Susan Tedeschi Talks Love For Willie Nelson On ‘One By Willie’ Podcast

Susan Tedeschi was the latest guest on the One By Willie podcast hosted by Texas Monthly’s John Spong. Susan chatted with Spong about Willie’s “Somebody Pick Up My Pieces,” Tedeschi Trucks Band’s cover of the song and more.

“Somebody Pick Up My Pieces” appears on Willie Nelson’s 1998 album, Teatro. A year after Teatro arrived, Susan Tedeschi was on the bill at Farm Aid and forged a relationship with Willie and his wife Annie. Susan also toured with the iconic musician during her solo career and also more recently with Tedeschi Trucks Band on Willie’s Outlaw Music Festival.

On One By Willie, Susan related how she and her husband guitarist Derek Trucks came to cover “Somebody Pick Up My Pieces” with Tedeschi Trucks Band.

“I first really learned about the song when I was doing Willie’s eighty-fifth birthday, in Nashville. He was doing a performance at Bridgestone and had a bunch of guests, and he wanted Derek and I to learn that song, as well as a couple other things. And when we did it, I looked it up and I was realizing there was this beautiful version of Willie doing it with Emmylou Harris. And I was like, ‘Oh, wow, this is really cool.’ And then when I did it, I didn’t realize what key to do it in and all this stuff. So before you know it, I ended up just making my own melody around it, ’cause it was a little too low to sing it in his key, but I wanted to do it in the original key. I don’t know. I like doing things in the original key, ’cause I think they’re written there for a reason, usually, if I can.”

According to SetlistFM Stats, TTB debuted “Somebody Pick Up My Pieces” fittingly at at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on January 31, 2019. Later that spring the band performed the song heavily on a Europenan tour. Shortly after performing in Paris, the Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire on April 15.

Susan noted on the podcast that she associates “Somebody Pick Up My Pieces” with the Notre Dame fire and also with late TTB member Kofi Burbridge. TTB performed the song in Germany the night the fire broke out at the iconic cathedral and shortly after Kofi passed away in February 2019.

I remember one night we were playing [“Somebody Pick Up My Pieces”], and it was the night that Notre-Dame caught fire. And we were actually on tour in Europe, over in Germany, I think, at the time. And I don’t know, when we do that song, it reminds me of Notre-Dame being on fire and also our bandmate Kofi, when he had passed away, we started doing that song, and it just got emotional. We were thinking about him a lot. So I started crying . . . a lot of times when I do this song, I think about one of those events, either Kofi or Notre-Dame being on fire.

I was picturing [Notre-Dame] when I sang that, and I didn’t even realize it, and then I just started crying. It was so crazy, ’cause it’s such an important place that has so much history. And then, I don’t know, in that moment, it just seemed really heavy, and then I just started crying on stage. And it’s such a visual; [Willie’s] so great at painting a picture. And just so many elements of this song that are simple, yet so well-developed. Just everything, from “Don’t follow my footsteps,” or “Step over my trail, the path is basically too narrow.” It’s just like this little… I don’t know, it’s all these visuals that I get when I sing the song.”

Tedeschi also talked about how her parents fostered her love for Wilie’s duet partner on “Somebody Pick Up My Pieces,” the great Emmylou Harris, when Susan was growing up which led to her getting into Nelson’s music.

“So that’s when I started really hearing Emmylou a lot. And then I started realizing how great she was and then started diving into more of those artists: Kris Kristofferson and Willie and people like that. But Willie, I’ve always loved him. Him and Dolly Parton, I just think are two of the most amazing songwriters, too. And they’re people that we just take for granted, I feel like. We just, “Oh, well. We’re always going to have them. They’re always amazing. They’re always going to be adding to our American story.”

Listen to the complete One By Willie episode with Susan Tedeschi below:

Tedeschi Trucks Band kick off a two-night run in Richmond, Virginia tonight. View their full tour itinerary with ticket info below.