burbridge, the band’s keyboardist and flautist, suffered a heart attack in 2017, which was followed by another health setback in early 2019. He died on February 15, the day Signs was released.
Those losses influenced the new album’s music and lyrics, but a sense of durability and hope remains, as heard in songs like “Strengthen What Remains,” “Still Your Mind” and “All the World.” And as always, the Tedeschi Trucks Band give everything they have to the music, concentrating the energy of their jam-filled live shows into 11 concise, powerful