Tedeschi Trucks Band — NPR Tiny Desk, Washington, 2016

A live session filmed at Bob Boilen’s desk for NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, in 2016. Led by the couple Susan Tedeschi, on vocals and guitar, and Derek Trucks, a slide virtuoso, the Tedeschi Trucks Band pares down its usual large ensemble here for three songs — “Just As Strange”, “Don’t Know What It Is” and “Anyhow” — drawn from the album “Let Me Get By”. In the dry, unamplified acoustics of the Tiny Desk, the American group reveals the intimate mechanics of its Southern blues-rock: vocal harmonies, guitar dialogue and a supple groove inherited from gospel and soul. This filmed live concert, an exercise in restraint imposed by the format, highlights the songwriting and the musicians’ rapport, far from the excess of their arena shows. For the blues enthusiast, this NPR capture is an ideal entry into the world of a band that perpetuates, with rare sincerity, the tradition of the American jam.