Tedeschi Trucks Band prepared for an 'epic' return to the Savannah Music Festival

The first time I saw Derek Trucks play was in the mid-90s at Summerfest in Milwaukee when the Allman Brothers brought him out as a tween prodigy, nephew to bandmate Butch Trucks. He was an electric old soul sage channeling the spirit of Duane Allman. I followed his projects off and on until the pandemic and appreciated him as a virtuoso whose first pledge was to music and surely not industry.

But then I was distracted with my own creative projects.

I saw he was returning to the Savannah Music Festival and I was slated to do his interview, so I dug back in, and I found some ancient treasure, and a lot of it was right here in our backyard.

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When the pandemic hit, the Tedeschi Trucks Band quarantined in the Trucks family farm in rural Georgia and literally did something “epic.” They explored the primary text that inspired Derek and the Dominoes’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs fifty years earlier: Layla and Majnun, a 12th century poem by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi.

What came next, according to a press release was “I Am the Moon … an epic undertaking in four albums, four films, and 24 original songs … [i]nspired by a mythic Persian tale of star-crossed lovers and emotionally driven by the isolation and disconnection of the pandemic era.”

The filmic element was also a Georgia treasure. When Derek was a kid, his future band mate, the late Colonel Bruce Hampton, brought him to Buena Vista, where the eccentric folk artist Eddie Owens Martin, AKA St EOM, created a psychedelic architectural landscape. Pasquan, “lavishly fuses African, pre-Columbian Mexico and Native American cultural and religious symbols and designs.” It serves as the tonal backdrop to the film, music, and text.

When the first incarnation of what would be four albums came out, the band stated, "Across its five tracks, I Am the Moon traverses life and love through a robust tapestry of blues, funk, country, jazz and gospel …. The perfect introduction to the grand saga that Tedeschi Trucks Band have in store over next few months.”

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What? Is this for real? I asked myself. As an English professor with a music problem, talking to Trucks took on a new depth. While Savannah will absolutely have the privilege of seeing Tedeschi Trucks Band live once again with over a dozen musicians on stage, for those who want to mine the new music and dig a little deeper will be rewarded with creative gold.

The story of "I Am the Moon" is told succinctly on their website with links to the film. It was clear talking to Trucks that we will see a band transformed by pressing forward creatively in the face of loss and uncertainty. We are going to be treated to an ecstatic dervish.

Hey Derek. I'm not your average interviewer. I'm an English professor sitting here in my office at Savannah State University. I mention that because I’ve fallen into your new project, "I Am the Moon." Persian poetry, Coltrane-esque song sequences, a little bit of Hendrix mysticism, experimental film; and all of this coming out of a pandemic after a series of personal losses. That’s quite a metaphysical deep dive. Guide us through that universe.

Derek Trucks: "A lot of things collided at once for us. I had been on the road for almost 30 years at that point, without any real time to reflect. There was a three-year period where a lot of the foundational characters in my and Susan's (Tedeschi) life — and really the whole band’s life — just went away: Colonel Bruce Hampton, my uncle Butch Trucks, Gregg Allman, Leon Russell, and a lot of others from our personal circle. We were reeling from that and planning on taking a little break from the road to get our heads together and figure out what we wanted to do. And then the pandemic hit.

"What we thought was going to be a few months of reflection turned into two years of no work or gigs. Luckily our band is a really close group, and we like to hone in on a project. Mike Mattison, who I think majored in English at Harvard, is always dropping good books on the bus. Tedeschi Trucks Band had recently covered the whole Derek and the Dominoes’ 'Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs' as Layla Revisited. The original 'Layla' had shared credit with the poet Nizami Ganjavi, author of Layla and Majnun. Mike had this idea that we explore the original text it was based on and dig into it from a perspective other than just this lovesick guy who can't have what he wants.

"What was Layla's take on this? What was the family's take on it? What were Majnun’s friends take on it? How does obsession and love affect people other than just the two people involved? Mike had us all read it to see if maybe it’d spark a few song ideas. Then it just kept being the catalyst for all these ideas pouring out and everything tied back to the story. But it also tied back to what everyone had been going through individually and collectively. And we had this incredibly unique space to explore it. It felt right.

"Times were tough for everybody. We all lost people. It was a rough thing, but there were certainly some creative silver linings."

And how was the film idea conceived?

