Susan Tedeschi
Wait for Me (Artemis)
Why did we have to wait? After blueswoman Susan Tedeschi’s 1999 album “Just Won’t Burn” earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist, she essentially disappeared from public view, marrying fellow guitarist Derek Trucks, having a baby, enduring several false starts and making this follow-up. It’s pretty much what you’d expect — upbeat blues, soul, gospel and rock anthems unified by Tedeschi’s one-tone wallop of a voice.
The album peaks toward the end, after Tedeschi dispenses with just-above-average gospel stabs (“Wrapped in the Arms of Another”), funk experiments (“Hampmotized”) and Bob Dylan covers (“Don’t Think Twice”) and turns to Little Richard-style rock ‘n’ roll. “I Fell in Love” is like driving a Ferrari after riding the bus too long, the sound of a singer finding her idiom in the course of 3 1/2 minutes. The morning-after finale is a torchy ballad called “Blues on a Holiday.”