Derek Trucks Band Tour Press - November

Derek Trucks Interview Written by Tom Kahley

Keep on Trucks’in Guitarist Derek Trucks drops by Syracuse for a Sunday gig at the Mulroy Civic Center

Because he’s been on the scene for quite a while now, sixstring virtuoso Derek Trucks may seem like an elder statesman of the blues, but he’s only 30. Rolling with the adage that it’s the experiences on life’s highway that gauges one’s age, Trucks has already marked more miles than most musicians in the autumn of their years flicking the blinker toward the off-ramp sunset. Since age 19, Trucks has regularly played more than 300 gigs a year, splitting time between the Derek Trucks Band (DTB), and the Allman Brothers Band (ABB). His uncle, drummer Butch Trucks, is an original member of the ABB, and that familial liaison set the scene for the young guitar prodigy. By age 9, he was hip enough to try imitating the slide guitar sounds of Duane Allman (1946-1971), one of the founding members of the ABB who is considered by many to epitomize the highest order of acclaim on the ax. Rolling Stone magazine ranked Duane No. 2 on their 2003 list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All-Time,” behind Jimi Hendrix. As a student of the guitar, Trucks had found his kindred spirit that would be the guide of his euphonically developing mind, and by age 11, he set out on a limited touring basis with the ABB. Shortly afterward, he was sitting in and recording with a who’s who in the music industry, including Buddy Guy, and by 1994, he had formed the first incarnation of the DTB. Trucks became a full-timer with the ABB in 1999 and it was on that initial tour that he met his future wife, singer and guitarist Susan Tedeschi, whose band was opening for the legendary Southern soul stirrers. The pair, married since 2001, currently live in Trucks’ native Jacksonville, Fla., and have a 7-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter. Because of the incessant touring with both bands, Trucks has built a reputation as not only one of the hardest working men in the business, but has also established himself as one of the best at what he does. Trucks found himself on that same aforementioned Rolling Stone “greatest guitarist” list, ranking at No. 81 and, at age 24, was the youngest living person on the list. In a February 2007 Rolling Stone, he was pictured on the cover along with John Mayer and John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers for a feature article titled “The New Guitar Gods.” When Trucks plays with the ABB, he’s strolling the musical cosmos along stars that were aligned before he was born. But with his own band, he leads the direction in music, which can include anything from Pakistani and East Indian Qawwali, Latin, jazz, blues and Afro-beat. His sixth and latest studio album with the DTB, Already Free (Legacy), released last January, debuted at No. 19 on the Billboard charts. While his previous albums have been rooted in blues, the new one really lets each member’s idiosyncrasies color the sound. (With Trucks, the DTB consists of Kofi Burbridge on keyboards and flute; bassist Todd Smallie; Yonrico Scott and Count M’Butu handling drums and percussion; and Mike Mattison on lead vocals.) The Derek Trucks Band will perform at the Mulroy Civic Center’s Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater, 411 Montgomery St., on Sunday, Nov. 1, 8 p.m.; tickets cost $30 to $50 and can be purchased by calling 435-2121. Trucks recently spoke with The New Times from a hotel room in Arkansas at the end of a fall tour with ABB, about his inordinate touring schedule, life with the ABB and DTB, as well as finding harmony on the road in a musical family. Q: You’ve got another week or so on the road with the Allmans, then 10 days off before you start the tour with your own band. I take it you’re not the kind to sit still for too long? A: If you want to keep a band together you really don’t have a choice, you got to get out there and work. With the ABB’s schedule, it makes it really busy, but I love to play and I love to travel. It’s a little different now having kids and it makes traveling quite a bit different. But we built a home studio last year, me and my wife, and we’re really thinking about next year and rethinking the way we travel and doing it a lot less and spending a lot of time in the studio writing and recording.

Q: Your wife Susan is a very talented musician in her own right. How do you balance the touring schedule and family life between you both? A: It’s a juggling act, for sure. Over the 10 years we’ve been together we’ve had two kids, probably eight records and six or seven bands, so it’s a crazy life. {laughs} At one time, Susan was pregnant and on the road singing with the Dead, and I was out with the ABB and my group, and then Clapton’s band, and then me and Susan did a band together, so it’s crazy getting all the schedules to line up. Now that all of our kids are in school it’s a completely different ballgame. Before, they could just travel with us but now they’re in public schools so somebody has to be home at all times or you both stay gone just two or three days at a time and my mom will help out. We’re lucky; we have a really close family that all live near us at home and that makes all the difference. Q: Splitting time between the Allmans and the DTB, is there a different mindset or approach to playing with each respective band? A: With a band like the Allmans, who were in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before I joined the band, there’s a serious legacy and the arc of the band is pretty well intact, so if anything, you’re trying to infuse new life and continue to make it fly. With your own projects, you really feel like you’re writing the story from scratch, so it is a different approach. But anytime you’re on the road or onstage playing you’re completely dedicated and locked in. Q: Is there a different understanding of the Allmans’ music now as to when you first started sitting in with them at 10 or 11 years old? And were you more or less trying to emulate Duane {Allman} in the early days? A: When I first started sitting in with them, it was just a song or two here or there and you’re kind of playing what you heard before. When you join a band—I joined {the ABB} when I was 19—you take a different approach. It’s kind of one foot in the past and one foot in the future and as you go further along that whole dynamic changes. The longer you’re in the group and the older you get, the more comfortable you get helping guide the direction of the band musically, and my role has shifted quite a bit from the very beginning. Q: What is the creative process like in the Allmans these days? A: It’s really a musical democracy. From night to night it subtly shifts from who is taking control. {Guitarist} Warren {Haynes} has really assumed a great quarterbacking role the last few years. He’s been in the band on and off for 20 years now and has a great rapport with the new wave of musicians and the original guys and, being a lead singer and a bandleader {with Gov’t Mule}, he naturally takes on that role. But musically it really is open to whoever wants to grab the reins at any given moment, which is a great situation. Q: Duane was obviously one of your influences in the early days, but who are some of the other people that influenced your style of playing? A: It really goes everywhere. Elmore {James} and Duane were the first two, but from there, it went back further in the Delta blues to people like Son House and Bukka White and then Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, Miles {Davis}, Sun Ra, a lot of Indian and classical musical, and a lot of vocalists like Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson. You listen around and I think it’s important to find the masters in every genre and figure out, No. 1, where it was coming from and, No. 2, what’s different about them. And the more you listen to that stuff, I think the more you appreciate people really focusing in on what they do.

