ARTIST: Susan Tedeschi
TITLE: Hope And Desire
LABEL: Verve Forecast
GENRE: Blues
BITRATE: 203kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 45min total
RELEASE DATE: 2005-10-11
RIP DATE: 2005-09-20
Track List
----------
01. You Got The Silver 2:52
02. Soul Of A Man 3:16
03. Lord Protect My Child 4:45
04. Tired Of My Tears 2:42
05. Share Your Love With Me 3:49
06. Evidence 3:43
07. Sweet Forgiveness 4:47
08. Security 2:56
09. Loving You Is Sweeter Than 3:57
Ever
10. Magnificent Sanctuary Band 3:01
11. Hollow 6:48
12. The Danger Zone 2:42
Release Notes:
Hope and Desire, Tedeschi's fourth album and her first for Verve Forecast, marks
a substantial departure for the versatile artist, presenting Tedeschi in the
role of interpretive vocal stylist. She puts a soulful, unmistakably personal
spin on a heartfelt set of songs drawn from such diverse sources as Ray Charles
("Tired of My Tears"), the Rolling Stones ("You Got the Silver"), Bob Dylan
("Lord Protect My Child"), Aretha Franklin ("Share Your Love with Me"), Donny
Hathaway ("Magnificent Sanctuary Band") and Fontella Bass ("Soul of A Man").
"I love to do my own material and create new stuff, but at the same time,
there's so many great songs out there," Tedeschi notes. "What I was really
going for was to make a great soul record, and these songs all have soul, in one
way or another. They all had different things about them that really stood out
for me, and they were all songs that haven't necessarily been heard by a lot of
people."
Although she's widely respected for her fiery guitar work, on Hope and Desire
Tedeschi concentrates on singing, leaving the lion's share of the six-string
duties to noted young axe hero Doyle Bramhall II. Three of the album's tracks
also feature guitar by Tedeschi's husband, Derek Trucks, leader of his own
successful group, the Derek Trucks Band, and current member of the Allman
Brothers Band.
The impetus for recording an album of covers initially arose out of
circumstance, but Tedeschi quickly embraced the creative challenge of tackling
outside material. "I had just written some new songs with my band," she
explains, "but with the birth of my daughter, Sophia, most of them weren't
really finished yet, so I didn't feel like we were ready to make that record
yet. IÆve wanted to record some old tunes by other artists that I admire for
a while and it seemed like the right time."
To produce the project, Tedeschi chose Joe Henry, the acclaimed
singer/songwriter whose production work for the likes of Solomon Burke, Aimee
Mann, Jim White and Bettye Lavette demonstrates his knack for preserving
spontaneous moments of musical transcendence. It was Henry who suggested
recording the album with a cast of hand-picked players rather than Tedeschi's
longstanding band. In addition to guitarist Bramhall, the studio band included
bassist Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann, Martha Wainwright) and drummer Jay Bellerose
(Paula Cole, Suzanne Vega) - both of whom Tedeschi had known during her days at
Boston's Berklee College of Music--and keyboardists Jebin Bruni and David
Palmer. Also guesting on the sessions was legendary gospel group the Blind
Boys of Alabama, who lend their unmistakable vocal firepower to "Magnificent
Sanctuary Band."
"Making this record was a really incredible experience," Tedeschi says. "It
was exciting working with new people, and there was tremendous chemistry
between all of us. We only had ten days to do it, so we really did everything
on the fly. It was all about capturing a moment in time, rather than getting
everything perfect, and working that way was a blast. There were no rules and
no written parts; we'd just go in and try different things, and if it wasn't
happening, we'd just strip it down or try it another way."
The restless sense of musical adventure that's prominent throughout Hope and
Desire has always been a key element of Susan Tedeschi's musical DNA.
Growing up in a Boston suburb, she began singing with local bands at the age
of 13 and subsequently pursued her passion for music while studying at
Berklee and performing around the local club scene.
After establishing herself as one of New England's top-drawing live acts,
and making her recording debut with her embryonic 1995 album Better Days,
Tedeschi achieved an impressive musical and commercial breakthrough with Just
Won't Burn. The album, on the independent Tone-Cool label, became a massive
grass-roots success, with a minimum of hype and plenty of old-fashioned word
of mouth. Just Won't Burn achieved Gold sales status and won Tedeschi a
GRAMMY« nomination for Best New Artist, alongside such unlikely company as
Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Macy Gray and Kid Rock. Tedeschi's next
release, 2002's acclaimed, GRAMMY«-nominated Wait for Me, was produced by
legendary studio veteran Tom Dowd, and coincided with her marriage to Trucks
and the birth of the couple's son Charlie.