For Tedeschi Trucks Band, bigger is better

Susan Tedeschi and her band namesake (and real life husband) Derek Trucks certainly are the mainstays of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, but there's a lot more to love about the expansive 11-piece band than Tedeschi and Trucks as this hometown show once again amply underscored.

Tedeschi handles most of the vocals with her expressive, perfect-for-the-blues, somewhat throaty delivery. She is one of the finest the genre has to offer. Tedeschi, who grew up in the Boston suburbs, was probably never finer than on John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery."

And then there's Trucks, always a massive force on guitar. He has always been quite the player, focusing on the music, not equating grimaces to the fans with skill. In fact, he often is half-turned to the crowd and every once in a while faced his drummer instead, though he is not being dismissive at all.

Trucks could be lightning quick with his fingers, but he also was comfortable with slower spells and sometimes ceded lead guitar to Tedeschi, who was more than capable. Or he might end up playing underneath while the band played on.

Tedeschi Trucks Band played two sets with the first clocking at about 65 minutes and a second set stretching out for 80 minutes before the encore of The Coasters' "Let's Go Get Stoned."

The band went for everything from blues to blues rock to soul to funk-laden songs to jazz and Dylan (a very fine cover of "Tangled. Up in Blue" and "Down in the Flood," first recorded in 1967 with The Band). The Allman Brothers were not far off the radar screen either.

At times, they would enter jam territory a la Allman Brothers (Trucks of course, is the son of Allmans' drummer the late Butch Trucks) and covered "Come and Go Blues." The chestnut and perhaps signature song of TTB, "Bound for Glory," clocked in at more than 13 minutes. The closing Dr. John cut, "I Walk on Guilded Splinters" almost hit 14 minutes. That could be a bit much for the listener, but neither was with TTB because so many players had a hand in the musical mix to make you pay attention.

As for the band, there's a lot more than Tedeschi and Trucks. Keyboardist Gabe Dixon and back-up singer and sometimes acoustic guitarist Mike Mattison both had turns on lead vocals. Mattison was a particularly effective singer – clean, clear and owning the songs with an understated style.

This was indicative of the beauty of Tedeschi and Trucks. They utilized their nine backing members to the fullest. Another backing vocalist, Alecia Chakhour, also assumed some lead singing responsibilities with a more soulful delivery.

Drummers Isaac Eady and Tyler Blackwell were linchpins throughout, just laying down such a (generally) propulsive rhythm. This was a band with a tremendous dexterity as well. While Kebbi Williams mainly stuck to the sax as one of three horn players, he also played flute on "Soul Sweet Song," adding a slightly different sonic, something that Tedeschi Trucks Band did admirably the whole night.

About the only song that didn't click all night was the jazzy "All the Love," which never went too far.

The Tedeschi Trucks Band only started with the main players, but "band" is also rightfully and necessarily in the name. On this night – as usual – the Tedeschi Trucks Band showed that bigger was also better.