Saying “Au Revoir”

Tedeschi Trucks Band conclude their I Am The Moon album series with part four, a six-track compilation titled Farewell. This final album is a well-wishing parting to an adventure full of collective struggles and complexities. Tedeschi Trucks Band have said “au revoir” with compelling vastness and grace.

“Last Night in the Rain” is a track that grapples with an angsty departure and self-torment. Musically, this track holds a steady bluesy sound that is unwavering from start to finish. Lyrically, it sets the stage for the inevitable dissolution that endings bring and learning how to be okay with a goodbye.

“Soul Sweet Song” covers the topic of grief, a message that there will always be the spirit of the departed. Tedeschi Trucks Band wrote this song to honor their late keyboardist Kofi Burbridge. Burbridge helped form their original sound. He wrote riveting lyrics such as, “In the memory of your melody, when the dawn breaks out, the birds all sing, and I feel your rhythm movin’ me, ’cause your soul’s sweet song’s still singin’.” Set over attentive piano lines, this helps to create an imagery of ideally getting to a manageable place with grief.

Ironically, “I Can Feel You Smiling” strikes as a counterintuitive meaning that fast-forwards to a healing point after loss. Susan Tedeschi sings with a potent emphasis backed by a crooning guitar piece. This number pivots on timely coincidences such as hearing and seeing reminders of someone in the sound of rain, the moon and a song on the radio. Tedeschi Trucks Band take on an angle of finding comfort that there will always be a constant even if it is in spirit. This track wraps up with deliberate delicacy in the lyrics, “I can feel you smiling, smiling on me, and you’ll always be smiling on me, and you’ll always be here for me.”

“Another Day” is a hopeful track with a regretful warning that there should always be hope for bright days, but there is always a chance of “gray clouds” in between the blue. A lingering, but consistent guitar and drum piece creates a pursuance of optimism.

Tedeschi Trucks Band’s conclusive album, I Am The Moon: IV. Farewell is a culmination of joy, sorrow, love, grief and loneliness. It is an intimate portrayal into the unfathomable human condition. It shows the beauty and trials of growing from these emotions. I Am The Moon: IV. Farewell says goodbye with sophisticated grace and acceptance. Peeling back layer-by-layer, this stripped-down fourth album gives raw insight into the emotional aspect of the pre-post pandemic era.