Listen To Susan Tedeschi’s Previously-Unreleased Cover Of Koko Taylor’s ‘Voodoo Woman’

In 1998, guitarist Susan Tedeschi released her debut solo album, Just Won’t Burn. An expanded, 25th anniversary edition of the album will be released by Fantasy Records on September 22, featuring several bonus tracks, including a previously-unreleased cover of blues legend Koko Taylor’s “Voodoo Woman.”

“Making Just Won’t Burn was a pivot,” Tedeschi said. “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.”

Co-produced by Tedeschi and Tom Hambridge, Just Won’t Burn was recorded by Sean Carberry at Rear Window Studio in Brookline, Massachusetts, near Tedeschi’s native Boston. The album featured contributions from guitarists Adrienne Hayes and Sean Costello and harmonica player Annie Raines. Tedeschi recorded originals as well as covers of associated with Ruth Brown, Junior Wells, and John Prine.

Just Won’t Burn garnered impressive sales, leading to it being certified Platinum. After its release, Tedeschi was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist, alongside Macy Gray, Kid Rock, Britney Spears and eventual winner Christina Aguilera.

“Sometimes when I look back on the 25 years since the release, I think about the places I’ve been and the adventures I’ve had, and I feel like Forrest Gump,” Tedeschi added. “I say, ‘No! You’re a baseball mom. You didn’t do all that!’ But I must have. The blues has its demands. You have to be honest — musically, emotionally, and personally — above everything else, and that can lead to some uncomfortable truths. But the blues hasn’t burned me. It hasn’t hurt me. It’s my main resource. I can express myself and get stuff out about my life – or, like B.B. [King] always said, ‘whatever ails you.’ The blues got me here.”

Additional previously-unreleased bonus tracks include an alternate version of the album cut, “Looking For Answers,” outtake “Waste Of Time,” and live recordings of “Looking For Answers” and the title track performed by the Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Beacon Theatre in New York City in October 2022. Tedeschi Trucks Band, the group Tedeschi co-founded with her husband, guitarist Derek Trucks, recently covered “Voodoo Woman” for the first time.

“The way people react to Just Won’t Burn has always been heartwarming and surprising,” Tedeschi said. “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.”

Listen to the Just Won’t Burn outtake, a simmering take on Koko Taylor’s blues classic “Voodoo Woman” below:

Just Won’t Burn (25th Anniversary Edition) Tracklist

1. Rock Me Right
2. You Need to Be With Me
3. Little By Little
4. It Hurt So Bad
5. Found Someone New
6. Looking For Answers
7. Can’t Leave You Alone
8. Just Won’t Burn
9. Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean
10. Angel From Montgomery
11. Friar’s Point
12. Looking For Answers (Alternate Take)
13. Voodoo Woman (Album Outtake)
14. Waste Of Time (Album Outtake)
15. Looking For Answers (Tedeschi Trucks Band – Live at the Beacon Theatre, 10/06/2022)
16. Just Won’t Burn (Tedeschi Trucks Band – Live at the Beacon Theatre, 10/07/2022)