| Legacy
GM: How did you decide to make video part of the project and select filmmaker Alix Lambert to head things up? Are you Deadwood fans? DT: It’s funny; we are big Deadwood fans. (laughs) We actually know Alix through Mike. They met each other when he was living in Hungary right out of school. They were part of this punk artist community, so they had a really fun history. He thought we should check her stuff out because she works in a number of different disciplines. She’s done documentaries, worked on screenplays, worked in different visual art mediums, and he thought she’d be good for this. After a few hangs with her and having watched a few of the things she had done, we realized that this was what we were looking for. We wanted it to be inside but outside. We didn’t want it to guide the narrative too much but have the video put you in that in-between place. One of the things that really hit me and Sue when we watched one through four together was that we walked away like we knew the band; I felt everyone’s personality. It felt like hanging on the bus on a good night off. Tedeschi Trucks Band calls I Am The Moon “an epic undertaking,” and it certainly is. Four separate album releases with four corresponding films, which compiles a total of 24 original songs and more than two hours of the group’s genre-busting musical creativity. GM: Is this collaborative writing approach something you expect to take forward with future work? DT: Midway through the summer tour, we had a band meeting to have everyone just check in. It’s been a long hard two years, so what do we want to do for the next two? We talked about a one-year plan, a 10-year plan, and we agreed that we can’t tour like we used to, doing 200 dates a year. We have families and we want a certain quality of life. Being home for the amount of time that we were did make us realize some things. I enjoyed being home and unpacking my suitcase and realizing there are some things that I still want to do. That led us to a discussion of maybe doing an on-year of 100-plus shows and then an off-year. Then Mike said, “It’s not an off-year if you don’t get to unpack your suitcase between tours.” So we started to kick around this idea of working two years really hard and then taking a year off, or maybe just doing 15 shows in that off-year. That gives us the time to be creative and if we don’t want to be, we won’t. We really started thinking about that because of this record. It felt good, healthy and creative, and maybe this is something we need to impose on ourselves. GM: You have a dozen people in the band, and you typically tour pretty heavily. How do you keep the band dynamic so healthy? Is it tied to how you recruit band members? DT: That’s certainly a big part of it. The other are lessons learned from bands that we were part of. The Allman Brothers have a crazy history, and I grew up with that. But we all have been around other bands and have an understanding of what can cause mayhem. Some of it back then was tied to the large amounts of money, drugs and ego. We have never had to contend with an instant and massive amount of fame, so that’s on our side. But we have learned that you really do have to communicate and air things out. You have to hold band meetings where people can speak their minds. It’s the same with a good marriage. You have to reinvent yourself and learn. GM: You have had personnel changes, maybe the most significant being Gabe Dixon replacing Kofi Burbridge. It feels like he has brought a great new dimension to the band. DT: I think in many ways that Gabe saved the day when he arrived. Kofi was the best in the world at what he did. He was just an animal. I’ve played with a lot of musicians in my lifetime, and he was one of the very few that you feel confident throwing around the term “genius.” There was just this innate thing that he had where he was our “musical mind” where Mike is the “literary mind” of the band. When we lost him, we were wounded and unsure what to do. Gabe came in with such a different energy and was respectful of the chair. Being a singer-songwriter was a new addition and having another voice for Sue to sing with has been incredible. Lastly, the songs he wrote for this project are amazing; we named the project after one of them. So he has quickly become a cornerstone of the band. GM: You are a big fan of jazz, especially of John Coltrane. I have heard you say that your slide playing feels a lot like singing. Do you think that’s what draws you to jazz sax? DT: There certainly an element of that, especially with the way he plays. There a clean quality to it. The way that he and people like John Gilmore and Wayne Shorter play effectively says: “Here is something I can’t put into words but that I know you’ve all felt.” Sometimes with Coltrane’s playing, you can hear all of the angst of 1965. There’s a thing that comes out of his horn that is really timeless. It’s a summation of his heritage and culture. It also kicks the door down and is unapologetic. It changes the way you hear things moving forward. All of the best musicians can do that through their playing. GM: Johnny Winter is someone who has had a big influence on you. How did it feel to participate in the Brother Johnny tribute, and what did he mean to you? DT: I was really excited to be asked to participate in this one. For me as a slide player, I started with Duane and then got turned on to Johnny. He was really one of the very first guys that I modeled myself after. Then I got to meet and play with him when I was 11 or 12 years old. It was one of the first times I met one of my heroes. He was just over the top sweet and was always a bit of a champion for me, so I felt just grateful to be a part of that project. GM: You have turned many fans onto Indian classical music. What are you listening to now? DT: I don’t know that there is anything now making that direct of an impact. I still go in and out of listening to straight-ahead records, a lot of the organ-driven stuff from the Impulse/Blue Note era. I’ve also been playing a lot from this great guitar player, Mel Brown. But lately I’ve been dipping back into western classical music. There’s this great Leonard Bernstein 12-minute talk he does while playing the piano on how a great symphony is written. It really kind of cracked my head open to what’s so great about certain composers and how elemental and simple some of the themes are. But also how incredibly intricate what they do with it is. The talk he gives is about a Beethoven piece and when you go back and listen to it you have a totally different take. Classical music can be pretty intimidating to come at because there are hundreds of years of it. When I first saw the video a few years ago, it got me thinking about how you play and write. There are real simple truths in there. So when I’m home I’ve been listening to classical, and then Son House for balance! (laughs). | 