Derek Trucks Makes His Guitar Sing
By: Susan Van Dongen
Less interested in guitar pyrotechnics than making his instrument sing, the prodigiously talented Derek Trucks was inspired by great tenor saxophone players like John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. The best wind players know that one of the goals is to emulate the human voice and it’s easy enough to "sing" through the horn. But guitar is trickier.
"That whole Blue Note time period, the straight ahead music was a big influence on me and the guys in the band," says the nomadic Mr. Trucks, speaking from a stop on the road, where he lives for about 300 days out of the year.
In addition, it was a recording by sacred-steel guitarist Aubrey Ghent that led to a stylistic breakthrough for Mr. Trucks.
"For the first eight measures of ‘Amazing Grace,’ I swore it was a woman singing," he says in a Feb. 2007 interview with Rolling Stone. "Then I heard the noise of the pick, and it blew my mind."
The Feb. 22 issue of the venerable rock magazine, which just celebrated its 40th anniversary, named Mr. Trucks one of the new "guitar gods," and featured him on the cover, along with John Mayer and John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The cover story suggests that, thanks to Mr. Trucks’ natural gifts and the innovations he’s made in his years of touring and playing, he’s taken a place in the pantheon of celebrated musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman and Jimmy Page. In addition, when Rolling Stone ran its special issue on The Top 100 Guitarists of All Time, the 27-year old Mr. Trucks was the youngest on the list.
When asked if life has changed since he was named an avatar of the ax, Mr. Trucks chuckles and says he takes things like this with a grain of salt.
"You don’t put too much weight into it," he says. "You really have to stay focused on what you do or you could go crazy worrying about what everyone is saying."
Still riding high from a year that included touring with the Allman Brothers and Clapton, Mr. Trucks and the Derek Trucks Band will roll into Princeton May 23 for a jamfest at McCarter Theatre. The band features a gifted quintet of talent Kofi Burbridge on keyboard, Todd Smallie on bass, Yonrico Scott on drums, Count M’Butu on congas and percussion and Mike Mattison on lead vocals. The chemistry in the ensemble is obvious, a result of heavy touring and fearless improvisation. Known for its outstanding live performances, the DTB is supporting its 2006 release Songlines (Legacy Recordings) as well the DVD release Songlines Live (Sony Music Video).
Mr. Trucks, considered a prodigy by some, has been fronting his namesake group since age 11 and began playing at age 9 when he picked up an acoustic guitar for $5 at a yard sale.
"It was nothing special," he says. "It was just the only thing that looked interesting. But things happened pretty quick."
After learning what he could from his father and a family friend, Mr. Trucks began playing with other musicians around his hometown. Within a year, he had purchased an instrument, learned how to play and began touring, with his father acting as road manager and chaperone.
But Mr. Trucks had another special entrée into the world of blues/rock/roots music his uncle Butch Trucks was (and is) the drummer for the Allman Brothers Band. The band was impressed enough to sit in with young Derek when he was playing a concert in South Florida in 1989. Mr. Trucks said that introduction or blessing from one of the first and best jam bands opened the door for him to become part of the whole "jam family." In 1999, Mr. Trucks was asked to join the Allman Brothers Band, taking over slide guitar duty.
He’s been on the road most of his life but seems to savor it. Mr. Trucks makes touring with three different bands while balancing his marriage to Susan Tedeschi and raising two children look easy.
"This year, there have been so many amazing opportunities," he says. "You just can’t turn down touring with Eric Clapton. There’s also been my band and the Allman Brothers. I’ve just been trying to make it all work. It’s been an incredible run.
"The children have changed my life in obvious ways your responsibility factor goes way up and touring takes on a completely new life," he adds. "You can’t just go when and wherever you want. But I knew I was going to be on tour a lot and so you find creative ways to make it work. On the Clapton tour, they’d fly the family out, all over the globe. When you get thrown into (touring and parenting) early, it’s either sink or swim."
In case fans are having déjà vu wait, wasn’t Mr. Trucks in Central New Jersey just recently? it might be because he and Ms. Tedeschi played a benefit concert in Princeton in Oct. 2006.
"The people at McCarter have been really good to the band," Mr. Trucks says. "They’ve had us in there quite a few times. We spend a lot of time in the area, there’s a lot of support for the band as well as for the Allmans."
The DTB’s roots are distinct in the breadth and scope of Songlines, which premieres several new compositions including the Hammond organ-driven "I’ll Find My Way" and hypnotic instrumental "Mahjoun." The CD also acknowledges a wide range of influences, including avant-garde jazz artists such as Rahsaan Roland Kirk, acoustic slide blues, Pakistani Qawwali music and Jamaican reggae. It’s also obvious on Songlines that Mr. Trucks has been listening to Indian music. He took some courses from sarod master Ali Akbar Khan, sometimes called "The Indian Johann Sebastian Bach," at Khan’s College of Music in San Rafael, Calif.
"I’ve listened to a lot of his recordings but I can’t say I actually studied too hard, that would be (insulting) to his serious students," Mr. Trucks says. "But I’ve listened to a lot of Indian classical music as well as all kinds of world music. I think it’s important to find the common threads musically, and there are quite a few of them. Certain motifs and certain sounds coincide with conditions that are universal, and it’s a nice way to tie things together.
"One of the things I took away from Ali Akbar Khan’s (instruction) was that he makes all of his instrumentalists take vocal classes first," he adds. "He makes you learn to sing melodies first before he’ll teach you to play them."
The title for the DTB’s latest CD comes from The Songlines by the late British novelist and travel writer Bruce Chatwin who wrote, "In theory, at least, the whole of Australia could be read as a musical score. There was hardly a rock or creek in the country that could not or had not been sung."
It’s the idea that there’s an interlocking network of "lines" or ways through the island nation, and it’s important for the aboriginal people roaming this vast country to remember these, almost as a form of introduction or exchange with their neighbors. Sound and verse connect the Aborigines with their land, their heritage and each other, and Mr. Trucks believes it’s the same with musicians.
"I had just finished reading the book when we went into the studio," Mr. Trucks says. "I liked the theme of it. We’ve been on the road for over a decade so we have a certain musical lineage. We’re like a family. So the book went really well thematically with what we do telling our story through our music."
The Derek Trucks Band will perform at McCarter Theatre’s Matthews Theatre, 91 University Place, Princeton, May 23, 8 p.m. Tickets cost $32-$38; (609) 258-2787; www.mccarter.org. The Derek Trucks Band on the Web: www.derektrucksband.com