The Critic's Choice

Susan Tedeschi - "Just Won't Burn"...... Seems these days every new kid who can play a minor pentatonic scale is touted as the next great Blues star. Thankfully this CD does not sound like the next new thing. Instead it sort of feels like an old pair of cowbow boots, or a pair of well worn tennis shoes. Susan just feels right doing exactly what she is doing. Playing soulful blues with no apologies. You look at the cover of the CD and you'd swear you grew up this lady. You listen to the music and you'd swear your hearing the familiar notes of you own life. I guess that's why it fits so well. It has a nice warm raw sound, and the guitar work is straight up and honest. No glitzy tricks. I give the CD two thumbs up and look forward to hearing more from Susan Tedeschi. I don't have any favorite tunes yet, I'm still listening and soaking it in...... Pick it up and share it with a friend.

I liked the CD, Susan's vocal power reminds me of the late great Janis Joplin. I also liked the mix of songs that are on the CD from the commercially rockin' "Rock Me Right" to the soulful rendition of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" (which reminded me of Bonnie Rait). My favorite track on the CD is "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean", this blues boogie definitely hits the groove with a solid bass line. Upon my review I give Susan's CD a 4 GUITAR rating. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

OK.... so at the last mescals rehersal Joe hands me this cd and tells me I'm going to review it for the new mescals web page. Normally I would blow up and refuse when confronted like this;....but I didn't for some reason, and then it got better when Joe said I could review the new Limp Bizkit cd next month. In case you're wondering, Joe is a bass player and this he assumes, sort of makes him the boss. Anyway the new cd in my hand is called; JUST WON'T BURN, by Susan Tedeschi,... Joe says it's blues and I'll like it. Any town with a population over 600 ought to have at least two full time blues clubs, packed with hardcore blues fans seven nights a week right?, well this would be the case according to my perfect world. Also in my perfect world however, alcohol and cigarettes would account for two of the major food groups, pretty college girls would out number the rest of us 5 to 1 and there never would have been a capitol gains tax in the first place. So now when I head down to my small town's smoke filled, standing room only blues club this saturday night, who's gonna be playin'? yep, Susan Tedeschi and her band. OK enough fantasy. To me; JUST WON'T BURN, is a great example of what barrelhouse music should be, raw, soulful, loud and sometimes less loud. The main feature here Tedeschi's voice, / white female blues singer type often does not do a lot for me, but with this selection of songs Tedeschi seems to know when just enough is enough as far as the scratchy Joplin type stuff goes. Overall, Susan's voice is full and powerful but natural sounding, I like it. The gutiar work divided up between Tedeschi, Sean Costello and Adrienne Hayes, is right on, simple and raw with a swamp-funk kind of flavor. In general the instrumental music is straight forward and unprocessed with a homegrown feel. Some fiddle tracks by Ian Kennedy add nice contrast. I like fiddles when they are being played as fiddles,(not violins), at least in the blues. My favorite tracks are; 1 ROCK ME RIGHT (finish your beer and start screaming), 10 ANGEL FROM MONTGOMERY (a seriously cool ballad)and 11 FRIAR'S POINT (a blues police approved tribute to some Chicago legends). Susan Tedeschi's vocal style is emotional and intense, you've got to be into this stuff if you're going to do the whole 46 minute cd in one listening, but that's the way it should be, and that's it Joe...now don't forget about Limp Bizkit. Also I like the stickers on Susan's tele.