Emmaline

Big Joe Turner was a blues shouter from Kansas City, Mo., who stood at 6-foot 2, weighed 300 pounds and was fundamental to the development of rock 'n' roll. He was the first to record "Shake, Rattle and Roll" in 1954. The "Big" was added to distinguish him from the already famous Joe Turner, a stride pianist who was born in 1907 in Baltimore. While touring there in the late 1960s, Turner was asked to record by Germany's MPS Records. In November 1969, Turner recorded for the label in Berlin backed by bassist Hans Rettenbacher and drummer Stu Martin. All 13 tracks are laced with a stride-piano sound that conjures up images of the 1920s and '30s.

Tedeschi Trucks Band’s I Am The Moon is a four album rock ‘n’ roll event. Inspired by classical literature and driven by the isolation and mourning of the pandemic era, I Am The Moon features 24 original tracks and more than two hours of music. The four albums that comprise I Am The Moon— I. Crescent, II. Ascension, III. The Fall, and IV. Farewell — were originally released individually in successive months. They are now gathered together in a final compendium.

Tedeschi Trucks Band invite you to experience I AM THE MOON, an expansive, inspired, and ambitious musical journey that propels the treasured American ensemble into new and thrilling creative territory. During the pandemic and its corresponding isolation, Tedeschi Trucks Band, one of the music’s most admired and successful live music draws, was searching for something to hold on to; a way to connect to each other and their craft. They had come off a triumphant performance of Derek and the Dominoes’ classic Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs with Trey Anastasio at the LOCKN’ Festival, which subsequently led to the release of the band’s acclaimed live album, last summer’s Layla: Revisited. Looking for an idea, TTB vocalist Mike Mattison turned to Layla’s rich source material for inspiration: Layla and Majnun, the legendary ninety-page narrative poem of star-crossed lovers by 12th Century Sufi poet Nizami. As a writing exercise, Mattison challenged the group to delve into the poem’s deeper themes. As he pointed out, Clapton’s “Layla” only used one element of the poem - Majnun’s love-madness - whereas the poem itself contains multitudes: family drama, classism, isolation, judgment, and the severe cost of single-minded mania, even in the cause of love. (Indeed, Layla and Majnun is believed to be the inspiration behind Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet and many other eastern and western literary classics.)

Tedeschi Trucks Band invite you to experience I AM THE MOON, an expansive, inspired, and ambitious musical journey that propels the treasured American ensemble into new and thrilling creative territory.

A self-described song-hunter,” the folklorist Alan Lomax traveled the Mississippi Delta in the 1930’s and 40s, armed with primitive recording equipment and a keen love of the Delta’s music heritage. Crisscrossing the towns and hamlets where the blues began, Lomax gave voice to such greats as Leadbelly, Fred MacDowell, Muddy Waters, and many others, all of whom made their debut recordings with him.