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(2023) Susan Tedeschi - Just Won't Burn [25th Anniversary Edition]
Review:
The 25th Anniversary edition of Susan Tedeschi’s breakthrough album, Just Won’t Burn, is available today via Fantasy Records. This special, 16-track expanded edition features the original album plus five previously unreleased bonus tracks: an alternate take of “Looking For Answers,” two new album outtakes, and two live versions of Just Won’t Burn album tracks recorded with Tedeschi Trucks Band at NYC’s Beacon Theatre. Tedeschi is one of the most celebrated blues and American roots musicians of her generation, known for her unyielding commitment to her craft – both as a solo artist and in Tedeschi Trucks Band – which has earned her multiple GRAMMY nominations and the adoration of audiences around the world. It all began humbly at blues jams in her native Boston back in the early ‘90s and led to significant regional acclaim, but with the 1998 release of her solo debut, Just Won’t Burn, Tedeschi put the wider music world on notice that she was a true force to be reckoned with. “Making Just Won’t Burn was a pivot,” Tedeschi says of the album, which features musicians such as guitarists Adrienne Hayes and Sean Costello, harmonica player Annie Raines, percussionist/songwriter Tom Hambridge, and keyboardist Tom West tackling her original songs in tandem with material popularized by Ruth Brown (“Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean”), Junior Wells (“Little by Little”), and John Prine (“Angel From Montgomery”). “All of a sudden, I was working with different groups of people, new musicians, new songwriting collaborators,” she adds. “We had no idea how it was going to turn out. I think the thing that held it all together was the blues. Blues is a language that I love. You can take it anywhere in the world and communicate with people, which isn’t necessarily true about other forms of music. And being a white artist in a black milieu, you just have to let the music speak.” Speak it did, as Just Won’t Burn went platinum (a rare achievement for a blues-based album at that time) and earned Tedeschi a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist in 2000 (alongside the hilariously of-the-moment cast of Britney Spears, Macy Gray, Kid Rock, and Christina Aguilera). It would be the first of five Grammy nominations for Tedeschi as a solo artist, with each of her next three solo releases earning nods for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Today, Susan Tedeschi shared a fiery version of “Just Won’t Burn,” recorded live at Red Rocks with Tedeschi Trucks Band on July 28th, 2023. Watch HERE. Previously, she shared a live performance of her existential showstopper “Looking For Answers” performed by TTB at NYC’s Beacon Theatre on October 7, 2022, watch the visualizer HERE. She also released another bonus track, a blistering version of Koko Taylor’s “Voodoo Woman”. Watch the visualizer HERE. Even after 25 years, the past-decade plus of which have seen Tedeschi rise to even greater heights with her husband Derek Trucks in Tedeschi Trucks Band, Just Won’t Burn remains a touchstone of blues-based rock’n’roll. “The way people react to Just Won’t Burn has always been heartwarming and surprising,” she admits. “I used to get letters from a prisoner who identified with the songs and found hope in them, and then I started getting letters from the rest of the prisoners on the cell block because it was the only cassette they had.” “Sometimes when I look back on the 25 years since the release, I think about the places I’ve been and the adventures I’ve had, and I feel like Forrest Gump,” Tedeschi continues. “I say, ‘No! You’re a baseball mom. You didn’t do all that!’ But I must have. The blues has its demands. You have to be honest — musically, emotionally, and personally — above everything else, and that can lead to some uncomfortable truths. But the blues hasn’t burned me. It hasn’t hurt me. It’s my main resource. I can express myself and get stuff out about my life – or, like B.B. always said, ‘whatever ails you.’ The blues got me here.” Since 2010, Tedeschi’s primary creative vehicle has been the Tedeschi Trucks Band, the ensemble she founded with her husband, guitarist Derek Trucks. Later this month, Tedeschi Trucks Band will host its first two major arena shows. Billed as The Garden Parties, the special performances are set to take place at Boston, MA’s TD Garden (9/27) and New York, NY’s Madison Square Garden (9/29). In addition to opening sets by Lukas Nelson + POTR on both nights, the shows will feature guest appearances by Warren Haynes (Boston), Trey Anastasio (New York), and Norah Jones (New York). — concord.com
Track List:
01. Rock Me Right
02. You Need To Be With Me
03. Little By Little
04. It Hurt So Bad
05. Found Someone New
06. Looking For Answers
07. Can't Leave You Alone
08. Just Won't Burn
09. Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean
10. Angel From Montgomery
11. Friar's Point
12. Looking For Answers (Alternate Take)
13. Voodoo Woman (Album Outtake)
14. Waste Of My Time (Album Outtake)
15. Looking For Answers (Live at the Beacon Theatre 2022)
16. Just Won’t Burn (Live at the Beacon Theatre 2022)
Media Report:
Genre: blues-rock
Country: Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
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