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In a recent interview, guitarist Derek Trucks suggested Tedeschi Trucks Band, the band he co-leads with wife, singer, and guitarist Susan Tedeschi, is in a position where they can pretty much do whatever they want. Which doesn’t matter so much except to say that whatever you want to do you should damn well do it well. In the case of Tedeschi Trucks Band, that’s never been a problem. For Future Soul, their first new record in nearly four years, anything and everything Tedeschi Trucks Band do well is elevated to an entirely new level, resulting in possibly their strongest, most realized piece of work to date. It may be Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks’ names on the marquee, but the 12-piece Tedeschi Trucks Band is very much a band. The 11 songs are largely group efforts, with songwriting credits and standout performances spread out and generously shared. There’s no question Tedeschi handles a majority of the lead vocals and the guitar work of Trucks takes centerstage. The rest of the musicians and singers allow Tedeschi and Trucks to bask in the spotlight without losing their place in the mix, which is where the real heart and soul (past, present and future) of the band resides. “Crazy Cryin’” gleefully welcomes you in. “I Got You” is the gotcha tune, the easy one to digest and tap your foot to. You can’t blame TTB for keeping things light when everything else that goes on can get a little out of hand. “Hero” may be the heaviest, quirkiest song in their repertoire. Tedeschi’s voice is toughened up by the song’s swampy roll and a vocal undertow likely from singers Mike Mattison, Mark Rivers, and Alecia Chakour, before the whole kit and caboodle goes sideways. It’s one of those curveballs that keeps the general flow of this album so exciting and unpredictable. The album’s title track is a funky rocker with a hook and a lead that’ll be stuck in your head for a week. Trucks bends and squeaks out those notes on a Gibson Flying V, saving all the slide work for his SG. The slow and steady groove of “Under The Knife” with Mattison (notably, a major songwriter for the band) and Tedeschi out in front is sustained by Truck’s subtle slide picking that lifts the song up into the heavens just as the horn section pumps up the chorus and winds things down to a clean close. If you’re not swinging your hips to “Be Kind,” it’s time to time turn in your dance card. Meanwhile, Gabe Dixon’s keys driving “Devil Be Gone” and the horns from Kebbi Williams (saxophone), Emmanuel Echem (trumpet), and Elizabeth Lea (trombone) dressing up “Shout Out” cannot be overstated. By tapping into these possibilities with all these different players, it’s no wonder Trucks is confident in saying the band can do whatever they want. “Ride On” puts Tedeschi in close-range guitar accompaniment to end the record on a bright and solemn note. Clearly, in the A-league of singers with a range of appearances at numerous tributes, award shows, and the Kennedy Center honors, the singer comes into her own on In a recent interview, guitarist Derek Trucks suggested Tedeschi Trucks Band, the band he co-leads with wife, singer, and guitarist Susan Tedeschi, is in a position where they can pretty much do whatever they want. Which doesn’t matter so much except to say that whatever you want to do you should do it well. In the case of Tedeschi Trucks Band, that’s never been a problem. For Future Soul, their first new record in nearly four years, anything and everything Tedeschi Trucks Band do well is elevated to an entirely new level, resulting in possibly their strongest, most realized piece of work to date. It may be Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks’ names on the marquee, but the 12-piece Tedeschi Trucks Band is very much a band. The 11 songs are largely group efforts, with songwriting credits and standout performances spread out and generously shared. There’s no question Tedeschi handles a majority of the lead vocals and the guitar work of Trucks takes centerstage. The rest of the musicians and singers allow Tedeschi and Trucks to bask in the spotlight without losing their place in the mix, which is where the real heart and soul (past, present and future) of the band resides. “Crazy Cryin’” gleefully welcomes you in. “I Got You” is the gotcha tune, the easy one to digest and tap your foot to. You can’t blame TTB for keeping things light when everything else that goes on can get a little out of hand. “Hero” may be the heaviest, quirkiest song in their repertoire. Tedeschi’s voice is toughened up by the song’s swampy roll and a vocal undertow likely from singers Mike Mattison, Mark Rivers, and Alecia Chakour, before the whole kit and caboodle goes sideways. It’s one of those curveballs that keeps the general flow of this album so exciting and unpredictable. The album’s title track is a funky rocker with a hook and a lead that’ll be stuck in your head for a