Bubbling Under the 75 Best Albums of 2011: Tedeschi Trucks Band

Artist: Tedeschi Trucks Band

Album: Revelator

Label: Sony Masterworks

US Release Date: 2011-06-07

UK Release Date: 2011-06-08

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Tedeschi Trucks Band
Revelator

Revelator is a joy. A perfect blend of songcraft and crack band playing, it makes you wonder why this wife/husband team took so long to come together as one. Singer Susan Tedeschi’s six-album career has been terrific, but just one star away from stellar. And the Derek Trucks Band had a tendency, perhaps, to feel too much like the Allman Brothers or too much like a “Man, you’ve gotta hear ’em live” band. This true collaboration brings it all together as a nuanced gumbo that includes dashes of tasty organ, funked-out horn parts, gospel-driven background vocals, and always a burbling soul groove. Tedeschi sells each song with both warmth and open-throated wailing, while Trucks’s slide guitar playing carefully establishes the atmosphere and cries in solo features. A few tracks — “Midnight in Harlem”, “Bound for Glory” and “Until You Remember” — ache to draw your ears again and again.