Derek Trucks (born June 8, 1979) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and founder of The Derek Trucks Band. He became an official member of The Allman Brothers Band in 1999. In 2010, he formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band with his wife, blues singer/guitarist Susan Tedeschi. His musical style encompasses several genres and he has twice appeared on Rolling Stones list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He is the nephew of the late Butch Trucks, drummer for the Allman Brothers.
Early life
Trucks was born in Jacksonville, Florida. According to Trucks, the name of
Eric Clapton's band,
Derek and the Dominos, had "something to do with the name Derek if not the spelling".
Trucks bought his first guitar at a yard sale for $5 at age nine and became a child prodigy, playing his first paid performance at age 11.
Career
Trucks formed The Derek Trucks Band in 1994, and
by his 20th birthday, he had played with such artists as
Bob Dylan,
Joe Walsh, and
Stephen Stills.
In 1999, he toured as a member of
Phil Lesh & Friends.
After performing with The Allman Brothers Band for several years as a guest musician, Trucks became a formal member of the band in 1999
and appeared on the albums
Peakin' at the Beacon,
Live at the Beacon Theatre,
Hittin' the Note and
One Way Out. In 2006 Trucks began a studio collaboration with JJ Cale and Eric Clapton called
The Road to Escondido and performed with three bands in 17 countries that year.
Trucks was invited to perform at the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival, and after the festival, he toured as part of Clapton's band.
Merging talents
Trucks built a studio in his home in January 2008, which he and his band used to record their album:
Already Free. Trucks and his wife,
Susan Tedeschi, combined their bands to form the Soul Stew Revival in 2007, and performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in June 2008.
In late 2009, Trucks and his band went on hiatus, after which the band dissolved. In 2010, Trucks formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band with his wife.
On January 8, 2014, Trucks announced that he and fellow guitarist
Warren Haynes planned to leave the Allman Brothers Band at the end of 2014.
That band announced its retirement, with Trucks playing as a member through their final show on October 28, 2014, at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
Musical style
Trucks credits guitarist
Duane Allman and bluesman
Elmore James as the two slide guitarists who influenced his early style, but he has since been inspired by John Lee Hooker, Ali Akbar Khan,
Howlin' Wolf,
Albert King,
Miles Davis,
Sun Ra,
John Coltrane,
Charlie Parker,
Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian,
Wayne Shorter,
Toy Caldwell,
Johnny Winter,
Freddie King and B.B. King.
His music is rooted in blues and rock, embracing jam band, Southern rock, and jazz.
Trucks plays guitar in an open E tuning,
In 2006, two vintage (1965 and 1968) Fender Super Reverb amplifiers, a Hammond B-3 organ, two Leslie speaker cabinets, and a Hohner E-7 clavinet were stolen from Trucks and later recovered by the Atlanta Police Department.
Reception
Trucks has appeared twice in
Rolling Stones list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
[MSN City Guide The Derek Trucks Band Allmusic accessdate 2008-08-18][ Rolling Stone The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time 2003-08-27] He was listed as 81st in 2003 and 16th in 2011. A 2006 article in
The Wall Street Journal described him as "the most awe-inspiring electric slide guitar player performing today".
In 2007, Trucks appeared on the cover of
Rolling Stone for an article called the "New Guitar Gods".
Trucks is a creative guitarist according to his uncle, the late Allman Brothers drummer
Butch Trucks: "He never does the same thing twice".
In 2009, Ernest Suarez of
The Washington Post described Trucks' guitar style as "notes and chords that soar, slice, and glide, sounding like a cross between Duane Allman on a '61 Gibson Les Paul and John Coltrane on
tenor sax".
The Derek Trucks Band's album
Already Free debuted at number 19 on the
Billboard Top 200 chart,
and number one on the Internet chart, number four on the rock chart, and number one on the blues chart.
In 2010, The Derek Trucks Band won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album for the album Already Free. In 2012, Trucks and Tedeschi won the Grammy Award for Best Blues Album for the Tedeschi Trucks Band's debut album Revelator.
