Album review: TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND and Leon Russell Present – Mad Dogs & Englishmen Revisited, Live at Lockn’

September 4th, 2025 by petefeenstra

Concord [Release date 12.09.25]

Tedeschi Trucks Band’s ‘Mad Dogs & Englishmen Revisited’ ticks most of the right boxes in honoring the music of the original live album and the band does what it says on the tin!

Unsurprisingly, it struggles to replace Joe Cocker, but a combination of the indefatigable Leon Russell and a great band nails the kind of cross-generational live album that the Americans do so well.

In this case the project was tailor made for an extant 12 piece band that was already playing some of these tracks leading into this 2015 recording.

There’s always a certain fascination between ‘then and now’ and the updated ‘Mad Dogs’ idea gained extra credence by the appearance of Leon Russell (a year before his death) and the main driving force behind the original tour and album.

Joe Cocker was apparently also up for it, but sadly passed in the interim.

The addition of several members of the original entourage including Cocker’s right hand man Chris Stainton sealed the deal.

So far so good, but aside from a nebulous sense of musical history and a symbolic passing on of the rock and roll baton, (surely better celebrated on the 50^th anniversary), you wonder about the point of replicating a unique event born of the particular circumstances.

After all, the original album, band and tour was a rushed, ragged and ‘warts and all’ affair, a combination which gave it a memorable durability, that of being a musical if not social document of the excesses of the time.

But such is the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s musical integrity that we can buy into the idea of updating musical history via new technology, a new generation of musicians and original band member guests as part of 30 strong ensemble.

The new album includes songs to be found on subsequent expanded versions, but criminally excludes Russell’s ‘Give Peace A Chance’, a sparse gospel tinged piece with a staggered repeated title, which represented a tense moment in the Cocker / Russell relationship.

Similarly the original gospel ‘call and response’ dynamic of ‘Cry Me A River’, might have been a better choice than either ‘Darling Be Home Soon’, ‘The Weight’ or even ‘Sticks & Stones.’

The ‘Revisited’ album employs a more polished approach with guests from the contemporary jam band community.

Suffice it to say that no one adequately replaces Joe Cocker except for Susan Tedeschi herself. Her vocal attack embodies the kind of soul and emotion to transform ‘The Letter’ into big choral ‘call and response’ finale.

She’s equally good on John Sebastian’s ‘Darling Be Home Soon’ which used to see Cocker at his rawest. Her vocal leads to an uplifting and inspired Allman Brothers style guitar break.

The latter might have little to do with the original, but it does notably update the original album’s tendency to have too many similar arrangements, albeit this song wasn’t on the original!

There’s some big band swagger on the Leon Russell sung ‘Dixie Lullaby’, and he adds a gritty duet with Claudia Lenear on ‘The Girl From The North Country , while in between the two, Chris Robinson is a ball of energy on ‘Sticks & Stones.’

A combination of Dave Mason and Derek Trucks breathes fresh life into Mason’s timeless ‘Feelin’ Alright’, arguably one of Cocker’s 3 greatest interpretations.

Warren Haynes adds a gnawing vocal to the horn-led, gospel drenched ‘She Came In Through The Bathroom Window’, as Trucks and Anders Osborne swap stinging solos.

Aside from Tedeschi’s consistent excellence, it’s left to Rita Coolidge to bring real presence to the evening on ‘Bird On The Wire’, as she gets deep into the song.

‘The Weight’ is given a big horn arrangement as Russell, Coolidge, Pamella Holland and Tedeschi swap verses impressively, but weirdly it serves to remind us of how Joe Cocker never let a song go without adding his own feel.

Widespread Panic vocalist John Bell works hard to nail ‘Delta Lady’, but a combination of his sinewy vocal and an almost circumspect musical intro robs the big hit of its former glories.

Susan Tedeschi shows how it can be done on her version of ‘Space Captain’ one of the highlights from the original album, and the same here.

She’s flanked by a big choir, plus Chris Robinson whose vocal is adequate rather than inspirational.

The “learning to live together” refrain acts as a musical mission statement for the band. The song builds towards a feverish finish via a Trucks slide solo and topped by a magically extended note from Tedeschi.

The band works hard to make ‘A Little Help From My Friends’ a show stopper, relying on Tedeschi to provide the only authentic Cocker banshee wail.

Chris Robinson can’t quite recapture Cocker’s soulful spark on an overextended piece, on which Trucks’ ethereal solo is still worthy of its inclusion.

It’s left to Leon Russell to provide a poignant book-end to the updated project with ‘The Ballad Of Mad Dogs And Englishmen’, some 45 years after overseeing the original. ****

Review by Pete Feenstra

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