Like Norah Jones, Susan Tedeschi owes much to Bonnie Raitt. But while Jones has picked up on Raitt’s latenight smooch, Tedeschi is the heir to her raunchier blues-mama persona. On earlier albums her little-girl-with-a-big-voice act appealed as a freak of nature, in a Joss Stone kind of way. Since then she’s grown into the role, and Wait For Me?half-produced by the late Tom Dowd?is a storming, adult, modern blues excursion. At times she storms too much and risks sounding one-paced. But the tender “Wrapped In The Arms Of Another”, the jazzily acoustic “Blues On A Holiday” and a lovely “Don’t Think Twice” are testament to Tedeschi’s growing subtlety.
Advertisement