Trucks: "While we were in the middle of making it, there was no end in sight, and we didn’t know when we might be gigging again. Were we not going to play this music live? How would we present this to an audience? We decided that people just don't have the attention span anymore to contemplate 20-something narrative songs in three hours of music in one shot. We felt like breaking it up and making it episodic was the way to go. Then that sparked the idea of a visual element. Why don't we craft a visual narrative that we sequence with the album? That way we introduce characters as we go.

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"We didn’t want it to be too literal; you know, we wanted a space for interpretation. Mike knew this talented filmmaker, Alix Lambert. She was totally locked in with the concept, and we kind of let her run with it. In the middle of the pandemic, we thought it would be a great way to bring people together virtually by releasing the film with the music simultaneously. Audiences could hear and see the record when it dropped and communally experience it together. That’s how I imagined record releases were back in the vinyl days where maybe you heard a song on the radio, but once you got the album, you'd go home and listen to that son of a bitch with all your buddies.

"We've never had a project quite like that and who knows if we'll ever have time to do anything like that again, but I’m glad it came together when it did."

The subject matter of that poem is erotic abandon and unfulfillable longing. That’s the blues, isn’t it?

Trucks: "Yeah, Blues and rock n' roll. For us, it had a special weight because of the family connection with the original Layla album and that mythic legacy. There’re themes that run through the deepest oldest blues material that we listened to. There’s a lot of common narrative threads, around the world, whether it's poetry or folk music, these elemental human themes seem to just keep popping up. No one's figured out how to best them, so you just get dinged up and then you write about it."

Beyond the 'I Am The Moon' project, what would you say are some of your influences outside of music?

Trucks: "We have been lucky to tour the world and we take it in as much as we can, learning the history of the place, finding good restaurants, seeing whatever live music is happening late night. But surely, I feel like all the arts are very close to each other.

"If you're a musician, you enjoy all of it. You enjoy poetry and reading, and you're just trying to find inspiration wherever you can. When you find other musicians that are really great at what they do, you realize everyone has that same bug; when you're into something, you go hard at it. I’m always looking for that. The band has been very lucky to have a group of musicians that kind of keep each other inspired. Individually, it comes in waves. If you’re not busting at the seams with ideas, somebody else is."

What are you listening to these days when you want to catch a wave of inspiration?

Trucks: "Last night on the bus we were listening to this incredible Indian classical mandolin player, Srinivas, and then there's this guitar player from Madagascar, D’Gary. You know, a lot of world music and classical western music.

"When I need guitar inspiration, I always go back to Delta Blues stuff—the three Kings: Freddy, Albert, or B.B. If I ever feel like I’m running out steam, I put on one of those guys taking a, a solo and the tone and the attack snaps me back into it. There’re some people that are always slate cleaners. When you find them, you have to keep 'em close. Don't wear 'em out but keep 'em close."

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Well, you're coming back to Savannah and I'm just wondering if you have any special memories of our little Hostess City either playing here or maybe even visiting with friends and, and family. I remember seeing Greg come to Clary’s Restaurant on his Harley or eating pizza at Vinny Van Gogo's with his biker buddies.

Trucks: "Totally. I have some great memories from being at Gregg's place when he was living around there. Our first gig with the Tedeschi Trucks Band was in Savannah. It’s always good to come back and re-check in, and be reminded of how far the band has come musically and otherwise. We played there when I was nine or ten for the first time. I remember doing a show at the Savannah Music Festival with a few incredible Indian classical musicians."

Do you see yourself as part of a legacy; and does it affect the choices that you make musically? Does it ever actually hold you back because you feel maybe you've got an obligation to a certain style?

Trucks: "I definitely feel a part of a legacy and I think the older you get, the more you realize that and accept it. There is a weight to it. It's important to keep the memory of certain music alive. The beauty of the legacy that I'm a part of, whether it was the Allman Brothers, or other projects close to home, they were fearless in what they were doing. They were breaking down barriers and walls musically.

"So, I am part of that legacy too, so I don’t feel bound to tradition. We don’t have to play the same way if there's a bit of that spirit in it. It’s like the recklessness Duane Allman and that band approached certain things. Or Coltrane. You must keep pushing forward. As soon as you relax into it, you're missing the mark. You need to be propelled forward by that spirit. I’m definitely tied to legacy, but it’s more of an honor than a burden, that's for sure."

IF YOU GO

What: Tedeschi Trucks Band with Eddie 9V

When: Wednesday, March 29 at 7 p.m.

Where: Trustees' Garden, 10 E. Broad St.

Cost: $89 for general admission, $229 for VIP

Info: savannahmusicfestival.org

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah Music Festival: Tedeschi Trucks Band and Eddie 9V