Under normal circumstances, one of your backup singers suggesting that the band read a 4,600-stanza Persian poem from the 12th century would seem preposterous.
But in May 2020, the members of Tedeschi Trucks Band were open to the request from Mike Mattison to immerse themselves in Nizami Ganjavi's star-crossed love poem "Layla & Majnun."
The pandemic shutdown had brought their touring to a halt, so there was time, and further, the Layla in the name was the source material for one of their favorite albums, Derek and the Dominos' "Layla and Assorted Love Stories," which they had played in full at the LOCKN' Festival with Trey Anastasio in August 2019.
