Tedeschi Trucks Band Rock Out for a Future With Soul

It’s a Wednesday night in the People’s Republic of Berkeley here on the 12th of August, and music fans are flocking to the Hearst Greek Theater for the return of the Tedeschi Trucks Band. The renowned blues rock ensemble is back at the classic venue for the third summer in a row and fourth visit in five years. The limited edition show poster from artist Dan Mumford—previewed on the band’s Instagram account earlier in the day—suggests that some of Earth’s hipper ET visitors will also be coming in for the show in their flying saucers. It’s a plausible scenario considering rock music’s long history of affinity for UFOs, and vice versa, apparently. 

Rockers like Jimi Hendrix (“Third Stone From the Sun”), the Byrds (“Mr. Spaceman”), Jefferson Airplane (“Have You Seen the Saucers”), David Bowie (“Starman”), John Lennon (“Nobody Told Me”), Sheryl Crow (“Maybe Angels”), Phish (“Scent of a Mule”), Radiohead (“Subterranean Homesick Alien”), Blink 182 (“Aliens Exist”) and Incubus (“Wish You Were Here”) have all authored songs about UFOs/ETs.

Music is the universal language, so it’s no surprise that beings from other realms would take interest in the unique sonic power of rock. With Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks cosplaying as superheroes on the cover of their new album Future Soul, the Tedeschi Trucks Band seem to have taken another step in a mission to help save humanity.

PopMatters touched on this in 2016 when we wrote about the group utilizing their blues power for the benefit of humanity, after the sensational shows that were sourced for their Live From the Fox Oakland album. We also spoke to Derek Trucks earlier this year, and the guitar phenom offered insight into the group’s current creative direction.

“When the concept of ‘Future Soul’ came up, when Mike [Mattison] brought in that tune [with the hook], ‘I hope your future has soul in it,’ it immediately hit me as, almost as an anti-AI anthem, but more of, just like, you know what? Fuck it. The world is what it is; we got to do our thing. Just by getting your ass up and going to work every day and doing your thing, you’re kind of against the grain at this point. Like, the common person being the superhero was kind of the theme,” Trucks explained. 

Trucks credited artist Marc Sasso for the brilliant album art depicting him and his wife, Susan, as superheroes moving into action when Earth is attacked by cosmic invaders, noting that Sasso had drawn Marvel characters like the X-Men and album covers for heavy metal rockers like Dio and Judas Priest. Imagining Derek and Susan with superpowers is an alluring theme for fans, given how the Tedeschi Trucks Band have earned a reputation for music that generates an uplifting vibrational force for spiritual empowerment and sonic catharsis.

Lukas Nelson has carved out a similar artistic path as a cosmic cowboy, using rock and blues as a positive force for humanity, making him a great opener for the West Coast leg of the tour. He’s got some soulful blues power too and shares the spiritual skill of using music to transcend the chaos of this crazy world. “This is one of my favorite places. We’re happy to be here,” Nelson says when he hits the stage at 6:00 pm, echoing countless rock stars who have praised the Greek as a favorite. “Fool Me Once” and “Every Time I Drink” both reflect some of Nelson’s wry old soul wisdom, while “The Last Wild River” shines with a bluesy Americana vibe.

Perennial crowdpleasers “Just Outside of Austin” and “Forget About Georgia” engage the audience with memorable tales from Nelson’s personal life. Yet it’s his take on the Grateful Dead‘s “Touch of Grey”, apparently just debuted days earlier in Lake Tahoe, that stands out. Bassist Corey McCormick really makes the groove move, and it’s a great nod to a longtime family vibe with Nelson having sat in with Furthur in 2012, and Weir sitting in with Nelson on multiple occasions at Bay Area venues like the Fillmore and the Sweetwater. 

Tedeschi Trucks Band also share a connection with the Grateful Dead’s psychedelic rock family, with Trucks touring as a member of Phil Lesh & Friends in 1999 and Tedeschi serving as a singer with the Other Ones on their fall 2002 tour. Blues power is the common denominator, with the Grateful Dead starting as a blues-oriented band that featured keyboardist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan more than Jerry Garcia in the early days.

