Music

Emergency surgery scuttled her Newport Folk stop, but she’s back for shows at Tanglewood and Berklee this month.

By Lauren Daley

September 1, 2026 | 11:21 AM

7 minutes to read

Had Norwell High School cheerleader Susan Tedeschi not missed her deep sea diving expedition, she wouldn’t be returning to Boston this month. 

Teen Tedeschi wanted to be a marine biologist. She was set to board a ship with Dr. Robert Ballard, who famously excavated the Titanic.

“I almost went on an expedition with Dr. Robert Ballard because my grandfather donated to this expedition,” Tedeschi told me previously. “But my grandfather mixed up the dates. So I ended up going to Berklee and just became a musician.”

Ballard’s loss became our gain. 

Because now Tedeschi — who received a Berklee Alumni Achievement Award in 2018 — is getting ready for Homecoming. And you will dance.

On Sept. 19, the Berklee College alum is bringing it all back home for Berklee’s first-ever “Homecoming.” According to billing, the block party “marks the start of a new tradition” that “will bring together our powerhouse alumni in one place for a daylong celebration.” (GA adult, $139 with fees.) The show includes Tiwa Savage, Dogs in a Pile, Fabiola Mendez, and Dreion.

But first, Tedeschi makes her Tanglewood debut with husband/guitar virtuoso Derek Trucks as Tedeschi Trucks Band takes stage Sept. 2. Their special guest? Another guitar virtuoso: Lukas Nelson.

“I’m just excited to come back to Massachusetts. I’ve never even been to Tanglewood, never mind played there. I’ve heard it’s really beautiful. That’s going to be awesome for me,” says Tedeschi, 55, whose great-grandfather founded Tedeschi Food Shops. (The chain sold to 7-Eleven in ’15.)

After graduating from Berklee in ’91, Tedeschi cut her teeth on the Boston music scene — from Somerville to Quincy to Martha’s Vineyard. She eventually toured with the Allman Brothers Band, where she met Trucks, nephew of late, great drummer Butch Trucks. 

They married in 2001, wedding their bands in 2010. When Tedeschi and Trucks combine powers they can bring down the house.  Rolling Stone ranked Susan no. 139, and Derek — a former child prodigy who crushed “Layla” in middle school — no. 80 on the 250 Best Guitarists of All Time in ’23. In fact, if you’ve never seen this, just watch. 

… Yeah.

Today, the 12-piece Tedeschi Trucks Band has a reputation as an incendiary band best seen live. In fact, watch this, too.

Thank God she missed that boat. 

With their sixth studio album “Future Soul” out now, the band also plays Bridgeport, Connecticut and Gilford, New Hampshire Sept 4-6. #RoadTrip.

As the Grammy winner and seven-time nominee readies to bring it all back home to Boston, we talked appendix surgery, Tanglewood, Berklee basketball, The Grateful Dead, and Bob Weir’s mushroom offers.  

Boston.com: First, how are you feeling? I actually had Tedeschi Trucks Band as one of my must-see picks for Newport Folk Fest — then you had to scratch at the last minute due to an “appendix scare.” Are you OK?

Susan Tedeschi: I’m in my fifth week after recovery, and I’m doing really good. I had to have my appendix out, and it was just bad timing. But at the same time, it was weirdly good timing because it’s better to miss two festivals than two weeks of headline touring. That would’ve been bad. 

True. I love that Tedeschi Trucks Band will play Tanglewood with Lukas Nelson — that’s a dream team. You’ve played a few recent shows with him. How did this come together?

I’ve known Lukas since he was 10, through his mom and dad; I’m friends with Willie [Nelson and his wife] Annie. 

I first met Lukas at Farm Aid and we’ve stayed in touch through the years. We’ve always been friends. He’s a big fan of blues, rock, different styles of music, so we’d share fun videos and music with him. He’s absolutely lovely. Just a sweetheart of a person, very talented, and easy to play with.

He’s a powerhouse guitarist.

Yeah, it’s cool just to have seen him through the years, to see how great he’s gotten on guitar. He has a lot of his dad in there, too — some of his solos sound like that Willie Nelson-gypsy-style. He used to play with Neil Young, too, so he’s got that sensibility as well.

Right, in Promise of the Real. I feel like he can veer from that Crazy Horse-guitar style to those Willie-like acoustic vocals. And after Tanglewood, you’re coming to Boston solo for the Berklee alumni Homecoming show.

Yeah, their first homecoming. I’m doing 45 minutes or an hour. I’m also doing a question-and-answer session with a class, where kids can ask me questions.

That’s so cool. What will it be like for you coming back to Berklee?

Pretty weird.

[laughs] 

Not weird, it just seems like another time. I graduated in ’91. I was so young. I was 20 when I graduated college. It’s just so long ago.

