One of America’s greatest progressive roots acts, the Tedeschi Trucks Band (TTB), can be considered a family operation, on various levels. Kinfolk associations are literally embedded in the band name and relationship of married couple Susan Tedeschi, the inspired vocalist, and Derek Trucks. Masterful slide guitarist Trucks himself is now the most high-profile offshoot of the Allman Brothers world, as the nephew of that band’s drummer Butch Trucks and also a prized member of a later constellation of the Allman organization.
We’ve heard Trucks stretch out with his highly musical virtuosity in the Allman aggregate at the Santa Barbara Bowl years ago, where we’ll hear him again with TTB on Wednesday, June 5. The eagerly awaited return to town marks their first post-pandemic visit, and the Bowl makes for a more-than-suitable, picturesque setting for their particular musical stew.
Another family connection with TTB, albeit more ambiguous and idealistic, relates to a certain palpable kinship feeling that the band generates with its most devoted listeners (we know who we are). There can be a sense of mutual trust and eclectic musical adventuring as the crowd follows the band’s adventuring between blues, post-Southern rock, R&B (replete with horns), gospel, and artful jam-band space explorations.