A sticker on the cover of Susan Tedeschi's new album Back To The River says, "Susan Tedeschi returns to her signature sound." That's certainly true to some degree, but this definitely isn't the same old Susan Tedeschi. Back To The River showcases her astonishing talents - singer, guitarist, songwriter - like nothing she's released before. In short, Tedeschi has raised her game across the board and released easily one of the best albums this year.
When Tedeschi recruited Joe Henry to produce her last album Hope & Desire, it hinted that she was interested in subtly shifting away from the "blues" tag that had always been pinned on her work. Henry and Tedeschi put the emphasis squarely on her singing, leaving all of the guitar duties to Tedeschi's husband Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall II. The result was her most impressive vocal performance to date, but the move no doubt alienated longtime fans who probably admired her guitar playing at least as much as her singing. And even though Tedeschi had not yet consistently proven her songwriting chops, the all-covers format (every selection a great pick) probably didn't curry any favor with fans either. Still, Henry is an exceptional producer, and Hope & Desire was a great-sounding album with several career highlights.
But it would seem that Tedeschi has eased herself back toward her comfort zone with Back To The River. What she added this time was co-writing credit on nearly all of the songs, traveling across the country to work with writers like Gary Louris, Tony Joe White, John Leventhal and Sonya Kitchell. Furthermore, she nabbed producer George Drakoulias whose sweet spot is just the kind of rock-soul-gospel-blues throwdown for which she was obviously aiming. As a result, Back To The River rocks harder than anything Tedeschi has ever recorded, yet sacrifices none of the melodic strength of the songs. It's this razor-sharp focus on the songs that sets the album apart from nearly anyone else broadly working in a blues or blues-rock format. Think Bonnie Raitt fronting the Black Crowes or Gov't Mule and you might get some idea.
Tedeschi is probably known as a singer first, guitarist second and songwriter third, but these distinctions become significantly more hazy on Back To The River. For the first time, she comes across as a genuine triple-threat. Though her guitar playing sounds more vital than ever, Trucks and Bramhall return, as well as guitarist Dave Yoke - there's an absolute feast here for guitar geeks. And Tedeschi's singing is simply one of the great female voices out there today. But, of course, what makes the record truly special is the quality of the material, which surpasses by a substantial margin even the carefully picked songs on Hope & Desire. The lone cover song here - a face-melting rendition of Allen Toussaint's "There's A Break In The Road" - fits perfectly with the rest of the tunes, which vary the tempo and mood enough to give the listener a full picture of just how talented Susan Tedeschi truly is.
I first stumbled onto Tedeschi when I was digging around for some Rock N Soul mamas in the vein of Tift Merritt's Tambourine (I also sniffed out Grace Potter around this time). It's no small surprise that Back To The River has a lot in common with Tambourine, which was also produced by Drakoulias. But whereas Merritt's roots originate in the country music realm, Tedeschi still obviously starts with the blues as her primary reference. Modern blues, particularly the white-blues-rock variety, gets stale pretty quickly these days. But Susan Tedeschi has served notice with Back To The River than those roots can still blossom into something quite extraordinary.
A few links...
- Great piece about Susan and the new album over at Blues Blogger.
- Her recently updated website.
- Stream a few tracks over at JamBase.
- Back To The River is on sale at Amazon for $10.99.