Album Review: Tedeschi Trucks Band - Future Soul

Two songs on Future Soul - the long-in-concert-rotation “Crazy Cryin’” and the cocky strut of “Devil be Gone” - capture the Tedeschi Trucks Band shining in its glorious rock-funk-soul atmosphere.

The remaining nine lean toward the middle of the road, something hinted at even before the stylus hits the groove by the AI-animated cover. While the performances are, as ever, sharp, Mike Elizondo’s production leaves the music too polished and the voices of the TTB choir and lead vocalists Susan Tedeschi and Mike Mattison, whose processed voice leads the reggae-flecked “Under the Knife,” overly smooth, devoid of humanity.

The aforementioned title betrays the band’s reliance on clichés like Show me where it hurts and You had me at hello on “I Got You” and “Who Am I,” respectively. Elsewhere, Tedeschi mindlessly rhymes of zero with “Hero” on the song of the same name.

Obviously an attempt to broaden its appeal, Future Soul finds Tedeschi Trucks Band tamping down the elements - Derek Trucks’ peerless, searing guitar; Tedeschi and Mattison’s rasps; the horn section’s power, the choir’s passion; the locomotive double drums - that make the group so appealing to its fans. The songs, middling though some of them may be, are bound to improve onstage, which is the only place Sound Bites plans to hear them going forward.

Grade card: Tedeschi Trucks Band - Future Soul - C

Song Review(s): Tedeschi Trucks Band - “Crazy Cryin’,” “I Got You” and “Who Am I” (Live, March 20, 2026)

Taking the stage with an album full of new songs to play, Tedeschi Trucks Band took its new album to the stage March 20, album-release day, in New York.

As does Future Soul, the concert opened with “Crazy Cryin’,” “I Got You” and “Who Am I,” and that trio of songs comprised the livestream giveaway from the pay-per-view broadcast. Together, the songs respectively captured the old-school and new-fangled TTB.

Set to a funky strut, “Crazy Cryin’” is a modern song that comes off as an old blues number. Susan Tedeschi wails in pain, Derek Trucks’ guitar cries in sympathy and the other 10 members bolster the mood with brass, backgrounds, double drums and rhythm section.

“I Got You” and “Who Am I” signal what TTB seems to want to be going forward - a more-accessible, poppier group in which singer Mike Mattison strums an acoustic guitar to round off the edges, Trucks forsakes his slide and Tedeschi asks the object of her desires to Show me where it hurts and tells him, You had me at hello.

These songs are livelier on stage than in studio. But they’re not the sort of numbers that initially drew adventurous listeners to Tedeschi Trucks’ tent. Rather, they’re the sort of songs designed to expand said tent; though they’re relatively weak in that regard, the band’s musicianship adds oomph comparable songs by almost any other group would lack.

Grade card: Tedeschi Trucks Band - “Crazy Cryin’,” “I Got You” and “Who Am I” (Live - 3/20/26) - A/B-/B

Song Review: Tedeschi Trucks Band - “Future Soul”

Pass me a pencil/before I lose my mind/I’m evidently trying to/waste your time

So sings Susan Tedeschi on the title track of Tedeschi Trucks Band’s forthcoming (March 20) Future Soul. And though these opening lines surely weren’t meant to foreshadow, “Future Soul” is, despite a sizzling Derek Trucks guitar solo that mixes new wave with old blues, a bit of a time waster.

There are no horns. The melody sounds like something Foghat might’ve cooked up. And guitars follow Susan Tedeschi’s vocal phrasing as she sings such lines as: Hope your future’s got soul in it/your story’s got a hole in it, which sound like they were written with the same AI program that designed the album cover.

The track was preceded by “I Got You” and “Who Am I.”

Grade card: Tedeschi Trucks Band - “Future Soul” - C-

Song Review: Tedeschi Trucks Band - “Who Am I”

Out in the buildup to Future Soul, Tedeschi Trucks Band’s “Who Am I” more accurately represents past soul music.

You had me at hello, Susan Tedeschi sings to launch the single, which flits along like the butterflies that accompany the arrival of romantic love. And this not-at-all-creative opening line sets the tone for what follows over the next five minutes.

The TTB horns and choir get a break on this one as Tedeschi sings of a poet without words and a wave without an ocean over a 1970s-inspired soundtrack. Her vocals are restrained and “Who Am I” doesn’t really reveal its origin, despite shakers and tambourine, until Derek Trucks unspools an immediately identifiable - also restrained - solo on the outro.

“Who Am I” isn’t a bad song. But neither is the follow-up to “I Got You” a particularly good song. It just sort of exists; Future Soul is out March 20.

Grade card: Tedeschi Trucks Band - “Who Am I” - C