Last month marked the 25th anniversary of Susan Tedeschi’s debut album Just Won’t Burn. In celebration, Fantasy Records is releasing Just Won’t Burn (25th Anniversary Edition). This 16-track expanded edition features the original album plus five previously unreleased bonus tracks: an alternate take of “Looking For Answers,” two new album outtakes, and two live versions of Just Won’t Burn album tracks recorded with Tedeschi Trucks Band at NYC’s Beacon Theatre. To celebrate the release, Tedeschi has offered up a blistering version of Koko Taylor’s “Voodoo Woman.”
“Making Just Won’t Burn was a pivot,” Tedeschi says in a press release about the album. Musicians on the album, which was co-produced by Tedeschi and Tom Hambridge, include guitarists Adrienne Hayes and Sean Costello and harmonica player Annie Raines tackling Tedeschi’s original songs in tandem with material popularized by Ruth Brown, Junior Wells, and John Prine.
“Blues is a language that I love,” she says. “You can take it anywhere in the world and communicate with people, which isn’t necessarily true about other forms of music. And being a white artist in a black milieu, you just have to let the music speak.”
I had forgotten that I interviewed for Guitar World in 2000 for the GW Inquirer feature as the album was continuing to gain strength and she was touring relentlessly. I was thrilled to find it in my archives recently and happy to share it here. Make sure you catch the interview with a 15-year-old Derek at the bottom of this post.
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Blues singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi was nominated for the Best new Artist Grammy, alongside the likes of Britney Spears and Kid Rock. Her second album Just Won’t Burn (Tone Cool) came out in February, 1998 and has slowly gained momentum thanks to relentless touring and glowing word-of-mouth buzz.
Who or what inspired you to play guitar? Freddie King and Magic Sam and local Boston players Ronnie Earl, Paul Rishell and Tim Gearan. I went to the Berklee School of Music for voice and piano, then got into blues and got inspired by those guys and decided to start playing electric guitar. I had played acoustic when I was younger so I was familiar with basic chord shapes and progressions.
What’s the one piece of gear you couldn’t live without? My ’64 Fender Deluxe Reverb.
Do you have any fashion tips to impart? Don’t wear mini skirts on tall stages. I did that once and saw a few pictures show up later.
When your record came out two years ago, you probably couldn’t have imagined that it would do so well or last so long. What has been the most pleasant surprise? The whole thing, but it all starts with radio support. That was a big, wonderful surprise and it triggered everything else. Suddenly, I’d show up in Boise, Idaho and have 1,000 people there. And that led to all the great tours I got to be on: with Dylan, the Allman Brothers, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, John Mellencamp, Sarah McLaughlin, the Dixie Chicks. I’ve opened and/or played with all of them and it’s been truly great.
Has your success shown that the popularity of blues is under-estimated? Definitely, and jazz is, too. It’s just that the way the industry and the marketing are, they are never in the mainstream. But a lot of people love a lot of music which is deeply influenced by the blues whether they know it or not –everything from the Beatles and Stones to Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. I think people are more connected to this music than they realize, so it’s actually an easy connection to make. People always tell me, “I never liked blues before I heard you” and that can only mean they didn’t hear the right stuff. That’s why my career is not just all about me, me, me. I like to educate people about my singing heroes like Big Mama Thornton and Mahalia Jackson and my guitar heroes, like Johnny “Guitar” Watson, B.B. King, Albert King, Albert Collins, Jimmy Rogers, Hubert Sumlin and Buddy Guy. I just wish I could play like them!
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My old buddy E.J. Devokaitis interviewed 15-year-old Derek Trucks in Duane Allman’s bedroom at the Big House for Public Access TV in 1995. The last seven minutes feature the Derek Trucks Band circa 1995. EJ posted this now in spite of some embarrassment. I think he has nothing to feel bad about. This is awesome all the way around, including the guest appearances by Kirk West in most of the ads. I’m so glad I made it to Macon during this fun era.
The Big House was the private residence of Kirk and his lovely wife Kirsten at the time. Rebecca and I visited them there in 1993. EJ was living at the BH and I think it was the first time we met. My wife Rebecca was with me on that first visit, and we sat down at Gregg’s B3 without much n the way of keyboard skills - so we played “Chopsticks,” to which I tried to sing “Cross To Bear.” Good times captured by Kirk West. Of course in the last 30 years, I have spent a lot of time at the Big House, which is now a wonderful Museum, overseen by my friends Richard Brent and John Lynskey. The archives there were tremendous resources in my research for One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band and Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s.
Love it. I've also been loving Derek's recent collaborations with Trey Anastasio!