Q: Your new album Already Free has kind of a vibe similar to The Band’s 1968 LP Music from Big Pink, where you can’t really pin down an exact type of music to label it. Was that kind of the approach on this one and do you approach albums to develop them, or do you just kind of let them develop organically?

A: With this record that was definitely the case and it’s very much kind of a brew. I think all the varied influences over the years have finally been melted down into whatever this is that we’re doing. All those influences can be heard on the record and they’re not as obvious as they were on past records where we do a straight-ahead tune or an African

tune. Big Pink was a big influence, too, and when I listen to that it feels very organic and very original and very relaxed at the same time and that was part of the mindset. I think having a home studio and the ability to experiment and try things and not be worried about how much every hour in the studio is costing is a really nice change of pace. I’ve never really done that before. Q: Did having a home studio change the way you approached the album?

A: We’ve done records in the past that I’m really happy with but it was always “you got five or six days to knock it out,” so you don’t do a lot of writing in the studio. Usually everything is figured out by the time you get there because you don’t have the time or money to waste. But when you have a {home} studio sitting back there, you can just do your thing. There was a month when every day we were writing and recording a song a day and there were new ideas all the time. When you’re not forced to be in that situation it happens a lot more naturally and you can feel that on the record. There’s a freshness to a lot of the tunes because they were written sometimes an hour or two before they were recorded and sometimes the recording on the record was the first time we played the song through correctly. There’s something about capturing the birth of an idea that’s really nice, and I’d like to explore that a little more.

Raga droppers: The Derek Trucks Band takes a front porch view of the world when it comes to music, while Trucks’ individual style is rooted in the blues.

Q: A lot of musicians say there’s nothing they dig more than performing live. Is that still the case now that you’ve got your own studio to experiment in?

A: For the longest time that was definitely my take. When you’re playing live it’s on the fly and if something breaks you just have to blast through it, and there’s something nice about being able to craft things in the studio. Eight years ago if you would have asked me the difference between live and studio it would be hands down I’d prefer to play live and the studio was a nuisance at best. But the last two records I came around to the process and really started enjoying the creativity and realizing it’s another creative outlet. When you hear some of these great records like the Allman Brothers’ Eat A Peach, or those great Hendrix and Beatles records, those are things that couldn’t have been created live and had to be in a laboratory where you could just throw ideas against the wall and see if they stick.

Q: Mentioning that when you’re playing live and something breaks, you have to blast through it, what were some of those crazier onstage moments? Maybe one of your band mates cracking you up or a girl in the audience flashing her top or something else that kind of shook you a little bit?

A: {Laughs.} Yeah, we’ve had a lot of crazy moments on stage. All the things you said and more. Recently, I had an amplifier catch on fire which was a few minutes of, “All right, my amp’s on fire.” Then it was like, “Oh shit, my amp’s on fire!” But we’ve had all

kinds of crazy moments, some of which aren’t fit to print.

Q: Some people might have thought you were channeling Hendrix when your amp was on fire…

A: That’s right, it just wasn’t intentional. {laughs}

Q: Being that you perform live so often, how do you approach each new concert? And do you think there’s a dynamic between the band and the audience that kind of guides how the evening will go?

A: A lot of time I think there is. With our audience with my group and the Allman Brothers, there’s an expectation that things will be different from night to night so that keeps us on our toes. And I think as an improviser at heart you always want to change things, whether it’s subtly different or obviously different. Every solo you take you really do try to reinvent the wheel and you rarely completely succeed, but when you do, it’s those moments that really make it worthwhile.

Q: Soulive was in town recently and I know you jam with them on occasion and have also sat in and jammed with quite a few other people on the music scene outside of your core bands. Do you enjoy getting out and seeing what other people are up to and bouncing ideas off of your contemporaries?

A: It’s a small world of touring musicians and there are some people you just have great chemistry with. We’ve been playing with Soulive for years and they’re one of those bands that we always look forward to sharing the stage with. I think bands of that caliber that are new and doing new things, you kind of feed off of that energy and it makes you get on top of your game a little bit more. I do think it’s a very symbiotic relationship with bands like that because it makes you focus that much harder and I think it works both ways.

Q: A lot of music purists gripe about the music scene today, but if you really do look, there are a lot of bands like the Derek Trucks Band out there that are still keeping it real. What’s your take on the modern music scene?