In September 2012, John Mayer and Derek Trucks joined B.B. King on stage at the Hollywood Bowl for an encore version of B.B.'s song "Guess Who". Concluding the performance, B.B. King made several remarks about Trucks's guitar work, ending with, "That's about as good as I've ever heard it—as good as I've ever heard it, and I mean it".
Personal life
Trucks' late uncle,
Butch Trucks, was a founding member and drummer of The Allman Brothers Band. His younger brother is
Duane Trucks, who is a member of
Widespread Panic and Hard Working Americans.
His great-uncle,
Virgil Trucks, was a major league baseball pitcher in the 1940s and 1950s, winning 177 games in his career.
In 2001, Trucks married singer and musician Susan Tedeschi, and they had a son in March 2002 and a daughter in 2004.
Discography
With the Derek Trucks Band
-
The Derek Trucks Band (1997)
-
Out of the Madness (1998)
-
Joyful Noise (2002)
-
Soul Serenade (2003)
-
Live at Georgia Theatre (2004)
-
Songlines (2006) (Legacy Recordings)
-
Songlines Live (DVD) (2006) (Legacy Recordings)
-
Already Free (2009) (Legacy Recordings)
-
Roadsongs (2010)
With the Allman Brothers Band
-
Peakin' at the Beacon (2000)
-
Hittin' the Note (2003)
-
One Way Out (2004)
With The Tedeschi Trucks Band
-
Revelator (2011)
-
Everybody's Talkin' (2012)
-
Made Up Mind (2013)
-
Let Me Get By (2016)
-
Live from the Fox Oakland (2017)
-
Signs (2019)
-
High And Mighty EP (2019)
-
Layla Revisited (Live at Lockn') (2021)
-
(2022)
-
(2022)
-
(2022)
-
(2022)
Collaborations
-
1994: Storm Warning, Tinsley Ellis
-
1996: To Cry You a Song: A Tull Tale, various artists/Cat's Squirrel (with Charlie Musselwhite, Clive Bunker, Mick Abrahams)
-
1996: The Circle, Planet Earth/Carey Nall
-
1996: Come On in This House, Junior Wells
-
1997: Searching for Simplicity, Gregg Allman
-
1999: Blues Power: Songs Of Eric Clapton, Various Artists
-
1999: Tangled Up In Blues: Songs Of Bob Dylan, Various Artists
-
1999: Whole Lotta Blues: Songs Of Led Zeppelin, Various Artists
-
1999: Live... With a Little Help from Our Friends, Gov't Mule
-
2000: Croakin' at Toad's, Frogwings
-
2001: Project Z, Project Z
-
2002: Live in the Classic City, Widespread Panic
-
2002: Wait For Me, Susan Tedeschi
-
2003: Little Worlds, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
-
2005: The Best Kept Secret, Jerry Douglas
-
2005: Hope and Desire, Susan Tedeschi
-
2006: The Road to Escondido, JJ Cale, Eric Clapton Reprise Records
-
2007: Guiding Star, Vusi Mahlasela
-
2008: Skin Deep, Buddy Guy
-
2008: Here and Gone, David Sanborn
-
2008: Sidewalk Caesars, Scrapomatic
-
2008: The Blues Rolls On, Elvin Bishop
-
2008: Back to the River, Susan Tedeschi
-
2008: Lifeboat, Jimmy Herring
-
2008: Guitars, McCoy Tyner
-
2010: The Imagine Project, Herbie Hancock
-
2010: Clapton, Eric Clapton
-
2011: The Secret, Bouriema Vieux Farka Touré
-
2012: , Tommy Bolin & Friends
-
2014: , Eric Clapton
-
2015: Ol' Glory, JJ Grey & Mofro
-
2016: Blood From a Stone, Eric Krasno
External links
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Derek sits down with Ira Haberman of The Sound Podcast for a feature interview
