#SLS November Born: Susan Tedeschi (November 9)

While looking through lists of November born, I screeched to a halt at her. Over the last few years I’ve listened to her and Tedeschi Trucks Band more and more. I’d heard her and her husband, Derek Trucks’, names many times but knew nothing about them or their music. It was by chance, as it often is with finding new music, that I saw their names on Spotify while putting a Doyle Bramhall II playlist together. I loved what I was hearing and it took off from there. So far I have their “I Am the Moon,” their live “Mad Dogs and Englishman” (2025) revival album with some of the original players on it, and their newest, “Future Soul.”

Susan Tedeschi (pronounced Tuh DESS key) is an American singer and guitarist born on 11/9/70. A multiple Grammy Award nominee, she is a member of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, a conglomeration of her band, her husband Derek Trucks’ band, and other musicians.

Tedeschi was born in Boston to a family of Italian ancestry and grew up in Norwell, Massachusetts. She made her public debut as a five-year-old understudy in a Broadway musical. As a youth, she sang for family members and listened to her father’s record collection of old vinyl recordings of musicians such as Mississippi John Hurt and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Growing up Catholic, she found little inspiration in the church choir and attended predominantly African-American Baptist churches, feeling that the music was “less repressed and more like a celebration of God.” In bands since the age of 13, Tedeschi formed her first all-original group at 18 called the Smokin’ Section.

Tedeschi formed the Susan Tedeschi Band in 1993, with Adrienne Hayes, Jim Lamond and Mike Aiello.

While in New Orleans opening for the Allman Brothers Band on their 1999 summer tour, Tedeschi met Derek Trucks; Trucks was slide guitarist for the Allman Brothers Band, as well as the bandleader and lead guitarist of The Derek Trucks Band. A personal relationship developed between them. Tedeschi and Trucks then toured together frequently under the name Soul Stew Revival. SSR included members of The Derek Trucks Band, members of Tedeschi’s band, and other musicians who traveled with them, including Trucks’ younger brother, drummer Duane Trucks. In 2008, they added a three-piece horn section.

In 2002, Tedeschi toured as a member of the Other Ones, a band comprised of former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann, along with Jimmy Herring, Rob Barraco, and Jeff Chimenti.

In 2010, Tedeschi and Trucks announced a hiatus for their solo bands, and formed a new group called Tedeschi Trucks Band.

Tedeschi’s discography includes 5 studio and 1 live album with her band, 10 albums with Tedeschi Trucks Band, and has been a guest performer on 15 albums.

The song I chose to share today is from Tedeschi Trucks Band’s album, I Am The Moon, which is their fifth studio album. It is a quadruple album which was initially released in four separate parts over consecutive full moons in 2022: Crescent (released on June 3,) Ascension (released on July 1,) The Fall (released on July 29,) and Farewell (released on August 26,) with each album including a corresponding short film.

“Last Night in the Rain” is the first track off of the (4th) Farewell Album.

Personnel on the song:
Brandon Boone – bass guitar
Isaac Eady – drums, percussion
Gabe Dixon – keyboards, vocals
Tyler Greenwell – drums, percussion
Susan Tedeschi – lead vocals; guitar
Derek Trucks – lead and rhythm guitars
Kebbi Williams – saxophone
Elizabeth Lea – trombone
Ephraim Owens – trumpet
Alecia Chakour – vocals; additional percussion
Mike Mattison – vocals
Mark Rivers – vocals; additional percussion
Paul Olsen – acoustic guitar

Not only do the lyrics express the narrative of someone leaving another while the one left behind is hurting and yearning for the one who has gone, you can hear it in every note of music and how it is sung by Tedeschi. I know that 4 people are credited with writing it, but it feels like a chapter in her and Derek’s story somewhere along the way. It may be total fiction, but when I hear it, my heart tells me otherwise.

(sorry for the visualizer video, it has the best sound quality)

Last Night in the Rain

Last night in the rain, I dreamed of loving you
Woke up in the kitchen, but you had flown the coop
Went down to the station to catch the morning train
One ticket to lonely, one ticket to Spain

Let me hear you say
There's nothing wrong with rain
Wash the dream away

I could be there in an instant
You don't know, boy, what you're missing
Can you hear me? Did you listen?
Last night in the rain
'Cause we lost everything

Got a letter from nowhere, got a letter from you
It was already opened, addressed to somebody new
I read the words on the paper, I saw the look on your face
It was message delivered but the feelings remain

And if you only knew
What I would be to you
I'm just a step away

I could be there in an instant
You don't know, boy, what you're missing
Did you hear me? Oh, did you listen?
Last night in the rain
'Cause we lost everything

Oh, we lost everything, yeah
Oh, we lost it all in the rain, yeah
Oh, won't you wash away the pain
Oh, no, yeah
Oh, no, no, yeah
Oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah
Everything gone
We lost everything

Everything
Everything
Lost it all
Last night in the rain
We lost everything 

Songwriters:  Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Gabriel Barry Dixon, Tyler Greenwell 


source:  wikipedia