A couple of years earlier Sam Bush brought Trucks, Tedeschi, John Cowan and Bela Fleck out for an epic jam at MerleFest music festival. That set went from progressive versions of “Bell Bottom Blues,” “Gimme Shelter” to the late Levon Helms’ version of “Cripple Creek.” Then, Bush went into the traditional bluegrass version of “Cripple Creek” and coaxed a counter-intuitive lead solo out of Trucks, which was big fun.
There are ups and downs to life on the road as a touring musician, and that can lead to bad blood and irritation between band members at times. The stories of rock and roll outfits getting on each other’s nerves during a long tour are numerous and well-known. On the other hand, hitting the highways with a bunch of like-minded players can also be a lot of fun and a little raucous. In this tale, the TTB make the best out of some unforeseen circumstances during a tour of Europe.
“We had a jam with our band where it was actually two jams in one,” says Trucks. “We had finished a show in Paris and we all went out to this restaurant that was closing and we got in just in time. It was this small French place that only served duck. It was a duck spot. I could tell when we first walked in that they were kind of annoyed because they wanted to close up. It was almost the whole band and crew. But, we kind of won them over. We were having such a good time, and then the owner just started bringing bottles of wine out and extra food. Three and four in the morning rolls around and there is a piano there and a guitar and Kofi starts playing. Everybody is kind of singing and playing and the horn players have the horns out. Then, we realized that we had to get back to the hotel to get our stuff because we had an early train ride.”
When caught up in a good time, one can lose all track of the clock and that is when an early call will make you pay the hangover piper. In this case, however, more fun was in store for the traveling troupe.
“With everyone still inebriated and slightly hungover, we got on a train from Paris to Rotterdam, but the tickets were bought for the wrong day,” continues Trucks. “So, the conductor just put us in the bar car, standing up. Everyone is a little bit miserable at first. Then, the bar car opens and the lady comes out and you could see her eyes like, ‘Holy shit! Look at these freaks!’ The party just kind of continued. I think somebody had an acoustic guitar and Susan got a hold of it and the horns came back out on the train. It was an hour and a half train ride that was total mayhem. I think 60% of the people in the cars next to us were loving us and the other 40% were hating us. We were having the time of our lives. We made lemonade out of lemons that day. That late night hang rolling into that train ride was pretty special. I knew we were onto something special with this band, but that is kind of when I knew that we could turn any situation into this weird musical party. It was pretty awesome. Susan was letting it rip. It was amazing.”
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