These are good times for Susan Tedeschi. Hopefully she’ll be able to catch her breath long enough to enjoy it. The release of her new CD called "Just To Burn" coincided with a cover story in "Blues Revue" magazine. Her CD release party was the weekend of February 27th. She played at Manny’s Car Wash blues club in Manhattan in front of representatives from "Guitar World," "Guitar Player," and the top people from Tone Cool Records. There were people there from the recently held Grammy Awards show too. Among the musicians in the crowd was blues guitarist James Solberg who jammed with Susan for a song. The next night found her back home at Harper’s Ferry in Boston. The place was totally sold out with lines of people wrapped around the club, standing in the pouring rain waiting to get in. Not bad for a twenty-six year old woman who looks like she still gets her I.D. checked at places where you have to be eighteen or over to get in.

  We caught up with Susan just before all this on Thursday February 26th at a funky little club called Geraldine’s Lounge in West Springfield. Needless to say, the place was packed. Before talking about her band and her new disc Susan was asked about how the "Blues Revue" cover came about. "Bob Vorel (editor in chief) had done a write up on me after the Jacksonville Blues Festival back in 95," she said. "He told me that once I put out a record he’d like to do what he could to help me out. So the record was finally made and he did the feature story." Indeed, the bounce that Susan has gotten from this story along with her new CD, has instantly transformed her from a regional southern New England act to someone who is in demand nationally.

  Susan needed a band that could commit themselves full time to music and touring. She hooked up last year with the Jive Bombers from Atlanta, GA. This band features Terrance Prather on drums, Paul Linden on keyboards and harmonica, and an 18 year old guitar slinger named Sean Costello. "We haven’t really been playing that long together so they don’t know alot of the original tunes necessarily," said Susan, "But these guys play hard core blues, they really do! They play real traditional. They’re really into Big Walter and Little Walter and J.B. Hutto, you know what I mean? So their best thing is to play that kind of stuff because they can just really put their own stamp on it."

  Sean Costello is one of a growing number of teenage blues guitarists who are making a name for themselves in the blues industry. He got his first guitar when he was nine and started playing the blues by age eleven. Sean and Susan first met in 1994 at a national blues talent competition. The Jive Bombers have already released their own record in 1996 on the Blue Sun label called "Call The Cops." When the time came for Susan to record her disc for Tone Cool she asked Sean to play on a couple of the tracks. They’ve basically been together ever since.

  Susan Tedeschi was born on November 9th, 1970. She grew up in Norwell, Massachusetts. She started singing in front of people by age five and a year later was performing in local community theater musicals. When she was ten she auditioned for the part of Annie in New York, was called back a second time but didn’t get the role. During this time she was also singing in a gospel choir. In fact when she went to the Berklee School of Music after graduating from high school, she majored in gospel studies. During her teens she was immersed in music learning to play not only the guitar but piano and clarinet as well. She discovered the blues through her parents record collection.

  "Basically you go to school to learn theory and history," said Susan when talking about her days at Berklee. "Singing in a gospel choir was one of my biggest learning experiences too but learning how to play the blues, you have to learn that in bars and nightclubs. You can’t learn that in school, you can’t learn that anywhere. Berklee was never a place where I learned how to play blues. That’s something that comes from inside."

  There are a growing number of women who are now on the blues circuit fronting their own bands. Sue Foley, Debbie Davies, Deborah Coleman, and Joanna Connor are names that come to mind the quickest. Throw Bonnie Raitt in there too. "I love all these girls," said Susan when asked about these women. "Debbie’s a great woman and so is Sue. I’ve become friends with both of them. I don’t know Joanna Connor, I’ve heard her stuff on the radio and she’s a little more rock than me. I look at someone like Sue Foley and I really look up to her. She’s out on the road with a three piece, just her and two guys touring the country. In a way I’m envious because it’s alot simpler having just two people to baby-sit for (laughs). And she just had a baby and got married too. When I heard that I thought ‘my God she can’t do that’ but of course she can and it gives me hope that if I want to have a family someday I could do it too."

  There are always comparisons in music. It’s inevitable, it’s human nature. But Susan has never been compared to any of her contemporaries. The woman Susan is most frequently compared to, much to her bewilderment, is Janis Joplin. "Everyone always thinks I sound like Janis but I don’t think I sound like her at all," said Susan. The song from her new disc that most people point to when making this comparison is an intense tune called "It Hurt So Bad." "You know when I was in the studio recording that song I was thinking I wanted to sound like Etta on this," she said. "I think of Etta James or Irma Thomas every once in a while when I want to try and get something a little fatter. But I think with Janis maybe it’s the energy of it that make people think of her. Janis was awesome and had a certain energy so I understand the comparison on that level but not the singing." (Dear readers, go out and get Susan’s new disc "Just To Burn" and judge for yourselves!)

  So here’s Susan Tedeschi who looks like the girl next door or maybe a model for Noxema skin cream, hitting the nightclub circuit and hitting it hard. If ever the time was right to strike while the iron is hot it is this very moment. Is the demands of the road a concern for her? "It’s always a constant struggle," she said, "You try to watch what you eat but then there are times when the only thing you can eat for two days is McDonalds. I work so much with this band that sometimes it feels like you don’t even have time to take a shower. I’m always either doing interviews or just the business of it all. Sometimes you’re rushed around all day that when I’m finally in front of an audience I just take a deep breath and realize wow this is why I’m doing all this. It’s time to just have fun and play."

  Susan looks like she’s having fun on stage, There’s a real connection between her and her audience. Of course the crowd that night at Geraldine’s Lounge has known Susan for a long time and they were totally into her. Susan sang every song from her new CD and during the break there was an endless stream of people wanting to buy an autographed disc from her. So Susan, step back and take another deep breath because the lines are only going to get longer as the crowds get bigger and bigger.

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