Rarely does revisiting a classic album create something better.  It’s really hard, but Tedeschi Trucks Band (TTB) fresh take on Eric Clapton/Derek and the Dominos’ Layla album (released in 1970) is truly masterful and showcases TTB at its best.

There are 14 songs on the Layla album and TTB’s versions are either as good (amazing in itself) or better (yes, I did say that).  My favorite redux is “Keep on Growing” as the powerful guitar play, Susan Tedeschi’s booming voice and the mighty-mighty TTB horn section produces those “musical goosebumps” that many of us are on the endless chase for.  Even the piano is more intense than the original.  Not to mention, one of the most underrated modern guitar players (Doyle Bramhall) is part of this super duper TTB project.

I strongly suggest to check out the live version from Lockin’ featuring Phish’s Trey Anastasio.  It is easily accessible on iTunes and Spotify. The first time I heard this version, I thought it was Eric Clapton singing and playing like a young man.  After a few takes, I looked up the liner notes and saw that it was Trey singing. BOOM… blew my mind.

Here is a link to the video on YouTube.

Oddly enough and a 100 percent coincidence (or same may say a “calling” straight out of the fun Netflix show “Manifest”), a few hours after I drafted this story… I received an email newsletter from Relix that included a behind the scenes story of the now legendary Lockin’ Music Festival show in 2019. Click here for that story and continue down this rabbit hole.

  
On another note, at the suggestion of fellow Music Person (Joe B), I am converting my music streaming sources to Spotify.  This means bagging my ITunes playlists (and the $15 a month fee) and starting from scratch on Spotify (a time intensive but enjoyable venture that allows me to clean house and start over).  Spotify’s nice car-friendly interface also made me almost (key word, almost) bag my monthly Sirius radio subscription.  I have found that Sirius has become an easy crutch that makes me lazy in my ongoing quest to find new music. The Sirius stations seem to repeat the same songs too often for my tastes. 

BUT I was was driving through Asbury Park on a recon dive bar mapping mission, caught the next day replay of Phish’s big Atlantic City beach shows this weekend.  More specifically, I caught their take on Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter”. Although not as good as the original, it was a nice treat to hear the shows as several friends (including fellow Music Person… Sir Jay P) invited me to join them.

Sidebar note: Kim Marie’s is the best late night dive bar on Asbury Park. 

So for now, I keep Sirius and vow to be more disciplined in mixing it up (with 90.7 WFUV and my new Spotify dashboard) when cruising.

Keep on flapping your wings Rancheleros! (Flutter flutter)