From the better-late-than-never department comes Tedeschi Trucks Band and Leon Russell Present: Mad Dogs & Englishmen Revisited Live at Lockn’, the live LP capturing the titular performance from 2015.

TTB were on the rise; Russell was nearing the end; Joe Cocker didn’t make it. But a handful of MD&E veterans – including Rita Coolidge, Claudia Lennear and Chris Stainton – did. And a bunch of simpatico pals, including Warren Haynes, Anders Osborne, Dave Mason, Chris Robinson, Anders Osborne and John Bell, joined in, too, to recreate the spirit of leaning to play together.

And, boy howdy, did they. Running through 10 of the songs that appeared on the original, Cocker-led LP – “Let’s Go Get Stoned,” sung by Susan Tedeschi and the TTB choir; “Feelin’ Alright” (Mason); “She Came in through the Bathroom Window” (Haynes); and “Space Captain” (Tedeschi and Robinson) being the highlights – the new Mad Dogs capture the bark and bite of the old Mad Dogs. And when Russell, who died in 2016, plays piano and sings lead on “Dixie Lullaby,” he reminds listeners that he kept his stuff right up until the end.

Mad Dogs & Englishmen Revisited Live at Lockn’ doesn’t sound like the original—too many years and people had passed by this point for that to be possible. But it does deliver the essence of the original and that is something probably nobody but TTB and these guests could have done. 

A worthy successor, indeed.