The upbeat “I Got You” from the new album is an early highlight with a fresh yet vintage sound. It’s a quality the group have long specialized in with their uncanny ability to write new songs that feel like lost classics from the 1970s. They stretch it out with Trucks ripping a hot solo over a feel-good groove that reflects the Allman Brothers influence, propelled further by melodic piano from Gabe Dixon.

The blues standard “Let the Good Times Roll” feels like a rare treat from the dawn of the blues age, signaling a festive mood before the band let it rip on Derek & the Dominoes’ “Anyday”. It’s a classic rock gem Derek and Susan have been crushing for two decades, such as the smoking encore of the 2007 Fillmore show on their first tour together. 

The title track from Future Soul sparkles as another vibrant peak moment, and Tedeschi Trucks Band also share a connection with the Grateful Dead’s psychedelic rock family, with Trucks touring as a member of the group and rocking out at a high level. It sounded promising when they played it at the Greek last year, but the song seems to reach another level tonight with visuals that feature more of the sci-fi comic book-style art of Derek, Susan and the UFOs. Are they playing their guitars to call down the flying saucers with the good aliens, or generating sonic blasts to fend off bad aliens? Perhaps some of both, and it’s a sensational sound with Trucks shredding electrifying riffage on a Gibson Flying V guitar rather than his usual Gibson SG. 

“Anyhow” from 2016’s Let Me Get By is a great showcase of the group’s ensemble sound, with Susan’s soul-soothing voice over shimmering riffs and piano, enhanced by rich harmonies from Mike Mattison, Alecia Chakour and Mark Rivers. The warm mid-tempo groove from bassist Brandon Boone and drummers Tyler Greenwell and Isaac Eady feels like sonic comfort food, topped by Susan’s vocal honey and Derek’s sonic barbecue sauce. Susan adds some sonic hot sauce of her own with fierce riffs on her turquoise Telecaster.

The show goes on to feature a wide range of material highlighting what a diverse band Tedeschi Trucks Band are, with a jazzy duo jam between Eady and saxman Kebbi Williams, Trucks teasing the Allmans’ “Mountain Jam” during “Let Me Get By”, and local musician Alam Khan sitting in on the sarod for “Hold That Line” from the I Am the Moon quadruple album of 2022. The vibe is similar to when Khan sat in for mystical jams at the Fox Theater shows in 2016. “We realized it’s been way too long since we played together”, Tedeschi says when she introduces him. 

It’s about halfway through the set when Susan Tedeschi takes over the show with her dynamic soul power on a Sly & the Family Stone doubleshot of “You Can Make It If You Try” and “Everyday People”. The whole group come together behind her with the horn section of Kebbi Williams, trumpeter Emmanuel Echem and trombonist Elizabeth Lea elevating the sound behind a tight funky groove.

Trucks has spoken of the Family Stone as “the prototype for a band like this” with the backing singers and horn section, and it’s a gloriously uplifting sound here to showcase the entire 12-person group. Tedeschi recorded a great version of the song on her 2004 Live from Austin, TX album, but this ensemble takes it to another level. 

Bassist Brandon Boone lays down a sensational groove for the horns to solo over before Tedeschi Trucks Band pivots into “Everyday People”, which really gets the audience going as nearly everyone rises from their seats now. The full soul power of the Tedeschi Trucks Band shines here with the harmonies, horns, guitars and keyboards conjuring a truly infectious sound. When Susan sings, “We got to live together / I am no better, and neither are you / We’re all the same, whatever we do”, it feels like everyone present is united in groovy harmony to save the world from the divisive greedheads that plague society.

In this sense, Susan Tedeschi really does wield a superhero power with her transcendent voice that makes her seem like a peer of Dazzler from the X-Men (a relatively obscure character who can transform sound into light and is a rock star singer herself). It feels like a cathartic wave has enveloped the Greek as the audience comes together under the groove to dance it out while singing along.

