A Song Story #1 - "Keep on Growing" - Tedeschi Trucks Band

This fabulous Eric Clapton-Bobby Whitlock collaboration is my favorite Derek & The Dominos song, though "Anyday" is a close second. 

Released in 1970 on the "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs" album, "Keep on Growing" is revived these days since the Tedeschi-Trucks Band (TTB) covers it on tour and included it on last year's "Live From The Fox Oakland" CD. I like their version (video below) even better than the original.

Originally dubbed "Airport Shuffle," the tune was a jam-band instrumental that Derek & The Dominos used for warming up - and to which the 10-minute TTB version pays proper homage.

Whitlock (who's appearing "down the street" next month at Bull Run) and others thought the pulsating rhythm was too good to be left off the "Layla" album. Legend has it that he wrote the lyrics and melody in an hour outside the recording studio in Miami.

Whitlock once told Song Fact that he and Clapton decided to sing alternate lines on the song, giving it something of a Sam & Dave feel, which Susan Tedeschi and Mike Mattison reprise expertly on the TTB version.

It's wonderful to be rooted in the music of our youth. It's even better to be reminded of those roots by younger performers. It's the only way to keep on growing.


Video courtesy of Tedeschi Trucks Band via YouTube.