The Wake

Guitarist Derek Trucks has garnered an impressive amount of praise for someone under 30. Not only is the 26-year-old considered a musician of incredible technical ability, but also one with a mature grasp of improvisation and a passionate style of playing. His skills as a slide guitarist and his fusion of many genres have made the Derek Trucks Band a favorite among concertgoers. And while Trucks is considered a must-see live act, his new album, Songlines, finds the guitarist focusing on the possibilities that the recording studio has to offer.

“Up until this point, everything had been live … with this record, we kind of did things differently. We deconstructed the tunes before we recorded and then built them from the groove up,” Trucks says. Referring to the adjustment to working in a studio, he told me, “It’s getting more comfortable, and I could see where the band might be spending more time in that situation.”

While this isn’t his first studio release (he has five others to his credit), it’s the first to take this conventional approach. His previous releases reflected the influence of jazz musicians like Miles Davis and John Coltrane and were recorded live in the studio and often using the first or second takes. “[Songlines] was made with a different mindset,” he says.
More important than the logistics of recording the album is the chemistry of the group itself. The Derek Trucks Band is a cohesive unit that combines five talented musicians with one musical vision. “It makes a big difference to play with people you’re comfortable with,” Derek told me. “Ten or 11 years is a long time … we’ve got this great, unspoken thing going on.”

“Unspoken” was an appropriate word choice from the slide guitar player, who isn’t a vocalist and who is known to have a solemn look on his face even during the most impassioned solo. Beneath the unchanging façade is a soulful guitarist who sees connections across genres and instrumentations. His goal, he says, is to “find different combinations of the same elements and tools—trying to make it feel living and breathing.” Whether playing in unison with singer Mike Mattison’s vocal lines or borrowing a melody from a jazz standard, Trucks has proved he can make those musical connections.

The band moves from genre to genre fluidly, covering more musical terrain in a single album than most artists do in a career—a song with an East Indian twist to it is likely to be followed by a blues staple from the Mississippi Delta. When asked what word he would use to describe this music, Derek said, “I haven’t found a word that completely fits—they’re all fine with me.”

Looking ahead, Trucks said that 2006 is going to be a “crazy year.” In addition to his own band, the guitarist also tours and records with his longtime idols the Allman Brothers Band (his uncle Butch is their drummer) and plays as a guest musician on many other records. When asked if all these projects conflict, he replied, “The schedules work out pretty well. If anything, you’re sacrificing time off, but you’ve got to work when you can … when I go out with the Allman Brothers, it’s playing a gig with people I’ve known and played with for a long time. It makes it much more comfortable than just a good gig would be.”

That facet seems to permeate all of Derek’s projects; more than just an opportunity to play and make money, he has sought out situations where he cares about the music and his fellow musicians. Laughingly, he told me, “It’s been a long time since a show just didn’t happen … it’s to the point where even a bad night go pretty good.” This is as much a credit to the compatibility of Trucks and his peers as it is to their musicianship. “Like with any relationship,” he summarized, “you have to constantly watch them and help them grow and evolve in a good way.”

At such a young age, Derek Trucks has a lot to look forward to. As his skill and his breadth of influences continue to grow, we will hopefully hear a lot more from this guitarist. “Music,” he says, “is about tapping in to other stuff. It’s attitudes and emotions you’re trying to get out.” Pick up Songlines in February, and hear the emotions for yourself.