A: Somewhere in the middle. I do think that there were eras that were producing more original and more meaningful music than there is now. But there is music out there if you look for it. The whole record and radio industry at this point is certainly not set up for legit music and most of the stuff that is getting thrown in front of people is complete bullshit. I think that’s always been the case to some extent, but when I think about musicians like Sam Cooke or Jackie Wilson or just some of those great pop acts, they were geniuses at what they do. I don’t see that a lot these days and when I see what I think is a great musician or what I think is borderline genius, I usually don’t see a lot of hype around it. The stuff that you do see hyped is pretty shallow and I think a lot of that is that music is really image driven and it’s kind of celebrity first these days, and depth and talent second and third…maybe. But there is music out there and there is a scene out there and I think with digital music and the record industry kind of failing, it’s going to be upside down for a minute and there’s no telling how it’s going to turn out. I really do think it’s a time of uncertainty in the music industry, but I think that could be a good thing in the long run.

Q: From a musician’s standpoint, have you noticed a distinct transition into the digital age?

A: When Already Free came out it debuted at No. 19 on the Billboard charts, which 10 to 15 years ago would have meant we were well on our way to a gold record and that’s just not the case anymore. Nineteen on the Billboard charts just ain’t what it used to be; people just aren’t buying as many albums and that’s just fact. We’ve never been a band that lived by record sales; it’s always been tour, tour, tour. With our hardcore fans that

have always supported us and kept us going, I don’t see that changing.

Q: What are some of your long-term plans or goals with the ABB and the DTB?

A: I feel like the next few years, especially having kids, I’m going to have to force some time off and make myself be around. I’d like to do a band with my wife to start from scratch and that’s definitely high on the agenda. And with the ABB, it’s their 41st year on the road and we’re going to be slowing down touring next year and that works out really well with the things I want to do at home recording in the studio. So there’s a ton of projects that I have in the back of my mind that will finally see the light of day.

Q: A lot of people are into your sound, but what are the three albums off the top of your head that’d be your desert island albums?

A: It really would shift from month to month, but there’s an Ali Akbar Khan disc called Signature Series Volume II that I think is really a slate cleaner for me when I get back to the root. Sly Stone’s Fresh; I’ve just been listening to that so much lately and I think that would be on the list. And No. 3, maybe {Miles Davis’} Kind of Blue. I think all three of those would be medicine if I was on an island. A week from now it might be a different three, so I’d be screwed if I was already on the island. {laughs}

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Derek Trucks Band's "Sweet Inspiration"

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hitting double figures in years, you're destined to get the "he's got an old soul" tag at some point. Trucks, now 30, has always seemed to wear it more comfortably than most, though, and justified it by dodging precocity's pitfalls. From hitting the road with The Allman Brothers Band at 11 on through, he's carried himself—on stage, on record, in interviews—in a way that belies his youth, and his interests and thoughts run deep. It fits, then, that the centerpiece of Already Free, the latest release from the Derek Trucks Band, is old soul—specifically, the Dan Penn-Spooner Oldham cowrite "Sweet Inspiration," a gospel-soul gem originally taken to the charts by, appropriately enough, The Sweet Inspirations (a group led by Cissy Houston, mother of Whitney). The song has also been recorded by The Supremes, Rita Coolidge and Wilson Pickett, among others, and you can find a particularly handsome version by the authors on the live album Moments From This Theatre. And, in at least one case, it's proven to be an enduring wedding song. The Independent Weekly talked with Trucks about his take on "Sweet Inspiration" and his approach to honoring the works and memories of others.

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INDEPENDENT WEEKLY: What elements do you look for in a song that you didn't write but want to record? DEREK TRUCKS: You know, a lot of times, just like any fan of music, it's a song that gets stuck in your head and a song that you feel—well, not necessarily that you can add to it because sometimes songs are perfect as-is and you just want to play them—but something you feel you can interpret well. Maybe take a different angle on it. Or maybe just a song that's laid dormant for a while and people don't know as well as they should,

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kind of bring it out to see the light of day for a little while. What was it about "Sweet Inspiration," specifically? The song "Sweet Inspiration" was actually recommended to the band. We were on tour with Santana, opening two or three weeks of shows. He was really great to the band and me, always have us in his dressing room and play music for us and be excited about what we were doing. Really positive. He kept playing that track and

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saying, "I hear you guys playing this song. I hear you guys recording this song. Maybe have your wife [blues/soul artist Susan Tedeschi] on it." We had just finished our record, but maybe had two or three days left before we hit the road again. We just got off the Santana tour, so I figured the least we could do when Carlos

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recommends a tune is hack away at it. [Laughs.] So we went in there and recorded the track, and it felt great. It was one of the easiest songs to record, and it was just a really natural fit with the band. Our first record on

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Columbia, Joyful Noise, has that great gospel tune, and "I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel to be Free)," the song we did on Songlines—we really didn't have anything like that on this record. So "Sweet Inspiration" was kind of a perfect fit. It really just fell in. But I wasn't familiar with that song until he [Santana] played it. Which recording of the song did he play? The Sweet Inspirations version. The version we did isn't too different from that. I've heard a bunch of versions since, but something about that one really felt right, and it has that spirit, you know? That offers a nice segue: After you've decided on a song you want to cover, how do you approach the arrangement and the balance between staying true to what you feel is the spirit of the song and at the same time putting your stamp on it? With this tune—with a lot of tunes—you figure out what is the essential element, what is the whole song going to be tethered to. With this song, I felt like it was that guitar riff; that intro and that Pops Staples-sounding guitar was kind of the body of it. So I had Yonrico [Scott], our drummer, and Count M'Butu, the percussionist, just play rhythm with me on shakers, and I just went out and played my guitar track from top to bottom, just percussion and guitar. And then we built the rest of the track on top of it, so it had a nice base, you know? I ended up playing drum kit on this song, the only time I've ever played drums on a record. [Laughs.] It was feeling good to me, so I jumped on there, and Todd [Smallie] played bass with me. We really built this one from the ground up, which we don't often. It's a lot of fun.

