Susan Tedeschi
Susan Tedeschi was born November 9, 1970 in Boston and raised in Norwell, Massachusetts. A blues artist renowned for her superb singing and guitar playing – plus her marriage to Derek Trucks of The Allman Brothers Band – she’s the great-granddaughter of the founder of Tedeschi Food Shops, opened in Rockland, Massachusetts, in 1923 and acquired by the 7/11 chain in 2015.
Tedeschi made her public debut as a six-year-old understudy in a Broadway musical and often sang for family members as a young girl. She spent endless hours listening to selections from her father’s record collection, which included LPs by blues greats including Lightnin’ Hopkins and Mississippi John Hurt, and joined her first band at age 13. Five years later, she formed her first all-original group, The Smokin’ Section, in Scituate, Massachusetts. She cites her primary vocal influences as Bonnie Raitt and Janis Joplin and her guitar playing leans toward Buddy Guy, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Freddie King and Doyle Bramhall II.
Berklee, The Susan Tedeschi Band, Better Days, Just Won’t Burn
After graduating from Norwell High School, she enrolled at Berklee College of Music, where she sang in a gospel choir and earned her a bachelor’s degree in musical composition and performance, completing the program at age 20. As a student, Tedeschi worked part time performing show tunes on the Spirit of Boston seaport tours and often joined blues jams at local venues, immersing herself in the Boston scene.
In 1993, she formed The Susan Tedeschi Band featuring Grammy-winning drummer Tom Hambridge. In December that year, Oarfin Records released the band’s debut album, Better Days, and in 1997 she signed with Tone-Cool Records, which released her sophomore LP, Just Won’t Burn, in 1998. Two years later, the album went gold for sales of 500,000 – a rarity for a blues record – and her national exposure exploded in 2003 when The Susan Tedeschi Band toured as the opening for The Rolling Stones, appearing at massive arenas across the US.
Lileth Fair, Marriage, Children, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Grammy
In 1999, Tedeschi was part of the all-female travelling festival Lilith Fair, organized by Sarah McLachlan, and toured extensively in with her own band, which drew larger and larger crowds. By the dawn of the new millennium, they were opening for major acts including John Mellencamp, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, The Allman Brothers, Taj Mahal and Bob Dylan.
In December 2001, Tedeschi married Allman Brothers Band guitarist Derek Trucks, whom she met in New Orleans when she was opening for the Allmans during their 1999 summer tour. They have two children, Charles Khalil Trucks (named after Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian and Khalil Gibran) and Sophia Naima Trucks, whose middle name comes from a ballad composed by John Coltrane for his first wife.
In 2010, Tedeschi and Trucks split up their own bands and formed their own, Tedeschi Trucks Band, which concentrates on original material. In 2012, their debut album, Revelator (Masterworks, 2011), won a Grammy for Best Blues Album.
(by A.J. Wachtel)
