Let Me Get By

Tedeschi Trucks Band

Swamp Family Music, 2016

http://www.tedeschitrucksband.com

REVIEW BY: Benjamin Ray

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 02/23/2016

This could be the best Tedeschi Trucks Band album yet. Hell, it’s already a contender for my Top Ten albums of the year, and the Super Bowl just ended.

It’s an album that’s easy to disappear in, such is its hypnotic power. Bluesy roots rock remains a fertile source of inspiration for many, but few embody it like Ms. Tedeschi and Mr. Trucks, almost as if it’s burned into their soul and their fingers as they play. Let Me Get By is assured and confident, full of surprises, memorable melodies and the desire to listen to it again once it ends.

The playing is relaxed but never lazy, and while that approach can result in the occasional solid yet mediocre song (“Laugh About It,” “Hear Me,” “In Every Heart”), those are the exceptions. The disc really catches fire starting with the third song, “Don’t Know What It Means,” which lopes along with Tedeschi’s gritty voice, some impressive yet subtle bass work, New Orleans horns and backing vocals, and the expected guitar fills that lead to a short, soaring solo. It’s hard not to clap along; the band realizes this and drops out with a minute to go, leaving only the handclaps and layered voices for a brief time, and it is wonderful. A skronky sax solo closes out the piece with flair.my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

“Right On Time” eschews the blues-rock approach for what sounds like a chunky Russian folk song with elements of gypsy culture and the music from a nightclub in a ‘40s movie, complete with a fat horn break that will make you smile. The band slides into it with ease and pulls it off completely. This then segues into the title track, which is built over a jaunty five-note guitar lick, a muted but effective ‘70s organ solo and Tedeschi’s smoky voice detailing someone fed up with an unequal relationship (“Even a king gives sometimes / Even if he don’t care / Let me get by / If you’re just gonna stand there”).

The more traditional country/blues of “Just As Strange” makes effective use of slide and acoustic guitar set to a deceptively shambolic beat, sounding exactly like modern country and Southern rock should sound, Nashville corporate product be damned. Things then veer yet again into Motown territory with “Crying Over You,” which successfully brings together ‘70s funk, ‘60s Motown harmonies and organ (with Trucks’ high voice bringing Smokey Robinson to mind) and the familiar strong, confident rhythm section that underpins this disc. Then, another detour as the song segues into its second half, “Swamp Raga For Hozapfel, Lefebvre, Flute And Harmonium,” which is a lovely little instrumental piece (the former two are members of the band; Lefebvre arrives here fresh off playing on David Bowie’s Blackstar, and his work on that electro-jazz-pop album carries through here).

“Anyhow” is not the greatest opener, but in its updating and expanding of the Allman Brothers’ “Midnight Rider,” it sets the stage nicely for what’s to come. On the back side of the disc is the seven-minute tour de force “I Want More,” which rides an insanely catchy boogie beat and brings in the horns, background vocals and a big grin born of the musical interplay of friends and lovers who have played together for many years and can just lock in. That would be good enough, but the song then moves into a second half wherein the tempo slows, the bass guitar is pushed to the front and the flute and guitar licks swirl in and around each other. It’s very chill at first but slowly builds up, the guitar part becoming more insistent and buzzing, the flute sections arising at once, until both climax and fade out at the same time.

There isn’t a bad moment on the disc, and if a few of the songs are a tad derivative of the better songs here, the sum total is an album definitely worth your time.

Rating: A-

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