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Derek Trucks Band's "Sweet Inspiration": Derek Trucks on inspirations sweet and soulful, Bob & Mavis, and the tragic final da... Page 2 of 2

In a live setting, the hierarchy of what you hear is pretty static: The drums are going to be where they are, the bass is going to be where it is, the guitar is going to be where it is. In the studio, you can really drive a track with a shaker, something that generally just gets lost in the mix. It's fun in the studio sometimes to build a song inside out or bottom up. You can really alter the feel of a track. I think when you listen to some of those great Motown records, you start noticing that sometimes it's a tambourine that kind of drives the whole song, and that would never happen in a live setting. It's a different beast. With a soul song like this, we really tried to approach it like some of the old studios would approach it. That one was a lot of fun to do that way. I really like the arrangement, and I know exactly what you mean about the Pops Staples guitar. When you hear a track of him playing in that realm, it's just so instantly him. On the Staple Singers version of "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall," it's that guitar for seven and a half minutes, and not a wasted second. Yeah, they were on fire for a while. I've heard some great stories about Bob Dylan being absolutely in love with Mavis. I think he actually asked her to marry him. [Laughs.] He was gung ho, and she was like, "Bob, this ain't going to work. It'll ruin your career and mine." [Laughs.] He wanted him a soul singer. I understand. Anything more to add about your drumming? This record, having a studio in the backyard and doing it at home and producing myself and ourselves as a band, we just felt a lot freer to experiment. I was hearing a drum part, and instead of trying to explain it, I just— I think Susan and Bobby Tis, who was engineering, and Yonrico were in the control room—and I said, "Just roll the tape. I'll play it down," not realizing they were tracking it. It was, "That's it. We're done!" So it was kind of spur of the moment. Originally, I thought I was just showing them the part I was hearing, but as they let the track continue to play, I thought maybe they were recording it. So it was a low-pressure situation. I am proud to say it was one take. [Laughs.] So you've got that to fall back on if the whole guitar thing doesn't work out. Yeah, as long as there are no drum fills involved. Have you ever heard from an artist whose song you covered, either live or on record, and had a conversation about your take on the song? You know, most of the songs we've covered—there are some exceptions—but a lot of them are songwriters that are long gone. When we did "Volunteer Slavery," the Rahsaan Roland Kirk tune, Rahsaan's widow, Dorthaan, who has a great radio show at WBGO, the great jazz station up in New York, she sought the band out and was really happy that a younger band was recording Rahsaan's music. She gave us a lot of positive feedback, so that was nice. We've had people from the estates come out. When we did the Son House tune "Preachin' Blues" on our first or second record, Dick Waterman, who was Son House's manager and the guy who kind of rediscovered him, he came out and shared some pretty good words. He reminded us that when you do cover tunes, it's important to think about who you're covering, and that it does help out the widows of underappreciated artists. Like when Clapton did "I'm So Glad," the Skip James tune, I think it was the biggest payday his widow ever got. When she heard it, it was like, "That's not Skip's tune. What did you do to it? But thanks for the check." [Laughs.] It hit me. Occasionally, we do songs from people who are known. Like when you do a Dylan tune, he doesn't need the favor. But when you do a song like a Rahsaan Roland Kirk tune or a Son House tune, something kind of underground, it's out of a sense of this is an artist we love who we think is underappreciated. When we did the Paul Pena tune, it was very much that. We became friends with him and love the guy and thought they were great songs that no one knew. Which one of your songs would you love to hear someone cover, and who would that person be? You know, one of my favorite tunes on the record is "Back Where I Started," the one that me and Warren [Haynes] wrote and that Susan sang. She did such a good job on it. I think she kind of closed the book on that one. It would be great to hear someone else do it, but I'm happy with that version. I'd have to think about that. There are a few songs on the record that I really dug. "Don't Miss Me," I like that tune. I could almost hear Little Feat or somebody covering a tune like that. I sort of had an extra reason for wanting to talk about your cover of "Sweet Inspiration": Friends of friends in New Orleans lost most everything during Katrina and their wedding song was "Sweet Inspiration." They lost their copy of the record in the flood. Ever since, my friends have been finding versions of the song for them. And now we have yours to pass along... That's very cool. They've recovered pretty well? Yes, I think they have, thanks. The amount of crazy stories I've heard from my people I've known. Gatemouth Brown, the way he went out was just tragic. He had basically a museum in New Orleans, all of his old memorabilia. He was sick at the time and pretty much on his deathbed, and one of those last days he heard that all of his shit was gone, wiped out. And within a day or two, he passed. Such a sad, sad story. He'd been there forever. Like Professor Longhair before him and Fats Domino, who's still around, those guys encompass the spirit of that place. The Derek Trucks Band is at the Carolina Theatre on Friday, Oct. 30. The show starts at 8 p.m., and tickets range from $34-$39. Add to the discussion

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Published: 2009/11/04

Derek Trucks Band Announces Hiatus

Current Issue Details

Archive

Kreutzmann, TLG and Umphrey’s McGee Among Las Tortugas Highlights

Photo by Rick Martinez Derek Trucks Band will take a break from touring in 2010. A note from the band reads, “After 16 years of relentless touring, a fantastic 2009 that featured the release of Already Free and a World Tour that

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brought the band to more than a dozen countries on four continents, The Derek Trucks Band is taking a hiatus in 2010. There are still a

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number of DTB dates scheduled throughout November and

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December of 2009.” Hot Buttered Rum and The Motet Confirm Joint New While off the road, the Derek Trucks Band will release a live CD

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culling highlights from the band’s Already Free Tour. The release will be the band’s first live album since 2004’s Live At Georgia Theatre .

