Susan Tedeschi

by Richard SkellyGuitarist, singer and songwriter Susan Tedeschi is part of the new generation of blues musicians looking for ways to keep the form exciting, vital and evolving. Tedeschis live shows are by no means straight-ahead urban blues. Instead, she freely mixes classic R&B, blues and her own gospel and blues-flavored original songs into her sets. Shes a young, sexy, sassy blues belter with musical sensibilities that belie her years. Tedeschi began singing when she was four and was active in local choir and theater in Norwell, a southern suburb of Boston. She began singing at 13 with local bands and continued her music studies at Berklee, honing her guitar skills and also joining the Reverence Gospel Ensemble. She started the first incarnation of her blues band upon graduating in 1991, with vocalist/guitarist Adrienne Hayes, a fellow blues enthusiast whom she met at the House of Blues in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bonnie Raitt, Janis Joplin and Boston-area singer Toni Lynn Washington were Tedeschis most important influences; in starting her band, in fact, she used Washingtons backing band and hustled up gigs on nights when Washington and her band were not already booked. Since they began performing around Bostons fertile blues scene, Tedeschi and her band developed into a tightly knit, road-ready group, and have played several major blues festivals. Guitarist Sean Costello has since replaced original guitarist and co-vocalist Hayes, who left the group to pursue her own musical interests. The Susan Tedeschi Bands first album, Just Wont Burn, was released on the Boston-based Tone-Cool Records in early 1998. The band for her debut on Tone-Cool includes guitarist Costello, bassist Jim Lamond and drummer Tom Hambridge; guitarist Hayes also contributes. Just Wont Burn is a powerful collection of originals, plus a sparkling cover of John Prines Angel From Montgomery. Tedeschi and band also do justice to a tune Ruth Brown popularized, Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean, and Junior Wells Little By Little. The appropriately titled Wait for Me appeared in 2002 and was followed two years later by the CD and DVD Live From Austin TX. Hope and Desire from 2005 found Tedeschi on the Verve label.