Sun Sand And Soul: A Beach Weekend With Tedeschi Trucks Band, Jason Isbell, Taj Mahal and Molly Tuttle

A recap of a nourishing musical few days curated and hosted by Derek and Susan.

I finally made it to the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Sun Sand and Soul festival and sure am glad I did, despite a rather grueling day of travel home. “Stuck in Pensacola” sounds like a killer country song, but not the greatest reality.

The festival, held on a fairgrounds-like setting in Destin, Florida hard by the beautiful white sands Florida Panhandle Gulf beaches is lovely. The whole thing is like a music cruise without having to get on a damn cruise boat. Highly recommended. Topeka, the company that hosts the event and others there, has a motto “Live Music Made Easy” and it really is truth in advertising. A very chill setting.

As with anything, circumstances matter, and my experience was heightened by spending the three days with Kirk and Kirsten West, two of my favorite people in the world, and their fund crew of enlightened rogues, including wonderful host Chris Sutton and Chris King. It was also goosed by warm hospitality by Susan and Derek and company, and the fact that I arrived there after a fantastic two-day Gulfport visit with Jaimoe’s brother, Leroy Johnson. I’ll write about that another day, but it sent me Eastward down the coast with a bounce in my step.

What follows are a few musical highlights, in temporal not preferential order.

It was just wonderful to see the master Taj Mahal and his Phantom Blues Band. Amazing to hear the blues A team, a hard, ass-kicking straight blues band, the kind I used to listen to every weekend, and this made me realize just how much I miss that. It scratched an itch I didn’t even realize I had. Joe Sublett, whom I got to know writing Texas Flood, was on tenor sax, and the band also includes bassist Larry Fulcher, Jim Pugh on keys, Johnny Lee Schell on guitar and drummer Tony Braunagel. The latter two spent years with Bonnie Raitt.

Taj himself is about to turn 84 and is in full control of his voice and the stage. Go see him if you can, especially if he’s with the band! Not to be missed.

TTB have made “Soul Sweet Song” into an elegy and it’s very touching. It begins with Kofi and scrolls through so many lost friends and heroes, including Gregg, Butch, Dickey, Count MButu, Yonrico Scott, Col. Bruce and BB King. It’s a beautiful song, and the tributes make it all the more touching. It’s one of the only clips I took during a Thursday night set I really enjoyed so much so that I kinda just wanted to kick back and let it wash over me, my phone in my pocket and my critic’s voice silenced. TTB have continued to grow and I think this edition of the band, together for several years now, feels extremely cohesive.

One great thing about the festival and its Florida location is it was crawling with Truckses, including Derek’s parents Chris and Debbie, brother David and his family, and sister Lindsey. I also loved how Derek and Susan and most of the TTB band members were in the audience or side stage to support the smaller stage appearances by the Gabe Dixon Band, Mike Mattison’s Trash Magic and Falcon performing with guitarist Eric McFadden’s Sgt. Splendor.

Most of the photos are by Bradley Strikland. (others by me.)

Man, the Drive-By Truckers “Let There Be Rock” is a great song. Below is a taste, but really pull it up and listen to the whole thing. I never saw the original Lynyrd Skynyrd either and it’s not the only part of the lyrics I relate to. And kudos to Mike Cooley for playing the extra funky Gibson Corvus, which were only made from 1982-84. (I had to look this up.) I don’t have a lot of musical regrets, but not digging more deeply into Drive-By Truckers, whom I have always liked, is definitely one of them.

I really enjoyed DBT’s entire set, and had a great conversation with Patterson Hood afterwards backstage. A lot of people were hoping for and anticipating a Jason Isbell reunion sit in, but it didn’t happen. Hood, however, did come out during Isbell’s closing spot during the encore for “Outfit” from the Truckers’ 2003 classic, Decoration Day. Hood remained on stage for a great take on Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Let Me Roll It.” There’s something undeniably special about the way Isbell and Hood sing and play together. Here’s a taste of “Outfit.”

Prior to that, Isbell’s take on “Decoration Day” was one of the set’s highlights. I found this video of most of the solo on YT.

Molly Tuttle and her mostly female backing band were fantastic. Great songs, playing, singing, harmony, stage presence and vibe. I’m going to give them an A+.

And when she tossed her wig on the final song, it was a genuinely dramatic moment, I knew that she has alopecia, but much of the audience clearly did not. I need to interview Molly soon. Real deal here in all regards.

Just before TTB took the stage for the weekend’s final performance, word started to break of the shooting at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner. My wife Rebecca was there, so things got a tad heavy for me. Standing in the pit, with a spicy margarita in my left hand and water in my right hand, I sat down \criss cross style so I could have my fingers free to work my phone.

I was not panicking, because Joanna Stern, a friend who was with Rebecca, quickly wrote to tell me she was fine and would be in touch ASAP, but I was certainly concerned, and I was soon fielding texts and emails from worried people, from my kids to close friends and family members. I moved back to join friends’ seating pod to have some room to keep abreast and work my phone while also enjoying the show, even if it was now sadly mostly background music for this drama playing out on my little screen. Like far too many in contemporary America, gun violence had intruded, so I cannot offer any kind of detailed review or perspective of the TTB show, but I was happy to have it as a backdrop as I monitored this tense situation.

By the last 40 minutes of the show, I had spoken with Rebecca and reassured my kids and could focus on and enjoy the stretch run. Tuttle provided another highlight when she joined for “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” sharing vocals with Susan and guitar pyrotechnics with Derek. This clip provides a taste, but I quit filming before the guitar trade-off, which I wish I had to share with you.

Bottom line: It was a soul-nourishing weekend of music and friendship and some lovely beach walks. I hope to be back next year for the just-announced April 15-17 dates. Hopefully with the same crew of disreputable friends.

Brothers and Sisters: the Allman Brothers Band and The Album That Defined The 70s was my third straight book to debut in the New York Times Non-Fiction Hardcover Bestsellers List, following Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan and One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band. My first book was Big in China: My Unlikely Adventures Raising a Family, Playing the Blues and Becoming a Star in Beijing, about my experiences raising a family in Beijing and touring China with a popular original blues band. It was optioned for a movie by Ivan Reitman’s Montecito Productions. I am also a guitarist and singer who fronts two bands, Big in China and Friends of the Brothers, the premier celebration of the Allman Brothers Band.