Tedeschi Trucks Band Announce Massive 'I Am The Moon' Quadruple Album Project
The first album will be released on June 3.
By: Michael Major Apr. 20, 2022
Today, Tedeschi Trucks Band - the revered 12-piece collective founded by husband-and-wife duo, guitarist Derek Trucks and singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi - announces the most ambitious studio project of their storied career: I Am The Moon, an epic undertaking in four albums with 24 original songs.
Inspired by a mythic Persian tale of star-crossed lovers, and emotionally driven by the isolation and disconnection of the pandemic era, the thematic I Am The Moon totals more than two hours of music, unfolding across a robust tapestry of genre-defying explorations that propel the treasured American ensemble into new and thrilling creative territory.
The four albums that comprise I Am The Moon - I. Crescent, II. Ascension, III. The Fall, and IV. Farewell - will be released in successive months beginning with I. Crescent, available digitally and on CD, Friday, June 3rd. (All vinyl configurations, including individual LPs and the 4-LP I Am The Moon Deluxe Box will be available on September 9th.) Pre-order I AM THE MOON: here.
The decision to sequence and release I Am The Moon in four distinct episodes came "when we started thinking of records we love," Trucks says, citing Axis: Bold as Love, the 1967 LP by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. "It's 36 minutes long. That's the way to digest a record." With that approach in mind, TTB will present I Am The Moon: The Film, immersive visual companions to each album.
The corresponding films will debut three days prior to each audio release, offering fans an early opportunity to digest each album in its entirety as a communal listening and viewing experience via the band's YouTube channel. Directed by Alix Lambert, the films combine studio and performance footage with atmospheric photography and imagery beautifully capturing the music's kaleidoscopic textures. The project launches with the first episode: I Am The Moon: The Film - I. Crescent on Tuesday, May 31st at 6:00pm Pacific/9:00pm ET. Release dates for each I Am The Moon album and companion film can be found below.
The concept behind I Am The Moon, the GRAMMY-winning band's fifth studio recording, was suggested by TTB vocalist Mike Mattison in May 2020, two months after the band was forced off the road by the pandemic. The 12th century poem Layla & Majnun by Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi was the title inspiration for Eric Clapton's 1970 double-LP with Derek and the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs - an influential album for TTB.
But Ganjavi's source material resonated with Mattison and the rest of the band in an altogether different way. Finding complex themes and storylines that inspired their creative process, they forged a new, modern interpretation of the vast 100-page poem. I Am The Moon was written collectively and collaboratively, with band members contributing their own unique perspectives on the work. By January 2021 the band was recording at Tedeschi and Trucks' home studio, Swamp Raga, in Jacksonville, FL, with Derek behind the soundboard as producer and long-time studio engineer Bobby Tis in charge of recording and mixing.
Operatic in scope, Tedeschi Trucks Band explores romantic relationships, collective struggle, faith, and the human experience on I Am The Moon. "It's amazing," Trucks says, "because we wrote most of this music in a pretty short time span. There are even chord changes that mirror other tunes on the albums - themes and variations, lyrical allusions, that pop back up." He continues: "You always want to do something bigger and thematic. This is the first time it happened naturally."
The limited-edition, I Am The Moon Deluxe Box Set, each individually-numbered, includes all four albums in the I Am The Moon series on 180g black vinyl, plus additional special items will be available September 9th, 2022 - order EXCLUSIVELY through the TTB store and the Fantasy Records store.
Watch the new album trailer here:
Tour Dates
June 24 - Jacksonville, FL - Daily's Place Amphitheater
June 25 - Mobile, AL - Mobile Civic Center
June 26 - Tuscaloosa, AL - Tuscaloosa Amphitheater
June 28 - Indianapolis, IN - The Amphitheater at White River State Park
June 29 - Detroit, MI - Fox Theatre
July 1 - Canandaigua, NY - Constellation Brands - Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center
July 2 - Gilford, NH - Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion
July 3 - Saratoga Springs, NY - Saratoga Performing Arts Center
July 6 - New Haven, CT - Westville Music Bowl
July 8 - Philadelphia, PA - The Mann Center
July 9 - Essex Junction, VT - Midway Lawn at Champlain Valley Expo
July 10 - Patchogue, NY - Great South Bay Music Festival
July 12 - Lewiston, NY - ArtPark
July 13 - Cincinnati, OH - PNC Pavilion at Riverbend
July 15 - 16 - Atlanta, GA - Fox Theatre
July 19 - Vienna, VA - Wolf Trap
July 20 - Richmond, VA - Virginia Credit Union LIVE!
July 21 - Raleigh, NC - Coastal Credit Union Music Park
July 23 - Charlotte, NC - PNC Music Pavilion
July 24 - Huber Heights, OH - Rose Music Center at The Heights
July 26 - Aurora, IL - RiverEdge Park
July 27 - St. Louis, MO - Fabulous Fox Theatre
July 29 - 30 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre
August 18 - San Diego, CA - Cal Coast Credit Union Amphitheater
August 19 - Los Angeles, CA - The Greek Theatre
August 20 - Berkeley, CA - The Greek Theatre
August 23 - Sacramento, CA - Sacramento Memorial Auditorium
August 24 - Eugene, OR - Cuthbert Amphitheater
August 26 - Auburn, WA - White River Amphitheater
August 27 - Bend, OR - Hayden Homes Amphitheater
August 28 - Reno, NV - Grand Sierra Resort & Casino
August 31 - Boise, ID - Outlaw Field at the Idaho Botanical Garden
September 1 - Bonner, MT - Kettlehouse Amphitheater
September 3 - Moorhead, MN - Bluestem Center for the Arts Amphitheater
October 17 - Copenhagen, DK - Amager Bio
October 18 - Copenhagen, DK - Amager Bio
October 20 - Randers, DK - Vaerket
October 21 - Oslo, NO - Sentrum Scene
October 22 - Stockholm, SE - Cirkus
October 25 - Berlin, DE - Verti Music Hall
October 26 - Hamburg, DE - Edel-optics.de Arena
October 27 - Prague, CZ - Forum Karlin
October 30 - Rotterdam, NL - RTM Stage
November 2 - Dublin, IE - The Helix
November 4 - London, UK - The London Palladium
November 5 - London, UK - The London Palladium
November 6 - London, UK - The London Palladium
November 9 - Manchester, UK - Manchester Academy
November 10 - Glasgow, UK - O2 Academy Glasgow
November 12 - Paris, FR - Le Trianon
November 13 - Paris, FR - Le Trianon
November 15 - Paris, FR - Bataclan
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