week. Trucks bends and squeaks out those notes on a Gibson Flying V, saving all the slide work for his SG. The slow and steady groove of “Under The Knife” with Mattison (notably, a major songwriter for the band) and Tedeschi out in front is sustained by Truck’s subtle slide picking that lifts the song up into the heavens just as the horn section pumps up the chorus and winds things down to a clean close. If you’re not swinging your hips to “Be Kind,” it’s time to time turn in your dance card. Meanwhile, Gabe Dixon’s keys driving “Devil Be Gone” and the horns from Kebbi Williams (saxophone), Emmanuel Echem (trumpet), and Elizabeth Lea (trombone) dressing up “Shout Out” cannot be overstated. By tapping into these possibilities with all these different players, it’s no wonder Trucks is confident in saying the band can do whatever they want. “Ride On” puts Tedeschi in close-range guitar accompaniment to end the record on a bright and solemn note. Clearly, in the A-league of singers with a range of appearances at numerous tributes, award shows, and the Kennedy Center honors, the singer comes into her own on Future Soul. Looking back, it might have taken the ambition that went into their previous four-disc conceptual piece I Am The Moon, plus key appearances and tons of touring, to make an album of this caliber sound so effortless, tight, varied, accessible, and communal. The future does indeed look quite bright for Tedeschi Trucks Band as they continue to blaze their own trail in the golden age of Americana. ~ Shawn Perry Purchase Future Soul

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM On a Tuesday morning in Naples, a guide named Chiara Locovardi ran her gloved fingers across a marble surface that has baffled art historians for more than two centuries. She was describing what she felt to the group around her, all of them blind or partially sighted, all of them touching the Veiled Christ for the first time. “The veil covering Christ is extraordinary,” Locovardi said. “It’s impossible to understand how Sanmartino managed to create it. The veil defies explanation — for those who can see and for those who cannot. When you touch it, you can feel the veins pulsing beneath.” The event, called La meraviglia a portata di mano (Wonder within reach), was organized by the museum in partnership with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired of Naples. For one day, the protective barriers around the chapel’s marble masterpieces were removed so that roughly 80 participants wearing latex gloves could explore them by hand. The route included Sanmartino’s Veiled Christ, completed in 1753, and the bas-reliefs of La Pudicizia by Antonio Corradini and Il Disinganno by Francesco Queirolo. A sculpture that defies physical explanation The Veiled Christ has amazed viewers for centuries. Carved from a single block of white marble, it depicts Christ in death beneath a transparent shroud that appears to adhere perfectly to the body beneath, tracing the contours of the face, the lines of pain, the texture of skin. Visitors have spent centuries trying to explain it. Many still half-believe it must have involved some lost alchemy that turned real fabric into stone. A payment receipt for Sanmartino, dated December 16, 1752, and signed by his patron Raimondo di Sangro, the Prince of Sansevero, is preserved in the Historical Archive of the Bank of Naples. Antonio Canova, one of the greatest marble sculptors of the 18th century, reportedly tried to acquire the piece and later said he would have given ten years of his life to have made something of equal quality. What made this event different The guides were themselves blind, trained by educator Roberta Meomartini in collaboration with the museum to describe the sculptures through touch rather than sight. The visit was free, by advance reservation only, and each participant could bring a companion or guide dog. At the end, visitors were escorted to the sacristy and given a Braille guidebook produced by the museum and the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired. Museum president Maria Alessandra Masucci framed it as part of a longer effort: “This initiative forms part of our wider programme to create a cultural space that is inclusive and accessible through dedicated pathways and tools tailored to the different needs of museum visitors.” The museum’s accessibility work extends beyond this event. In recent years, it has added audio guides for the visually impaired, sign language video tours for deaf visitors, and itineraries for visitors with intellectual disabilities. Art belongs to everyone Giuseppe Ambrosino of the Italian Union of the Blind put it directly: “Art must not be a privilege reserved for sight. Accessibility projects such as this transform a museum into a place of genuine inclusion, affirming that art belongs to everyone. In this case, visitors will not only be allowed to touch the marble sculpture; beauty itself will be able to flow through the hands and reach straight to the heart.” The Sansevero Chapel is small, crowded with masterworks, and the Veiled Christ usually draws the most disbelieving stares. What last Tuesday offered was something harder to find: the chance to know it through your fingertips, with a sculpture that resists explanation either way.     