Made Up Mind

On 2011's Revelator, slide-guitar prodigy Derek Trucks stepped into the role of family man: placing the jammy Derek Trucks Band on hiatus to team up with his wife, singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi. The duo now co-front this sprawling Southern-rock outfit, whose second album combines funk, greasy blues and Memphis soul: beefier horn lines, snappier interplay between two drummers, and Tedeschi's rugged vocals. Trucks retrenches his six-string squeals in order to meld with the band, saving his dirtiest licks for the tempestuous plodder "The Storm" and the sucker-punch groove of "Do I Look Worried." The result is equal parts Stax and Muscle Shoals without the dilution of either.