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With the Allman Brothers Band scaling back its tour schedule in

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2010 as well, Trucks is expected to focus on a new group with his wife Susan Tedeschi (which like their Soul Stew Revival may well

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include members of the DTB), among other projects. Derek Trucks Band Dates November 4 Stroudsburg, PA — Sherman Theatre (MiZ Support) November 5 New London, CT — Garde Arts Center (Jaimoe’s

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Derek Trucks Band will take a break from touring in 2010. A note from the band reads, “After 16 years of relentless touring, a fantastic 2009 that featured the release of Already Free and a World Tour that brought the band to more than a dozen countries on four continents, The Derek Trucks Band is taking a hiatus in 2010. There are still a number of DTB dates scheduled throughout November and December of 2009.”

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While off the road, the Derek Trucks Band will release a live CD culling highlights from the band’s Already Free Tour. The release will be the band’s first live album since 2004’s Live At Georgia Theatre . With the Allman Brothers Band scaling back its tour schedule in 2010 as well, Trucks is expected to focus on a new group with his wife Susan Tedeschi (which like their Soul Stew Revival may well include members of the DTB), among other projects. Derek Trucks Band Dates

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November 4 Stroudsburg, PA — Sherman Theatre (MiZ Support) November 5 New London, CT — Garde Arts Center (Jaimoe’s Jasssz Band Supports) November 6 Rutland, VT Paramount Theatre November 7 Montreal, QC — Métropolis (Dawn & Paul Support) November 10 Charlottesville, VA Old Cabell Hall (Univ. of Virginia) December 2 Atlanta, GA — Variety Playhouse (Col. Bruce & The Quark Alliance Support) December 3 Atlanta, GA — Variety Playhouse (Tinsley Ellis Supports) December 4 Mobile, AL — (Col. Bruce & The Quark Alliance Support) December 5 Macon, GA Fly South Music Festival December 6 Tampa, FL — The Ritz Ybor (Col. Bruce & The Quark Alliance Support) December 10 New York, NY — Skirball Center For The Performing Arts (Shannon McNally Supports) December 11 Peekskill, NY — Paramount Center (Shannon McNally Supports) December 12 Westhampton Beach, NY — Westhampton Beach PAC December 13 Albany, NY — The Egg (Shannon McNally Supports) Comments Only registered users can write comments. Please login or register. Powered by AkoComment 2.0!

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Guitar master Derek Trucks comes to the Paramount

Derek Trucks will perform at 8 p.m. Friday at the Paramount Theatre in Rutland.

By Josh O'Gorman STAFF WRITER - Published: November 5, 2009 After spending more than half of his life on the road, slide-guitar master Derek Trucks is going to take a break, but before he does he and his band are tearing up venues up and down the East Coast. "Knowing we're going into some time off, we're really making the most of these shows," Trucks said following a show in Durham, N.C., the first night of a 17-date tour that will come to the Paramount Theatre on Friday night. Trucks has certainly earned the time off. The 30-year-old first took the stage at the age of 9, by the time he was 15 had formed the core of the Derek Trucks Band, and since 1999 he's divided his time between his group and the Allman Brothers Band. Trucks was also 15 when he first sat in with Bob Dylan, author of "Down in the Flood," the first track on Trucks' newest album "Already Free." While Dylan's version, recorded with the Band, is a bouncy affair, Trucks' take on the song is like a house on fire: a slow-smoldering start that builds to a blinding, burning inferno showcasing his staggering slide-guitar skills. "Part of it is musically, we're able to play this music we enjoy and believe in," Trucks said of the title of the album, which he recorded in the studio he built on the Jacksonville, Fla., homestead he shares with his wife, singer-songwriter Susan Tedeschi. "I was able to step back, after 10 or 15 years, and realize things are good." Things have been good for Trucks, at least in terms of critical acclaim. Rolling Stone magazine

called Trucks one of the top 100 guitarists of all time – the youngest person to make the list – and featured him on the cover of its 2007 "Young Guitar Gods" issue. Ten years ago, he joined the Allman Brothers Band and breathed new life into a band that had been on the road – on and off – for 30 years, and this spring's 40th anniversary run of 15 shows at the Beacon Theatre in New York City – collected in a 47-disk box set – showcased a band not wallowing in nostalgia but invigorated and innovative. But with both the Allman Brothers and Trucks' band taking a break next year, this tour will be the last chance – for a while anyway – to hear his hair-raising blend rock, blues and gospel and to see a musician whose fret work draws flattering comparisons to the Allman's original guitarist, Duane Allman. "We've been gigging for 250 shows a year, so it will be nice to spend some time with our families," said Trucks, whose family plans include both quality time with his children and recording with Tedeschi. But for this ax-carrying slide-wielding road warrior, the siren's call of the stage might prove to be too much. "I doubt I'll be able to stay home for long. Two or three weeks, I'll be itching to get out there," he said. Friday's show at the Paramount Theatre starts at 8 p.m. and tickets range from $27.50 to $42.50. For tickets or more information, call the Paramount box office at 775-0903 or visit www.paramountvt.org. [email protected]

