Since their last visit to the Green Mountains in autumn of 2012, the Tedeschi Trucks Band has refused to rest on its laurels. Quite the contrary, at least on this beautiful early summer evening, they pushed the limits of the soulful rock R&B gospel mix that won them a Grammy (their 2010 studio debut Revelator), deserved to garner another (2013’s Made Up Mind).
Guitarist Derek Trucks’ positioning at left center stage is not just a cosmetic change. The main instrumentalist of the group now aligns himself more closely with the double drummers J.J. Johnson and Tyler Greenwell, long-time compatriot keyboardist flautist Kofi Burbridge and newly-recruited bassist Tim Lefebvre. Accordingly, after hitting a note that absolutely sang on the opener “Idle Wind,” if some of his solos took abrupt leaps of intensity, it was merely Trucks’ means of prodding the band into motion: they don’t quite yet anticipate or react as did the precocious guitarist’s five-piece quintet of yesteryear.
Lefebvre is a big addition to TTB and not just in his physical stature. After a string of temporary replacements for original bassist Oteil Burbridge, this tall imposing figure plays the way he appears, generating ever mobile bass lines that elicit tight response from his percussionist partners. Thus, while the sound quality in the open air wasn’t quite pristine, it was possible to discern how the rhythm section fused together in a fluid rhythmic pulse.
Lefebvre’s presence has now restored the chemistry that allows Tedeschi Trucks to so authentically render such an eclectic range of style that’s directly derived from the complement of horns and singers connected the core of the band. The eleven-piece ensemble occupied the stage for over two hours as the sky darkened and the half-moon rose over the lakescape behind them and it took them that long to effectively demonstrate all they do well.
In stark contrast to the group’s previous appearance at The Flynn Mainstage, Derek Trucks’ solos were ever-present throughout the set and each one, like that on “Get What You Deserve,” drew deserved whoops and hollers from those near the stage, but equally knowing acclamation from the attendees who occupied the hillside before the stage. Shredding with ferocity or not, the guitarist is the lightning rod for the band’s energy as they play, so much so their collective restraint on Mattison’s “Midnight in Harlem” is as deft as the magnificent exultation of their cover of Derek and the Dominos “Keep on Growing” from Layla.
All that said it doesn’t mean Susan Tedeschi has become merely an afterthought in the concept and execution of Tedeschi Trucks Band. Far from it, as this group remains a marriage made in heaven musically for both her and her partner, direct and logical extensions of their heretofore-separate careers as musicians, bandleaders and recording artists. Soft-spoken in her greetings to the audience and her introductions of the band, Tedeschi is similarly self-possessed in her singing, a no-nonsense but sensitive approach that allows her to inhabit something as lovely as John Sebastian’s “Darling Be Home Soon” as credibly as she renders the whimsy of Traffic’s “Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring?” (at the outset of which Trucks and Burbridge engaged in a snappy call and response).
The woman can handle her guitar too as she demonstrated on an elongated solo during “The Sky Is Crying” that was as articulate in its emotion as was her vocal. That Elmore James twelve-bar is the antecedent to the riff-derived likes of the title song of the latest TTB album and the closing number of the set proper at Shelburne Museum “The Storm.” Yet even with the improvisational quotient of this band escalating dramatically, the extended encore (following saxophonist Kebbie Williams in a short freeform battle with the drummers) in the another spotlight for Mattison on Taj Mahal’s “Leaving Trunk” and Joe Cocker’s Mag Dog & Englishmen’s “Space Captain” reminded just how versatile TTB is and how gratifying they’re at hitting such a responsive chord with a large audience.
Setlist
Idle Wind
Misunderstood
Darlin’ Be Home Soon
Get What You Deserve
Who Knows What Tomorrow May Bring
Midnight in Harlem
Made Up Mind
The Sky Is Crying
Bound for Glory
Keep On Growing
Love Has Something Else to Say/ Do I Look Worried
More & More
The Storm
e: Leavin’ Trunk
Space Captain / Living in the Palace of the Kind
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