Tedeschi Trucks at Tulsa Theater with Joe Purdy opening
Tedeschi Trucks Band brought their 2024 Summer Deuces Wild Tour to the beautiful Tulsa Theater this past Friday night for a joyous night of their rock and soul rootsy blend.
The Grammy Award-winning band formed back in 2010 and has routinely made a stop in Oklahoma since 2015, usually as part of either their spring or summer tours. But, it’s been a minute since the band last rolled through the Sooner state. 2019 to be exact, and at the time the band was on the road promoting their album, Signs (see our coverage here: Tedeschi Trucks and Southern Avenue Band at Brady Theater).
So after a five year drought, Tedeschi Trucks Band brought the goods back to Tulsa, this time touring behind their newest 2022 release I Am the Moon, the band’s epic fifth studio release. Written and recorded during much of the aforementioned pandemic touring drought, the album itself is comprised of four individual albums as well as four companion films, all inspired by an ancient poem’s depiction of star-crossed lovers. Taking the stage just after 9pm, the band promptly introduced an eager Tulsa audience to the new material with a opening take of “Hear My Dear,” as well as a handful of other new songs (“Where Are My Friends,” “Take Me As I Am,” “Yes We Will” and “Ain’t That Something”) sprinkled throughout mostly the early portion of the set. This newer material was well received, and finds a comfortable place among the robust catalog of songs that comprise the band’s repertoire. Whether it’s album cuts from their own albums, (“Don’t Know What It Means,” “I Want More” and “Made Up Mind”) or their ability to work up deeper cover songs like the Box Tops’ “The Letter,” Junior Wells’ “Little By Little,” Wet Willie’s “Keep On Smiling” and more, everything blends and melds together just exactly perfectly, like only Tedeschi Trucks Band can do. They do it, and they kind of make it look easy. Obviously it’s not, but they make it look that way, and it’s always something to behold every single time.
On this night, I had several standouts. Truth be told, that last half of the set was pure fire, an absolute joy to experience. Derek and the Dominos’ “Keep On Growing” is always a blast, and the one-two punch of Dylan’s “Down in the Flood” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” (inspired by the band’s trip to the Bob Dylan Center just down the street) was simply magic. “Made Up Mind” got everybody up and dancin’ for sure, before they upped the ante with a fiery Derek/Susan guitar duel in “I Want More” which segued into the set closing jam filled Jeff Beck cover of “Beck’s Bolero.” Susan returned with just keyboardist Gabe Dixon for the first encore, “A Song For You,” a beautiful tribute to Tulsa’s own Leon Russell, before being joined by the rest of the band to close up shop with a blistering “Space Captain.”
I’ve long said that Tedeschi Trucks Band is one of the best touring bands on the road today, and the best given band playing live on any given night, and I still firmly believe it. In fact, I know it. Friday night proved it. Derek and Susan may carry the namesake of the band, but it’s a band that is truly a sum of its parts. It’s an ensemble comprised of more talent than seems reasonably fair. Tedeschi Trucks Band is Susan Tedeschi (guitar, vocals), Derek Trucks (guitar), Gabe Dixon (keyboards, vocals), Brandon Boone (bass), Tyler “Falcon” Greenwell (drums), Isaac Eady (drums), Mike Mattison (vocals), Mark Rivers (vocals), Alecia Chakour (vocals), Kebbi Williams (saxophone), Ephraim Owens (trumpet), and Elizabeth Lea (trombone). The band will be finishing out the year on the road with a slew of dates across the country. If a date is near you, I can’t recommend seeing them enough. You can visit the band’s offical website for more details as well as tour dates: https://www.tedeschitrucksband.com
While many of the year’s later TTB shows will be billed as “An Evening With” shows there will also be plenty of shows with opening acts ranging from Margo Price, Little Feat, Greensky Bluegrass and more. The band’s Tulsa stop had regional neighbor and Arkansas singer-songwriter Joe Purdy handling the opening duties like a champ. I’ve seen Purdy perform previously, a short set at WoodyFest a few years back, and I’d remembered being impressed then. Songwriters that stand out among that gathering of talent is usually rare and always a good sign, but even more rare is when a guy armed with just a guitar can captivate an audience that is waiting to see a feisty 12 piece band. Purdy was that guy, and along with a harmonica, a great sense of humor and a bunch of “true story” songs, he held the Tulsa Theater under his spell for his 40 minute set, including a couple of incredulous Woody Guthrie worthy sing-a-long choruses with nearly full audience participation. Purdy is apparently prolific. Looking into his discography, he’s recorded and released fourteen albums in the past fifteen years. I guess I’ve got some catching up to do. His most recent release was 2022’s Coyote, and seems as likely a good enough place to start. You can head over to his website for more details and to check out tour dates, merch and more. https://www.joepurdy.com