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Trucks driving in to Stamford's Palace Posted on 10/29/2009 email | print | link to this article STAMFORD By KEITH LORIA Hour Correspondent Derek Trucks' musical career began at the age of 9 when he picked up a guitar at a garage sale for $5 and, in a course of a year, was well on his way to becoming a guitar prodigy. His uncle Butch was a founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, so it was no surprise when Derek followed in his footsteps to become a musician. "When I was 14 or 15, I started to become serious, but I had already been sitting in at blues clubs playing," he says. "I think great music serves the same purpose that church is supposed to for a lot of people. It's one of the few things that takes you to another place and is a powerful thing." Today, the Derek Trucks Band is considered one of the best live bands out there, blending blues, rock and jazz with other world music influences to create a style all their own. The current lineup consists of Trucks on guitar, Mike Mattison on vocals, Count M'Butu on percussion, Todd Smallie on bass, Yonrico Scott on drums and Kofi Burbridge on keyboards. "The band was a work in progress, always keeping your eyes and ears open, trying to find the right guys," Trucks says. "You need to look for that chemistry and that something special. It's a talented group of guys." Being on stage comes naturally to Trucks and the band. For him, there's nowhere else he would rather be. "We try to start from scratch every tour and it's almost a night-to-night thing with choosing what tunes we are going to play," Trucks says. "Everyone is really versatile and it's a throwback in that there's no tricks; it's just musicians standing there and hopefully meaning what they are doing." Known for their great improvisational performances, the Derek Trucks Band will sound different every time you see them. "I think you can really access a lot of human emotion that is really obvious to people and there are other emotions you can access through the music that you don't know exist. There are always revelations every night and that's what keeps improvisational music really fresh," he says. "You see musicians baring their souls every night and I think you stumble across something. It's like real life and there can be real magic." The Derek Trucks Band will be playing the Palace Theatre in Stamford on Oct. 31, and they are thinking of planning something special for the Halloween holiday. "Whether it's costumes or styling the stage out, Halloween is always a fun night," he says. "Years ago we did a concert in Jacksonville on Halloween and the band just went all out with costumes and we were the only ones dressed up. But we've been talking about something for Stamford." The band self-produced their latest album "Already Free" at Trucks' home studio in Jacksonville, Fla. "I've been a part of making enough records that I felt we could do it ourselves, plus we had just built this great studio so it was an excuse to be home, which is a real treat," Trucks says. "I was able to take time to write music and be home with my wife and kids for a while, so it was kind of like a working vacation. You can feel that on the record, because it's very relaxed." For Trucks, it's not about how many records the band sells, but about giving the fans something special. "We don't live or die by selling records, it's about playing live in front of an audience with real instruments and that will never change," Trucks says. "I have had incredible fortune so far and I don't have the desire for a huge radio hit or success on that level." Named by Rolling Stone as one of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All

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Time," it's no surprise that one of Trucks' best known singles "Young Funk" is included on the most recent edition of "Guitar Hero." He calls the inclusion an honor, and jokes that he knew that "eventually they would run out of songs and come calling." As for the future, Trucks would love to form a band with his wife, vocalist Susan Tedeschi, and get more use out of that home studio. "I have a new studio with 1,000 ideas and projects I would love to be part of," he says. "There's so much on the plate, but keeping live music -- and music with integrity -- alive is the only real mission." COMMENTING RULES: We encourage an open exchange of ideas in The Stamford Times community, but we ask you to follow our guidelines. Basically, be civil, smart, on-topic and free from profanity. Don't say anything you wouldn't want your mother to read! And remember: We may miss some, so we need your help to police these comments. Please identify the comment, the story and why you think it's objectionable. Read the commenting guidelines Add a new comment

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Derek Trucks reflects that life is pretty good at 30 years old By Mark Bialczak/The Post-Standard October 29, 2009, 5:38AM

Provided photoThe Derek Trucks Band is, from left to right, Yonrico Scott, Mike Mattison, Trucks, Kofi Burbridge, Todd Smallie and Count M'Butu. Ask Derek Trucks what he thought when he turned 30 earlier this year, and you get one of those chuckle-sighs that has anguish, humor, resignation and determination all battling it out. The blues-rock guitarist says he experienced an ah-ha moment. “It’s the first time I’ve ever really stopped and gone holy ... that went quick,” says the former teenage prodigy, who brings The Derek Trucks Band for a Sunday night show at the Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater in Syracuse. “Starting (in the business) at a young age, it’s always about your age,” he explains. “When you hit 30, you’re like, ‘That was a long time ago.’ It’s a brave new world.” The landmark birthday introspection reveals a wholly satisfying life for the nephew of Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks. “As long as you’re plugging away and doing what you think you’re supposed to do, you can really deal with the realm of expectations,”