“You could feel the crowd come alive, because people need community,” a young lady and show neighbor who drove up from Santa Cruz comments at the end of the song. It’s a deeper truth, as “Everyday People” is one of the great songs in popular music history for conjuring a universal sense of togetherness.

“Who Am I” from the new album keeps the blissful vibe going as another song that feels like sonic comfort food, with Derek following Susan’s soulful vocals with bluesy slide-guitar licks before “Part of Me” ignites the night again. The catchy tune from 2013’s Made Up Mind brings instant energy, showcasing Susan’s dynamic voice on another original tune that feels like a lost classic from an earlier era. Most of the audience has to rise again because it’s a feel-good groove that makes a body want to move. Williams steps up with a big sax solo, and it’s one of those songs where you want to live inside the infectious groove.

The Tedeschi Trucks Band are on a big roll now, leaving no doubt why those extraterrestrial visitors would want to travel across the cosmos to get to the Greek for tonight’s show. The treats continue with a faithful version of the Rolling Stones‘ “Loving Cup”, a deep take on Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s “Volunteered Slavery”, and Susan’s classic combo of John Prine‘s “Angel From Montgomery” (popularized by Bonnie Raitt) into Jerry Garcia’s “Sugaree”. 

The new material continues to impress with “Hero”, an edgier song with some alternative rock influence from the 1990s. The set builds to a big finish as they dip into the New Orleans blues for a fierce take on Dr. John’s “I Walk on Guilded Splinters”. The vocal harmonies feel downright mystical, while Trucks shreds molten hot leads over a massive groove for a charged performance. Mike Mattison stars on the gritty lead vocal and Tedeschi rips off some hot wah-wah riffage too, over wicked polyrhythms from the drummers.

Lukas Nelson re-appears for the encore, sans guitar unfortunately, but teams with Tedeschi for a heartfelt duet on Leon Russell’s “A Song for You”. The rest of the group return for a climactic performance of “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free”, one of those vintage tunes the Tedeschi Trucks Band has made their own.

A far-out Miles Davis-style jazz-fusion intro leads into the classic lament for humanity’s struggle against its oppressors. When Tedeschi sings about wishing she could be like a bird in the sky and how sweet it would be to find she could fly, with Trucks making his guitar sing, it feels like the band is carrying the audience on that ride to spiritual freedom. That cathartic feeling runs through the show, a talent that has made this band a universal-class attraction.

Fans might tune into Berkeley’s independent radio station KPFA 94.1 on the drive home and find themselves treated to an episode of David Ogilvy’s “All Your Old Records” program that seems to align, synchronistically and strategically, with the vibe of the concert. Zero’s ethereal “Forever is Nowhere” leads into the classic instrumental “Sleepwalk”, the song that the Bruce Willis time traveler character Cole adores on the radio in 1995’s classic sci-fi film 12 Monkeys. “We don’t have anything like this”, he explains to Madeleine Stowe about the dystopian future he came from. It feels like a reflection of the show’s blissful feeling, a feeling that builds when “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More” from the Allman Brothers Band plays next. 

Bonnie Raitt‘s “What Do You Want the Boy to Do?” is another standout, as the younger Raitt from the 1970s sounds a lot like the younger Tedeschi. Jerry Garcia’s “The Wheel” pops up a few songs later upon arrival at home, one of the great ethereal tracks in rock history with Garcia’s pedal steel guitar providing a multi-dimensional shimmer. It’s followed by the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s “Still Your Mind”, a timely tune for winding down.

Poking around YouTube could then lead to a Track Star interview clip with Derek and Susan, in which she talks about an encounter where Bonnie Raitt asked her to pretend to be her mom for a bit, since she never had kids of her own. Susan says Bonnie flew out for a gig, and they hung out all day, bringing the blues and the night full circle.

Will the future have soul? Or is humanity doomed to a dystopian downfall from a pandemic like in 12 Monkeys or climate change as in Mad Max: Fury Road? The odds for a future with soul will remain strong as long as the Tedeschi Trucks Band keeps on rocking and rolling.