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Susan Tedeschi was 17 and sitting in a History of Rock classroom the first time she saw Janis Joplin’s legendary performance of “Ball and Chain” in the documentary of the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. It wasn’t exactly a life-changing moment, but it came close.
“I was born within a few months of when both Janis and Jimi Hendrix died, and people have asked me if I feel like I’m channeling them when I perform,” Ms. Tedeschi said in a recent interview. “I don’t know that I can say that, but I do know that they have come to me in my dreams.
“I’ve often had dreams that I awoke from and right away wrote a song. Most songwriters will tell you it’s not really us, and of course we can’t control the imagination. We’re the instrument of the inspiration, wherever it’s coming from.”
The audience at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center can judge for themselves if she is channeling the singer called “Pearl” on Sunday, October 12, when Ms. Tedeschi takes the stage there. It is her second autumn in a row playing at the PAC, and both were and are special occasions: last year because she did the show on her birthday (November 9); this year because she will preview her first new CD in three years.
“Back to the River,” which is to be released on October 28, has 11 tracks and 10 of those are original songs. “I wrote three albums’ worth of material, but the label only let me do one album,” the singer sighed.
Listeners most likely know of her through the bluesy “It Hurts So Bad,” which received a lot of airplay when it came out a decade ago. She is closely aligned with blues and soul music, yet she is not the daughter of a sharecropper nor had Robert Johnson as a great-grandfather. Ms. Tedeschi was born and raised in the Boston area.
“My parents won’t like me saying this, but I never felt like I fully fit in in Massachusetts,” she said. “There were definitely times when I wanted to be from Mississippi or Georgia: ‘Why am I here instead?’ And then to find out that I can trace my ancestry back to the Mayflower—that isn’t your typical blues background.”
But Boston turned out to be fertile ground for an aspiring musician. “When I was a teenager, there was a strong indie rock scene. Aerosmith was big then; then ’Til Tuesday was very popular, especially since they were formed in Boston. The J. Geils Band was another local band that had left a cool legacy. A large college crowd meant there were always people hitting the music clubs.”
“Most important for me,” she continued, “is that there was a good-sized crossover market for jazz and blues. There were lots of blues aficionados, a lot of people who knew blues music and wanted to see bands and individuals who play it. Musicians interacted a lot—they would come see me, I’d go see them play at the clubs. It was a very inspirational setting, and wasn’t just rock and folk. It was a cool opportunity to play with a lot of good people.”
Her initial interest in music was spurred by her father. He played acoustic guitar and harmonica and encouraged Susan and her two brothers to play and sing along. All three learned to play the piano. And there was always music being played in the house and available nearby.
“I had a lot of influences in addition to Janice Joplin,” the singer said. “Buddy Holly, Freddy King, Bob Dylan, Mavis Staples were always being played by my parents. I’d be taken to the Newport Festival and see Muddy Waters and Lightnin’ Hopkins. My grandfather had an Irish bar and bands would play a lot of Irish songs there, especially IRA anthems. I was surrounded by music, and a lot of it wasn’t the usual top 40 stuff.”
On her last CD, “Hope and Desire,” Ms. Tedeschi covered a song (“Magnificent Sanctuary Band”) by Donny Hathaway, who has been forgotten by a lot of music lovers—his only real hit was the “Where Is the Love” duet with Roberta Flack—yet whom Ms. Tedeschi cites as one of her biggest influences.
“I went to college with his daughter, we were in gospel class together, and she looks a lot like him and she could sing her ass off,” Ms. Tedeschi said. “That made me want to know about her father’s career. He was an amazing singer and composer, and it is definitely time for a reappraisal of his career.
“He was a great singer. He should be considered on the same level as Marvin Gaye. He was also a fabulous arranger. He did great work in the studio. He stayed in the background in a Quincy Jones way and never got the credit he deserved, plus he died so young.” (Mr. Hathaway was only 33 and suffering from severe depression when he committed suicide by leaping out of a New York City hotel room window.)
What might also be considered unusual for an artist committed to the blues is that Ms. Tedeschi’s personal life is reasonably calm. She is married to the guitarist and Allman Brothers member Derek Trucks (who is returning to the PAC with his band on November 8), and they live in Jacksonville with their two children. While she said that their relationship is “competitive” at times, being with a fellow musician has advantages.
“We bounce ideas off each other a lot,” she said. “It really is a blessing to have a partner in the same business because he knows what I’m going through. He has excellent ideas, he’s inspired, and he’s really hard-working. And it goes both ways because I’ll want what’s good for his career, I know what the stakes are.
“It’s like when he was asked to go on tour with Eric Clapton last year. Derek was like, ‘I should be home more,’ and I said, ‘No way, it’s Eric Clapton, get out there and play.’ I stayed home with the kids. Now he’s doing the same thing for me.”
Susan Tedeschi will perform at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Sunday, October 12, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $50, $70, and $85, available by calling the Arts Center box office at 288-1500, stopping at the PAC at 76 Main Street in Westhampton Beach, or by visiting www.WHBPAC.org.
on Sep 29, 2008