Trucks says. “If you look at where I was at 15 and 20 and 25, I’m pretty pumped. I feel good about it. I’ve had more opportunities than I would have thought.” For more than a decade, Trucks has been able to join uncle Butch in the Allman Brothers. He’s played alongside Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson and Buddy Guy. His band opened for a Santana tour. And Trucks is in a great place with his personal life as he and his blues-singer wife, Susan Tedeschi, raise 5-year-old daughter Sophia and 7-year-old son Charlie on a three-acre spread outside of Jacksonville, Fla. He and his band —Todd Smallie on bass, Yonrico Scott on drums, Kofi Burbridge on keyboard, Mike Mattison on vocals and Count M’Butu on percussion — recorded this year’s CD, “Already Free,” in a studio Trucks and Tedeschi built in their backyard. “Just being home with our kids and my wife and waking up in the same bed every day was absolutely unique to me,” he says of the recording process. “It was also nice to not have to worry about how much it cost a day in the studio,” Trucks says. “We could experiment a lot. You feel you could go in and create.” The CD earned very nice reviews. “You probably won’t hear a better rock/R&B record this year,” said the Boston Globe. Yes, Trucks says, the title fits quite nicely into his feelings and reflections. “It was the first song that me and Mike (Mattison) wrote and recorded in the studio, even before we knew we were going to make a record,” Trucks says. “That song happened in a hour or two. (‘Already Free’) was the sentiment. You get so involved in what you’re doing and your life and running and grinding. You forget what’s in front of your face and what you’re going after. Things are pretty good if you choose to look at it that way.” Trucks says he’s proud of the way he and Tedeschi both have managed to keep the children as their top priority.

“I’ve seen so many broken families. We vowed from the beginning, that wasn’t an option.’’ Sophia and Charlie go to a public school in Jacksonville, he says, and he and Tedeschi schedule their separate tours to make sure one of them is at home. Trucks’ family is nearby, too, offering plenty of babysitting help. “Everybody lives within 10 or 20 miles. It’s like a village,” he says. Trucks chuckles again when asked whether the offspring of two famous musicians are interested in music. Charlie is totally into sports right now, the proud dad says. Sophia, he says, takes after her mom. “She’s always picking up a little acoustic guitar we keep in the living room,” he says. “And there’s a piano in the studio. Anything that makes a noise. “And both my kids have great taste in music so far, which is thrilling to me,” Trucks says. They so far are old school. They listen to Billy Preston and Bobbie Womack and Stevie Wonder and John Coltrane. “It’s nice,” he says. “I know there’ll be a time when there’s some awful new kids band or new pop song on the radio that they love.” Not yet. What: The Derek Trucks Band in concert. Los Blancos open. When: 8 p.m. Sunday. Where: Crouse-Hinds Concert Theater in John H. Mulroy Civic Center. Tickets: $39.50 and $29.50. Available at the Oncenter box office, Ticketmaster outlets, www.ticketmaster.com, and by phone charge at 435-2121. To hear a song bite: A bite from “Sweet Inspiration,” from Trucks’ 2009 CD “Already Free,” is on another entry at www.blog.syracuse.com/listenup/. Mark Bialczak can be reached at 470-2175 and [email protected]. His Listen Up blog is at http://blog.syracuse.com/listenup/.

Keep on truckin' Richard Burnett On the road with guitar ace Derek Trucks The pedigree of Derek Trucks is impeccable: Born 30 years ago, Trucks was, indirectly, named after his "uncles" Duane Allman and Eric Clapton, who combined their first names to fashion one of the greatest blues-rock bands of all time, Derek and The Dominoes. By the time Derek was 11 years old, the child prodigy - today hailed as the greatest slide guitarist alive - had already toured with the The Allman Brothers Band, which was co-founded by his uncle and the band's drummer, Butch Trucks. "I was [also] on tour with my own group then and I was sitting in with different bands, with Buddy Guy and Bob Dylan," Trucks says today. "I didn't feel pressure, it came naturally. My parents Trucks: No regrets about that busted tail were not [showbiz] parents - they weren't living out their photo: Michael Schmelling dreams through me. In fact, I was still playing little league baseball at the time. It [all] felt strangely normal." But not all kids can call blues legend B.B. King their personal Santa Claus. "B.B., [when I was] nine or 10 years old, was like Santa Claus - a mythical character. Sometimes you meet your idols and it's a total letdown. Then you meet B.B. and Willie Nelson and they are gracious and humble. Some of my favourite old bluesmen are long gone now - Freddie King, Son House, Bukka White, John Lee Hooker, Little Milton. "I still feel incredibly fortunate to have the job I have," says Trucks, currently touring to promote his critically hailed new album, Already Free. He is now a father himself with two kids of his own (Trucks is married to blues singer Susan Tedeschi). "My dad was a roofer and my mom worked in a public school. You bust your tail for something you believe in. I feel lucky to wake up and play music." The Derek Trucks Band w/ Dawn Tyler Watson and Paul Deslauriers At Métropolis (59 Ste-Catherine E.), Nov. 7

