It really blows me away that something this good and such PRO quality was put up on YouTube less than three weeks after it happened. You know it's funny, only a few years back, I really couldn't have cared much at all about this band. Then I saw them @ Red Rocks summer 2023 and just went WHOA. They had definitely elevated their game, and two years after that, they just keep on elevating their game. The setlists change entirely every night, yet everyone in this incredible 12 piece ensemble knows all the breaks and transitions song to song seamlessly. That kind of musicianship just makes my jaw drop. Vocally, Susan, of course, is the focal point, and MAN, does she ever deliver, besides being a much better guitar player than she ever seems to get credit for. Bell Bottom Blues (54 minute mark) stunned me. She really wraps her voice around the intense emotion of that tune. And as always, backup singer Mike Mattison always shines in the few lead vocal spots that he gets. Dude is just a monster vocalist to have in your hip pocket to showcase in spots. Derek? Not only one of the great guitar players alive, but without a doubt, the TTB musical director and bandleader.
They do no less than three Dominoes tunes: Anyday, then much later on, Bell Bottom Blues, which segues right into Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad. No, this was not a tribute to Bobby Whitlock. This show was recorded on 8/1 and Whitlock died on 8/10. They just happen to be way into the Dominoes. And I have no argument with that! Song For You (Leon Russell) was just drop dead gorgeous, featuring only Susan on vocals and the exquisite piano of Gabe Dixon. And what a monster replacement for Kofi Burbridge is Dixon.
I haven't had a true getaway vacation in years, but I already put a deposit down for Sun, Sand and Soul in Miramar Beach, Florida, April 23-25, 2026. Two nights of TTB, Thursday and Saturday. On Friday, Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit headline, with The Drive-By Truckers as opener. Taj Mahal opens for TTB on Thursday, The Mavericks on Saturday. Already got my hotel and car rental booked as well. FYI, you can put $100 down and they'll let you make payments on the balance for your Festival "cove". Derek and Susan have been doing this for several years now, and they both said it's one of their favorite weekends of the year.
https://booking.topeka.live/pages/tedeschi-trucks-band-sun-sand-and-soul-26
Oh, this is the Jerry b-day show. That's one of Jerry's guitars Derek is playing on "Franklin's Tower".
TTB is an absolute beast, and it is nuts how they just keep getting better after 15 years. I just picked up a couple live shows from nugs the other day.
They keep it fresh. It helps that their latest album, the I Am the Moon material, is some of the best stuff they've made (20 minutes of Derek going off on "Pasaquan" is always epic).
Their Dominos stuff is fun, but their Mad Dogs & Englishmen material fits them even better. And Alicia singing Aretha's "It Ain't Fair" lately is one of my dream songs, seamlessly segues into "Dreams" these days. They've added "Gilded Splinters" recently, they just keep rolling out some of my favorite tunes so I don't have to. I might have to pull the trigger on St Augustine this Fall...