What was your time like there?

It was great. It was very fast-paced because I was an overachiever. I was a straight-A student growing up. So I took a lot of courses, did a bunch of different projects with different kids — everything from recording projects, to learning how to conduct [Igor Stravinsky’s] “The Rite of Spring” for a class, then running off to do gospel choir, then running off for a recording class to work the studio with engineers. It was never boring. I even played on the intramural basketball team. We’d played Boston University or Tufts, or whatever.

I love that. After Berklee, you cut your teeth in the Boston area. You told me you played Toads, Nantasket Beach, The Plow and Stars, The Middle East, Paradise, House of Blues. 

For a while I was a singing waitress on the Spirit of Boston.

Amazing.

Then I basically lost my mind and was like ”I can’t do this anymore. I need to start my own band.”

[laughs]

So Adrienne Hayes and Annie Raines, the three of us started my first solo band. We went on to win the Battle of the Bands in Boston. Then went down to Memphis and came in second in the International [Blues Competition]. We got to tour blues festivals because of that, broke out, made our first record. 

I borrowed like $10 grand and made a record and sold it off the stage and paid [the loan] back. That ended up getting me a record deal with Tone-Cool Records, which was Rounder at the time. That record, “Just Won’t Burn,” got me nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist, that got me a new record deal.  

Then I was out touring with BB King, John Mellencamp, John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughn — all these great artists. Got to open for the Allman Brothers and met my husband, and that turned into two kids, and now we’re grandparents. Our oldest just had his first baby. 

Oh, congratulations! 

Yeah, Derek and I have been together 27 years, married 25 in December. 

That’s awesome. What clicked when you met?

We just had a lot in common. It was music, it was sports, it was nature and fishing and the ocean. It was a no-brainer.

We both had our own solo bands. Then Derek had the Allman Brothers Band, and then we were having children in 2002 and ’04. I’d joined The Grateful Dead [The Others Ones] in 2002, and had [my infant son] Charlie out on tour with me. That was short-lived; that was too much.

Then I was doing my own solo band again, making records, Derek was playing with Eric Clapton. So we had four bands and two children [laughs] which was insane in 2006. We built our studio after that Clapton tour, started making all our records there. In 2008 and ’09, we started experimenting. And Tedeschi Trucks Band started in 2010.

When you said the Grateful Dead, that was The Other Ones, which had a few different itinerations. 

Right. When I was pregnant with Charlie, we sat in with Phil Lesh & Friends. All of the [former members of the Dead] showed up in San Francisco New Year’s Eve, going into 2002, and invited me to join [The Others Ones]. I said, “Sure.” Then Derek couldn’t do it because he had so many bands, and Jimmy Herring of Widespread [Panic] ended up doing it with us. So it was all the living Dead members at the time — Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, [Bill] Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart — with Jeff Chimenti, Rob Barraco, Jimmy and myself. It was awesome. And I had my newborn out with me. [laughs]

I saw a funny interview where you said Bob wanted you to take mushrooms. You said, “Dude, I’m nursing,” and he was like, “Ok, I’ll do yours, too.”

It was literally on that tour. We were playing Madison Square Garden, and he’s like, “Here’s some mushrooms. We’re all doing mushrooms.” And I’m like, “Dude, I can’t. I’m nursing. And he’s like, “Oh sh—, I forgot.”

[laughs]

Years later, at Lockn’, I was playing with Bob and the Wolf Brothers, and I was like, “Man, you guys were on some other wavelength.” They’re like, “Yeah, we were all tripping on mushrooms!” I’m like, “Well, you should’ve asked me. That would have been the time to do it!” He’s like, “Oh man, I should’ve. I’m sorry!” Because they were in the left field. 

[laughs] That’s awesome.

It was hilarious. [laughs] He was lovely. 

I only interviewed him once, but he seems so sweet. You must’ve had so many good times with him.

Just being around him was always fun. He had so many great stories.

He’d tell me about riding the train and partying with Janis Joplin [the 1970 Festival Express]. I had great times on tour with him. I liked being able to go to the workout room and see him in his shorts [laughs] working out on a treadmill. Those little memories they’re all really sweet and fun.

I love that he had his gray workout capris on in almost every photo.

Oh my gosh, yes. [laughs] Hilarious. So cute. So adorable. And his family’s lovely. He was a sweetheart. We had a great time. He was so positive and fun — and very daring. He wasn’t afraid to try anything, just go for it and mess up. He’s definitely going to be missed on this planet. 

Interview has been edited and condensed. Lauren Daley is a freelance culture writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. She tweets @laurendaley1, and Instagrams at @laurendaley1.

Lauren Daley

Lauren Daley is a longtime culture journalist. As a regular contributor to Boston.com, she interviews A-list musicians, actors, authors and other major artists.

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