Six years ago, at the Greenwich Town Party, the Tedeschi Trucks Band invited Col. Bruce Hampton up to the stage for a cover of Bobby “Blue” Bland‘s “Turn On Your Lovelight,” a song that the Grateful Dead played on a regular basis. The significance of this song carries great meaning for Col. Bruce Hampton; not only was it his favorite song, but it was both the first and last song he ever performed in front of a live audience.
Derek Trucks‘ relationship with Col. Bruce Hampton goes back to childhood when he took the guitarist under his wing and helped jumpstart his career at a young age. As he did with many of today’s greatest players, earning him the name the “Grandaddy of Jam”, Bruce saw something special in Trucks that attracted him to guide the prodigy through his musical career.
Stranger Than Fiction: The Cosmic Curtain Call Of Col. Bruce Hampton
Trucks was one of the many students of Col. Bruce Hampton on stage during his final performance of “Lovelight” at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia in 2016. Susan Tedeschi, too, was of the last voices Bruce heard sing before he collapsed on the stage. It was a tragically beautiful last hurrah for Col. Bruce Hampton, and it will without a doubt become one of the greatest stories ever told in rock and roll history.
This was one of the last times they shared a stage prior to Hampton 70. Check out a playlist of videos from that performance below.
Tedeschi Trucks Band, Col. Bruce Hampton – “Turn On Your Lovelight” – Greenwich, CT – 5/28/16
[Video: sgibson818]
[Originally published 4/30/17]