When Susan Tedeschi talks about Just Won't Burn, you can hear her reverence for the raw, gritty path that got her there. Twenty-five years later, this landmark album still stands out as a blues-rock classic, marking the point where Tedeschi truly found her voice and a style that shook the blues scene. Before Just Won't Burn, Tedeschi was no stranger to performing—she’d been on stage since she was five—but stepping into the blues changed everything. "Blues hooked me because it was so close to gospel," she tells Kyle Meredith. "Gospel music wasn’t really an option for me, but blues hit that same soulful nerve.”
For Tedeschi, blues was a revelation waiting to happen. A jam session in Boston led her down a rabbit hole of legends like T-Bone Walker and Big Mama Thornton. Suddenly, the genre clicked, and she became an obsessive collector, spending $200 on CDs at the legendary Stereo Jacks—money well spent on artists like Otis Rush and Freddie King. "It was like discovering a whole other world,” she says. And as she dove deeper, her own sound—a rock-infused blues with undeniable depth—took shape.
Just Won’t Burn didn’t just launch her solo career; it earned her a Grammy nomination, putting her shoulder-to-shoulder with the pop elite—Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Kid Rock. It also led to a fateful tour with the Allman Brothers, where she met future husband and musical partner, Derek Trucks. For Tedeschi, the timing was serendipitous. Blues was having a crossover moment in the mid-90s, with mainstream artists like Sheryl Crow and Blues Traveler sneaking its sounds into the pop charts.
Reflecting on tracks like her haunting rendition of “Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean” and “Looking for Answers,” she talks about her love for the blues’ darker side. “There’s something about the blues that makes you want to go dark,” she laughs, attributing some of her choices to her punk and grunge influences. But blues is more than just a genre for Tedeschi. “It’s healing,” she says. “Playing it brings you closer to the audience, to yourself.”
And now, with the 25th anniversary of Just Won’t Burn, Tedeschi’s journey has come full circle. She’s toured with her heroes, opened for the Rolling Stones, and is part of a band that’s constantly evolving. If you ask her, it’s all a mix of hard work and a bit of magic timing. “Back then, I couldn’t have dreamed up all the people I’d get to meet, the stages I’d be on,” she says, still marveling at it all.
So, here’s to Susan Tedeschi: blues-rock trailblazer, Allman Brother by marriage, and an artist still lighting it up one powerhouse performance at a time.
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
