The stylish packaging and the carefully-produced content of The Tedeschi Trucks Band's Revelator Live EP‚ a 2012 Record Store Day release‚ belies any nascent careerism or corresponding loss of street cred on the part of this band. The cost of the four-track disc can equal the discount offered inside on the full-length Everybody's Talking double cd set. And even with just one cut here not on that double cd set‚ over the course of nearly forty-minutes playing time the performances nevertheless whet the appetite for more.

All four tunes here (originals in contrast to the plethora of covers on its counterpart) come from the Grammy-award winning studio album released in 2011‚ but appear in extended versions that highlight the versatility of the eleven piece band. At the intro‚ the refrain and the muted conclusion of "Don't Let Me Slide" (the cut exclusive to this disc)‚ the horns of saxophonist Kebbi Williams‚ trumpeter Maurice Brown and trombonist Saunders Sermons add both grace and grandeur.

Vocalist mainstay Mike Mattison's "Midnight in Harlem‚" gorgeous a tune as it is‚ intoned passionately by the composer himself and Susan Tedeschi‚ belongs to Derek Trucks. With his guitar intro interpolating "Swamp Raga‚" from his eponymous debut album‚ with the late Duane Allman's "Little Martha‚" the closer of ABB's Eat A Peach‚ and his extended solo lifting the whole band to heights of bittersweet intensity‚ he reminds what a truly sensational instrumentalist he is.

Not to mention how firm a grasp of dynamics TTB maintains when they play. Tedeschi and Trucks composed "Learn How to Love" with drummer Adam Deitch (John Scofield‚ Lettuce) and Eric Krasno (Soulive‚ Lettuce) and incorporate an authentic feel for the blues with a hard rock sensibility just as genuine. There's as much craft at work on stage with this group as in the studio‚ a virtue accentuated by production from Trucks himself‚ a mix from Jim Scott (who worked on Revelator as well as Grace Potter's The Lion The Beast and The Beat‚ among others) plus the expert mastering of Bob Ludwig.

The concluding cut‚ "Bound for Glory‚" exemplifies the spiritual quality that's been a part of virtually all music to which Derek Trucks has contributed in the course of his career. The drama of his intro is amplified by keyboards from Kofi Burbridge -- who‚ with his bassist brother Oteil‚ are the foundation of the TTB ensemble -- while Tedeschi sings with a smooth confidence that never sounds merely facile: she feels it -- just as much as the rest of TTB. And‚ judging from the response on these recordings‚ the audiences feel it too and rightly so.