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Music

Susan Tedeschi: Another lady sings the blues

Susan Tedeschi

Web posted on:
Wednesday, August 11, 1999 1:21:14 PM EST

By Donna Freydkin
Reporting for CNN Interactive

(CNN) -- With her wailing, passionate delivery and raspy voice, Boston blues singer Susan Tedeschi bears an almost uncanny resemblance to tortured 1960s rock and blues icon Janis Joplin. Tedeschi's album "Just Won't Burn" is teeming with rock-tinged, tormented laments of unrequited love and hopeless relationships.

But a few hours before a show in New Orleans, Tedeschi giggles and chatters freely, sounding more like a well-adjusted Boston schoolgirl than an anguished blues belter.

"I've heard the comparisons to Janis Joplin," she says, "but all I can say is that maybe it's due to my energy level when I sing. Because I don't think I sound like Janis at all. But then again, it's great to be compared to someone like that. Things are just great right now, period."

That's because, aside from her grueling tour schedule -- she's been on the road since the album's February 1998 release -- she's basically a happy woman, she says, who loves her day job and wants to settle down eventually. And she has reason to be content.

In June, she was given two coveted W.C. Handy Blues Awards for "Just Won't Burn." That award is her genre's equivalent of the Grammy. What's more, she's playing on the second stage of Lilith Fair, August 15 through 19, a stint she says she sees as an opportunity to introduce the blues to younger audiences.

"I've played a bunch of long blues tours," she says, "and those led up to Lilith Fair. It just proves to people that blues can be a form of popular music. Just look at Bessie Smith -- she was very popular in her time. I feel honored to play Lilith because it shows me that I don't have to conform and sing pop music.

"I can play the blues and still be accepted among other pop singers."

MULTIMEDIA

"Angel from Montgomery"
[225k MPEG-3] or [305k WAV]

"Rock Me Right"
[195k MPEG-3] or [265k WAV]

"You Need To Be With Me"
[210k MPEG-3] or [290k WAV]

(Courtesy Tone-Cool Records)

"They just say 'Girl!'"

Not that she appears at a loss for acceptance. Tedeschi's joining B.B. King, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Taj Mahal, The Robert Cray Band and Tower Of Power for the 1999 B.B. King Blues Festival. That show tours 44 North American cities through October 3. On off-dates, she's playing Farm Aid '99 with Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and the Dave Matthews Band.

"I'm happy right now but am always striving to do better," says Tedeschi, 28. "Today, I can sing with anybody. But I also know it's a gift."

She says she may not even have an apartment in her home-base of Boston -- thanks largely to her hectic touring -- but on the upside, she's managed to share the stage with Buddy Guy and Jonny Lang. And she's worked with John Lee Hooker and Jimmie Vaughan.

"I feel like I'm part of a big family," says Tedeschi. "I meet blues singers all the time, and they're surprised that I'm a white girl but very supportive. And when they hear me sing, they just say, 'Girl!'"

Sing my song

Tedeschi, who was born in 1970 and grew up in a suburb of Boston, started singing as a toddler and was weaned on her dad's blues and folk records. After working as an understudy on Broadway, she switched gears and, despite her Catholic upbringing, started singing at predominantly white Baptist and Methodist churches. She began playing in bands at age 13 and formed her first group at 18.

"I started writing songs when I was 13 or 14," she says. "The songs from my teens are more folksy and country-based than what I do now, but I try to look for the good in every form of music and in my lyrics. Everyone goes through down times and mine are really dark too. But for me, music is my release and that's what makes and keeps me happy."

After graduating from Boston's Berklee College of Music in 1991, Tedeschi started playing at a local blues jam and formed the Susan Tedeschi Band in 1993. Two years later, she scraped together $10,000 to record and release an independent album. After playing a number of blues competitions, Tedeschi was named "Best R&B Act" in 1995 by Boston magazine and nominated as "Outstanding Blues Act" at the Boston Music Awards two years running.

"I stuck with blues," she says, "because it was the best-sounding music to me. It had the best scales, notes and context. And I've been very lucky, because blues bands have accepted me as one of their own."

20th century blues

"Just Won't Burn," her national debut CD, comprises original tunes including the title track and "You Need To Be With Me," as well as a cover of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery." Most songs, says Tedeschi, were inspired by real-life emotional calamities.

"I wrote 'You Need To Be With Me' when I was madly in love with this guy who just didn't love me. I fell in love with the idea of him and wanted to be together," Tedeschi says. "I always thought we'd be together, but I guess it wasn't meant to be. He just got married this summer."

Fortunately, she's had better luck in her career. From the start, she says, the blues community has embraced her. It's white people, she says, who ask her about reverse discrimination. She's never had a problem with it.

"White people," she says," ... always ask me if I've been harassed. But African-Americans have always taken me in. I've just been so lucky to have been singing this long. By the time I was a teen, I was capable vocally of doing what I wanted and had proven myself."

Band on the run

"I've been on tour since February 1998," she says, "and I can tell you it's hell. There's absolutely no preparation for it. You just don't know how hard it is until you do it. It's a lot of work, you travel so much, and it's really hard to have relationships."

And that, Susan Tedeschi says, is why her touring zeal has about run its course. "Realistically, I just want to finish my tour, do Farm Aid with Willie Nelson this September, and then just sit down and write a new record.

"But mostly, I just want to take some time off."


RELATED STORIES:
WorldBeat Spotlight - Even Britain gets the blues
July 26, 1999
WorldBeat Spotlight - Living blues legends King, Hooker share their influences.
July 23, 1999
Blues veteran Strehli fulfilling her calling
January 14, 1999

RELATED SITES:
Susan Tedeschi home page on Tone-Cool Records
Farm Aid home page

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