Tedeschi Trucks Band played their first show of 2019 last night at The Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The show was the band’s first since bassist Tim Lefebvre left the group, with Brandon Boone now handling the low end through February. Opening night also featured the first live performance of “Hard Case,” the recently shared lead single from their upcoming studio album Signs. Tonight, TTB plays the first of two shows in Chicago.
Back in September, Tedeschi Trucks Band announced that their annual Sunshine Music Festival, a multi-day music event that tours across the state of Florida each January, would go on hiatus in 2019. At the time of the announcement, the band noted that it had big plans in store for its Florida fans — and the soulful 12-piece act will return to the Sunshine State for three nights with stops in Jacksonville, Boca Raton and St. Petersburg from June 28 to 30.
Started in January of 2013, Sunshine Music Festival hosted some of Tedeschi Trucks Band’s finest performances, frequently featuring collaborations with other high-profile artists on the lineup. This week’s Full Show Friday highlights one prime example of TTB’s Sunshine Music Festival collaborations: Neal Casal’s 2015 sit-in at Boca Raton’s Mizner Park, which occurred four years ago today.
Casal was already on hand for the 2015 edition of Sunshine Music Festival as the lead guitarist of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood, an act tapped for the festival’s lineup in addition to Grace Potter, Dickey Betts and Great Southern, Los Lobos, The Both featuring Amy Mann and Ted Leo, Rebirth Brass Band, Matt Schofield and Sean Chambers. Casal joined Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks and company for the final song of the band’s encore, the classic by blues legend Freddie King “Living In The Palace Of The King.’
For the band’s main set on January 18, 2015, Tedeschi Trucks Band opened the show with “Are You Ready” and segued into the title track of the group’s 2013 sophomore album, “Made Up Mind.” Another Made Up Mind track followed, “Do I Look Worried?”, ahead of Derek Trucks Band’s “Don’t Miss Me.” Fan-favorite “Midnight In Harlem,” off the group’s 2011 debut Revelator, spanned almost 10 minutes and was followed with a take on Betty Harris’ “There’s A Break In The Road,” a song that the group went onto perform with the song’s originator multiple times later that year.
Continuing with cover songs, next up was a powerful rendition of the traditional gospel blues tune, “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning.” By way of the Revelator cut “Shelter,” the group landed on a stellar “Idle Wind,” which housed a three-minute drum solo that allowed Tyler Greenwell and J. J. Johnson to shine. With the set charging toward its end, the group moved through Bobby Bland’s “I Pity The Fool” and a stunning take on David Bowie’s “Oh! You Pretty Things” highlighting Tedeschi’s crisp vocals. To finish the set in full, TTB offered up two originals, a 12-minute rendition of Revelator’s “Bound For Glory” and an 11-minute take on Made Up Mind’s “The Storm.”
After a brief break, Tedeschi Trucks Band returned to the stage to perform a cover of Derek and the Dominos’ “Keep On Growing.” With the crowd properly primed, the band invited out their sole special guest of the night, Neal Casal, for “Living In The Palace Of The King.” With Tedeschi, Mike Mattison and Mark Rivers switching off on lead vocals, Casal and Trucks exchanged guitar licks and drove the eight-minute song to a high-energy peak.
Listen to the full audio of Tedeschi Trucks Band’s 2015 Sunshine Music Festival performance featuring Neal Casal below, courtesy of taper George Heston:
Living In The Palace Of The King Captured by Hell Yeah!
Setlist
Set: Are You Ready > Made Up Mind, Do I Look Worried?, Don’t Miss Me, Midnight In Harlem, There’s A Break In The Road, Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning, Shelter, Idle Wind > Drums > Idle Wind, I Pity The Fool, Oh! You Pretty Things, Bound For Glory, The Storm
Encore: Keep On Growing, Living In The Palace Of The King*
* – with Neal Casal