Did this solution stand out? Share it with a friend or support our mission by becoming an Emissary.The post Naples lets blind visitors feel the Veiled Christ first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Somewhere near you, a coyote may be nursing a litter of pups right now. She chose her den carefully: tucked under a fallen tree trunk, wedged inside an old burrow, or backed into a pile of abandoned concrete. One priority guided the choice: keeping you from finding it. New research published in Ecology and Evolution tracked 48 urban coyotes with GPS collars across Atlanta and found 20 active dens. Most people in those neighborhoods had no idea. “Most people don’t even know coyotes live in our cities,” said study co-author and ecologist Michel Kohl. “This paper demonstrates that these animals are living and reproducing in the same spaces as us without people even realizing it.” How coyotes choose where to raise their young More than half the dens were in natural structures: existing burrows and fallen tree trunks. Others used whatever was available: discarded concrete, an overturned boat, a large half-buried tractor tire. That’s not affinity for human materials. It’s coyotes working with what’s there. “As long as it was strong and it had visual cover around it to hide the coyotes from people seeing them, they were happy,” Kohl said. Lead author Summer Fink, a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia, put it plainly: “Basically, we saw that the coyotes were trying to avoid people. The animals didn’t want to den in areas where there was a lot of human activity and development.” “It seemed like coyotes were perceiving that risk, realizing there weren’t people there and deciding to den in those locations,” Fink said. What spring looks like inside a coyote pack Coyotes live in packs of two to seven and are present in every U.S. state except Hawaii. In Georgia, pupping season runs from mid-March through mid-April; elsewhere it can extend through mid-May, with litters ranging from two to nine pups. Only the breeding pair reproduces; the other pack members hunt, babysit, and defend territory, according to the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York. Coyotes are opportunistic eaters: small mammals like mice and squirrels, berries, whatever’s available. Most pups won’t survive to adulthood. Vehicle collisions and food scarcity take a heavy toll. Why cities need coyotes more than most people realize Coyotes have a reputation as disease carriers and pet predators. What that reputation tends to drown out is what they actually do ecologically. In urban environments they’re often the top predator, keeping rodent populations in check. They disperse seeds, scavenge roadkill, and clean up carrion. “Without an apex predator, ecosystems can get all out of whack,” Fink said. Kohl is skeptical of the fear that surrounds them: “This highlights how well coyotes are able to avoid us, which suggests that people’s fear of coyotes is often greater than the actual risk.” “They’re an incredibly adaptive species, and they’re very intelligent. But there is likely a limit. As urbanization increases and denning locations become more limited, it is going to put further pressure on the ability of these coyote populations to sustain themselves in these urban landscapes,” Kohl said. How to coexist with coyotes this spring Coyotes will nearly always choose to avoid people rather than confront them. Keep dogs leashed on walks. Don’t probe holes or sheltered spots that might be dens. If a coyote seems unusually bold near a trail or park, it may be running a distraction rather than acting aggressively. “If you are close to a den, the parents may make themselves more visible, more noticeable,” Kohl said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s something wrong with that coyote. It actually may be a behavioral ploy, so to speak, to try and get you to go somewhere else.” Don’t feed them, and don’t run. If one appears sick or injured, call your local animal control. The parks you walk through, the vacant lots, the weedy edges you pass without looking: some of those spots have coyote pups in them right now. The coyotes know you’re there. They’re counting on you not to notice. Source study: Ecology and Evolution– Coyotes choose cover over concrete when selecting den sites   Did this solution stand out? Share it with a friend or support our mission by becoming an Emissary.The post Urban coyotes are denning next door: here’s what to know first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.

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