In what’s become an annual occurrence in Canandaigua, NY, the Tedeschi Trucks Band brought the sweet sounds of their soul review to the Constellation Brands Marvin Sands Performing Arts Center for a summer shakedown. Perhaps the best live act in America, the 12 piece band has as Joe Cocker once said, “a lot of grease,” and takes their traveling review around the world spreading musical love and gratitude. After a smoldering opening set by Margo Price and her band ,the Tedeschi Trucks group took the stage to an appreciative and primed audience.

The steamy summer way of “Part of Me,” opened the show with the sweet confection of Susan Tedeschi’s voice pushing away any major threat of rain for the party on the lawn. At once, the venue was invited into a sacred space of musical joy.The band quickly slid into the geometric groove of “Playing with My Emotions,” off the 2022 album I Am the Moon. The venue slithered in time to the song’s undulating rhythm and Tedeschi’s sensual singing. Trucks peeled off his first major guitar solo of the night. His rotund licks intersected by wordless twilight vocals by the triad of backing vocalists. The band sparked off a musical friction and reached their first musical summit of the evening to the approval of the crowd.

The band segued seamlessly into another track from I Am the Moon, “Aint That Something,” a horn heavy saunter that sounds like an early Chicago track highlighted by keyboardist Gabe Dixon’s vocals. The song was decorated by the spongy peat of Fender Rhodes and a puffed-up trombone breakdown.

The big band was charged up, chugging through the first five songs of the night without a break like a runaway soul train. Part carnival review, and part church congregation the Tedeschi Trucks Band passed the baton like true musical Olympians allowing each band member to contribute without cluttering up the stage. Melody lines and clandestine contributions popped their heads through the breakers before disappearing back into the churning white capped rhythms.

“All the Love,” followed next and now I see what the band is up to, playing the first three songs from the second record of I Am the Moon in their LP order. The exotic drift lets Trucks play the mystic snake charmer prodding the song into striking position. The trumpet offered a clarion call to which Trucks began a modal investigation. He finessed the knobs on his Gibson SG into blithe swells and then morphed them succinct biting statements. The horns bellowed in time and knotted themselves into a golden orbit.

The band fully entered an open door of improv, a winged lake bird of prey flying inches above cool dwaves of melodic particles. Almost surprised by their revelatory jamming the drums take over for a moment of decision making, before the band dropped coin in bucket into an invigorating cover of Bessie Smith’s “Gin House Blues.” Mike Mattison came down from his riser and grabbed a hold of the vocals tightly. Sugar Shack piano and some big river choogling take the entire crowd down to the Gin house for one more drink. Trucks puts on his slide for the first time and redecorates the room with slicing and dicing riffing.Tedeschi answered with a jagged solo and got some of the more stubborn asses out of their seats and boogieing.

After the breathless extended opening to the show Tedeschi finally greeted the crowd and eased into a welcome performance of “Angel from Montgomery,” that concluded with a singalong  chorus of the Grateful Dead’s “Sugaree.”

Trucks left the stage briefly before returning for a perfectly timed and poignant reading of “Anyhow,” spotlighting a stunning Tedeschi solo spot. “Sweet and Low,” also from 2013’s Made Up Mind album followed while lending a blue R and B cool down period to the evening.

“Keep On Growing,” from the 1970 album by Derek and the Dominos, Layla and Assorted Love Songs followed and featured to a new level of visionary playing by Trucks. He donned his slide and touched on the Duane Allman licks from the original recording while keeping his approach completely grounded in his own style. Taj Mahal’s “Everybody Go to Change Sometime,” sprouted from the fertile musical earth, a hard driving jump blues that allowed Mike Mattison to grind out his vocals. A huge Rhodes solo by Gabe Dixon took the song over the top.

If the music that had taken place wasn’t enough, a substantial segment of jamming both contrived and improvised was yet to come. “Circles Around the Sun,” yet another song from I am the Moon to be played on the evening, revolved around its central axis slowly. The song growled atonally and crept like spilled water across a slanted rock. Trucks donned a hollow body Gibson 335 guitar and extolled over a churning cluster of polyrhythms. Trucks and saxophone player Kebbi Williams dueled the song into a Coltrane inspired puddle. They deconstructed the melody into angles and edges and bits and pieces of sonic revelry. Tedeschi left the stage while a phantom voice spoke, and the triad of horns moaned out a spooky drone.

The band, now left as a five piece began a flawless transition into “Pasaquan,” traveling the same song pairing as the album I Am the Moon.  Trucks untethered his guitar into a series of inspired and jaw dropping riffs and licks. He referenced “My Favorite Things,” and quoted other melodies from air, and as a peach truck rolled by the lakeshore dropping juicy fruit along the roadside, he steered the band into a fully formed version of the Donovan melody and Allman Brothers classic, “Mountain Jam.” Eyes closed playing ensued and the dual drummers hammered out a quivering rhythmic bed to which Trucks decorated a beautiful musical portrait. “Pasaquan,” and “Mountain Jam,” played as one movement, each piece inseparable from the another. The Leslie speaker on Gabe Dixon’s rig looked as if it was going out bust of its box whipping around feverishly as the band fell back into “Pasaquan,” insuring the circle remained unbroken.

After this breathless display of free improv and virtuosity the band ignites Tedeschi’s classic solo number “Just Won’t Burn,” and torches Joe Tex’s, “Show Me,” with the embers. “Show Me,” comes replete with handclaps, sax solo, and triumphant collaborative vocals bringing the show to a stunning conclusion.

A huge crowd response got the band to return for their expected curtain call. Margo Price joined Tedeschi and Mattison to bring it on home with a gently lilting cover of George Jones “Color of the Blues,” before her bandmates joined the bulging stage to contribute to a show-stopping version of Leon Russell’s ”Stranger In a Strange Land.” Tedeschi sans guitar would have made Cocker blush with a head-shaking vocal performance the reverberated around the venue.

The Tedeschi Trucks band, a large collective of musical travelers traversing a musical journey of blues, country, jazz, Cajun, and rock and roll. Their journey littered with past influences, forgotten songs, original compositions and influential favorites.  A little of this, and a little of that equating to a style of music that has no predetermined purpose other than to make you feel good. Despite having the current generations greatest guitar god and the finest female blues singer of this era, the band encourages collaboration from its members, and expects musical magic every single evening.