there while we were doing it . It helped that most of the songs had the lyrical vibe happening either before I did the guitar solo or during it . Whereas , on other sessions , I ’ ll just play and not know what the song is about , we were very sensitive to what the song was about on this record .
There ’ s one instrumental on the album , and it ’ s probably especially interesting to our readers : “ Curse Lifter ,” which you played as a duet with Derek Trucks . That one I wrote a while ago . I ’ ve played in the Tedeschi Trucks band , and at one point I approached the idea of doing that song in that band , but in the end it just made sense for my record . And I always wanted Derek to play on it . I originally recorded that in Maine and did placeholder guitar parts . I was thinking about Santana and the Allman Brothers — that guitar harmony vibe . So when I was down in Florida hanging out in Derek ’ s studio — we were actually working on stuff for their most recent album , Let Me Get By — I pulled up that track . I erased the guitars that I originally put on there , set up two amps in the live room , and just took a few passes at it , took it home , and mixed it .
Now that the album is done and you ’ ve stepped out , what ’ s next ? I ’ m really excited to perform my stuff . There ’ s so much room to grow as an artist and as a singer now . I ’ m excited to explore a lot of different stuff . Since making this record , I ’ ve been singing in other situations . I ’ ve been doing the Phil and Friends tour and he ’ s having me sing a bunch of the Dead songs . It ’ s a challenge to sing in front of thousands of people who know these songs inside and out . You have to deliver it in the right way . They ’ re also in keys that are a stretch for me , but that ’ s good training . One of the cool things about my own band is that there ’ s one dedicated singer and three other singers , so the harmonies will be really thick . So I ’ m excited about playing this material and writing new material . I think the next album will be a lot of fun to make — and hopefully will take less time to do ! [ Laughs .]
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