Susan Tedeschi – Just Won't Burn

Just Won't Burn 25th Anniversary Edition!

180-gram vinyl pressed at Quality Record Pressings

Just Won't Burn was certified platinum-selling (a rare achievement for a blues-based album at that time) and earned Tedeschi a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist in 2000 (alongside the of-the-moment cast of Britney Spears, Macy Gray, Kid Rock, and Christina Aguilera). It would be the first of five Grammy nominations for Tedeschi as a solo artist, with each of her next three solo releases earning nods for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

Her career as a solo artist and co-leader of Tedeschi Trucks Band has established her as one of the significant roots rock musicians of her generation. Even after 25 years, the past decade-plus of which have seen Tedeschi rise to even greater heights with her husband Derek Trucks in Tedeschi Trucks Band, Just Won't Burn remains a touchstone of blues-based rock'n'roll. 

"The way people react to Just Won't Burn has always been heartwarming and surprising," she admits. "I used to get letters from a prisoner who identified with the songs and found hope in them, and then I started getting letters from the rest of the prisoners on the cell block because it was the only cassette they had."

Making Just Won't Burn was a pivot, Tedeschi says of the album, which was co-produced by Tom Hambridge and Tedeschi and recorded by Sean Carberry at Rear Window Studio, Brookline, MA.

The album features musicians such as guitarists Adrienne Hayes and Sean Costello and harmonica player Annie Raines tackling Tedeschi's original songs in tandem with material popularized by Ruth Brown, Junior Wells, and John Prine.

"All of a sudden, I was working with different groups of people, new musicians, new songwriting collaborators. We had no idea how it was going to turn out. I think the thing that held it all together was the blues. Blues is a language that I love. You can take it anywhere in the world and communicate with people, which isn't necessarily true about other forms of music. And being a white artist in a black milieu, you just have to let the music speak."