by Michael Lello Weekender Editor

STROUDSBURG — Nearly 1,000 music fans made their way into the Sherman Theater Wednesday night with Derek Trucks on their minds. And while Trucks did not disappoint, they walked out of the show with another name on their minds, too: Miz. The local band, led by guitarist and vocalist Mike Mizwinski, delivered a message that it has the chops and the songs to hang with anyone —including a musician who might be the best guitarist alive — during a standout one-hour set that touched on jamming pop rock, bluegrass and acoustic soul and earned several standing ovations. Miz — Mizwinski, Alan Hanczyc (bass) and A.J. Jump (drums) — was fortunate to land such a gig as well as the generous one-hour slot, and it made the best of the opportunity. The group, which displayed a keen ability to jam without wearing out its welcome, opened with “Dopesick,” a gently rollicking reggae-esque tune. Mizwinski, whose tone closely resembles Trey Anastasio’s, took a tasteful solo. “Slow You Go” was sunny and funkier, with Jump throwing in some subtle cymbal work during the bridge. Mizwinski switched to an acoustic guitar for the pretty “Wink,” the delicate and moody “Casket,” which had a Medieval-ish introduction and some nifty tempo shifts, and “Was a Time.” Mizwinksi, back on electric, stretched out with some Eric Clapton-inspired blues-rock licks on “Red House.” Hanczyc, as he did throughout the set, held down the bottom end with authority. “New Morning Sky,” which has some serious pop appeal, and the jazzy “Time for Time” wrapped things up. The table was set for Trucks, whose raw talent is jaw-dropping. His songs, however, which fall into the blues and world music/jazz categories, are not for everyone. In fact, on Wednesday night it seemed that Miz’s style was more in tune with the crowd, which is quite remarkable considering most people in the nearly soldout crowd of 834 had never heard of the band before. If you took the time to listen intently, though, the DTB, and Trucks specifically, are a dynamic force that can go from a whisper to a scream in the course of a song. Trucks’ Latin-tinged “Kam-ma-lay” was an early set highlight, and the guitarist, who tends to stand in one spot during his Allman Brothers Band shows, was quite animated throughout. The 30-year-old positively tore into the John Coltrane arrangement of the jazz standard “Afro Blue,” and on “Joyful Noise,” from the band’s 2002 album of the same name, he played scratchy rhythms while Kofi Burbridge took organ leads.

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Derek Trucks plays Stamford Palace CAR HOME JOB RENTAL

Derek Trucks explores his roots on HIS latest disc

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Derek Trucks had always been planted in the Southern rock tradition of his most obvious influence, the Allman Brothers Band.

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But over the course of his last five studio albums, the slide guitar prodigy set his sights well beyond the swamps of his native Florida.

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For evidence, listen to 2002's "Joyful Noise," a record with splashes of salsa, fusion jazz and Eastern Indian, a style Trucks explored through his training on the sarod, a lute used in classical Indian music. On subsequent albums, he continued to dabble in the exotic, layering reggae, afrobeat and even Muslim qawwali onto his aesthetic foundation.

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But on his band's new release, "Already Free" (Legacy Recordings), the Jacksonville, Fla., native has made a triumphant return to his Southern seeds. A record of soulful, Southern rockers, bluesy ballads and funk-infused jams, "Already Free" is arguably Trucks' purest and most honest record to date. Trucks, who will perform with his band at Stamford's Palace Theatre on Saturday, attributes the straightforward feel of the album to "a sense that I don't have to prove anything.

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"When I first started out, I was being lumped in with all these blues guitarists, so I tried to intentionally set myself apart," said Trucks, referring to the motivation for his "sometimes uncomfortable" experiments in genre ambiguity. "We had already done that, so with this record, we just kind of wrote what came to mind. It didn't feel forced." Unlike the rest of Trucks' catalog, there is a relaxed, homegrown vibe that permeates "Already Free." Probably because the album was created at home -- literally, in a studio built as an addition to Trucks' Jacksonville abode -- and stars many of Trucks' friends and family, including his wife, singer Susan Tedeschi.

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"People were constantly coming by the studio, so we just kept the tape rolling," Trucks recalled. Having a home studio also has been a boon to Trucks' family life. On tour with the Allman Brothers Band and recording since the age of 10, Trucks has had little time to be at home with his wife -- who is also frequently on the road -- and his two young children, Charles Khalil and Sophia Naima. Now, balancing career and family has become much more feasible. "(Touring) is just what you do, but once you have a family, you can't be traveling constantly," Trucks said during an interview last week from Nashville, one of the first stops on a seasonlong East Coast tour. "I needed to be at home more. Having a studio was a logical move." Of the 12 tracks on the 55-minute album, Trucks is most enamored by "Back Where I Started," a song featuring Tedeschi on vocals. Over a warm acoustic guitar melody and banjo inflections, Tedeschi croons, "How did I get back to where I started? / I'm so glad I found you there, yes I'm so glad / I found you there," perhaps suggesting a more permanent reunion for the couple, who first met during the Allman Brothers Band's 1999 Summer Tour. "I love that track," he said. "It just feels good." As always, Trucks will be joined on the Palace Theatre stage by his longtime bandmates, Kofi Burbridge, Yonrico Scott, Todd Smallie, Mike Mattison and Count Mbutu, all of whom play prominent roles on "Already Free." In the past, Trucks said he often felt pressured to produce guitar-driven records -- no surprise, given his craftsmanship on the six-string. Now at the production helm of his own studio, Trucks decided on "a change of pace. "Whenever we were doing records before, the producers made sure there were lots of guitars," said Trucks, ranked 81st on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time." "But my natural inclination was to think about guitar leads last. I was more concerned with the rhythm and feel -- the song structure -- first." That approach works well for the members of DTB, each of whom adds his own distinct flavors to the band's rich musical stew. However, Trucks made sure to take a subtle approach with the group's eclecticism and the result is a much more cohesive offering. On the back cover of "Already Free," Trucks includes a quote from Ali Akbar Khan, in which the classical Indian musician talks about "a stream of music" flowing throughout the world. It's a lesson that teaches "respect for the legacy and the craft," a maxim Trucks has continued to follow, whether he's embracing the world outside or bringing it back on home. "There is a certain weight and gravity to what we do," Trucks explained. "You should treat it with humility and respect. Once the torch is past, it's important to keep it lit." The Derek Trucks Band performs 9 p.m. Saturday at the Palace Theatre, 61 Atlantic St., Stamford. $25-$49.50. 203-3582305, www.scalive.org.

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