Derek Trucks

Derek Trucks
Derek Trucks with slide guitar in 2009
Background information
Born (1979-06-08) June 8, 1979
Jacksonville, Florida, U.S.
Genres Blues rock, Southern rock, jam rock
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter
Instruments Guitar, sarod
Years active 1990–present
Labels Columbia, Legacy Recordings
Associated acts The Allman Brothers Band
The Derek Trucks Band
Soul Stew Revival
Tedeschi Trucks Band
Website www.derektrucks.com

Derek Trucks (born June 8, 1979) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and founder of the Grammy Award-winning[1]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 Stone's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He is the nephew of Butch Trucks, drummer for the Allman Brothers.

Early life

A young Trucks (right) with musician Livingston Taylor
Trucks age 9-10 with the Gregg Allman band

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".[2]

Trucks bought his first guitar at a yard sale for $5 at age nine and became a child prodigy, who played his first paid performance at age 11.[3][4] Trucks began playing the guitar using a slide because it allowed him to play the guitar despite his small, young hands.[5] By his 13th birthday, Trucks had played alongside Buddy Guy[6] and toured with Thunderhawk.[4][7]

Career

Trucks formed The Derek Trucks Band in 1994, and[3][8] by his 20th birthday, he had played with such artists as Bob Dylan, Joe Walsh, and Stephen Stills.[9] After performing with The Allman Brothers Band for several years as a guest musician, Trucks became a formal member of the band in 1999[3] 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 Eric Clapton called The Road to Escondido and performed with three bands in 17 different countries that year.[3] Trucks was invited to perform at the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival, and after the festival, he toured as part of Clapton's band.[3][10]

Merging talents

Trucks built a studio in his home in January 2008, and his band and he recorded the 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.[11][12][13][14] 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.[14][15] 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.[16] 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 has since been inspired by John Lee Hooker,[17] 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.[17][18][19]

His music is said to encompass categories such as jam band, Southern rock, and jazz[20] while simultaneously being rooted in the blues and rock genres.[21] Trucks plays an eclectic blend of blues, soul, jazz, rock, qawwali music (a genre of music from Pakistan and eastern India), Latin music, and other kinds of world music[22] Trucks became a fan of Hindustani classical musician Ali Akbar Khan, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod and popularising Indian classical music in the West, often in conjunction with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar. Trucks studied at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California.[23][24]

Trucks playing a resonator guitar

Trucks often plays the guitar in an open E tuning,[25] using a Dunlop Blues Bottle slide.[10] 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.[8]

Reception

Trucks has appeared twice in Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".[22][26][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".[24] In 2007, Trucks appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone for an article called the "New Guitar Gods".[18] Trucks is a creative guitarist according to his uncle, Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks: "He never does the same thing twice".[28] The Washington Post in 2009 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".[29] The Derek Trucks Band's album Already Free debuted at number 19 on the Billboard Top 200 chart,[30] and number one on the Internet chart, number four on the rock chart, and number one on the blues chart.[11][30]

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.[31] On February 12, 2012, Trucks accepted a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award along with 10 other members of The Allman Brothers Band.[32][33] On February 21, 2012, Derek Trucks and his wife joined other blues musicians for a performance at the White House for President Obama and his guests.[34]

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 is as good as I've ever heard it".

Personal life

Trucks' 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.[7] His great-uncle, Virgil Trucks, was a major league baseball pitcher in the 1940s and 1950s, winning 177 games in his career.[35] In 2001, Trucks married singer and musician Susan Tedeschi, and they had a son in March 2002 and a daughter in 2004.[36][37][38]

Trucks is an avid fan of the Atlanta Braves, the Florida State Seminoles,[39] and his hometown Jacksonville Jaguars.[40]

Discography

With the Derek Trucks Band

With the Allman Brothers Band

With The Tedeschi Trucks Band

Collaborations

References

  1. ↑ "The Derek Trucks Band Wins Grammy Award For 'Best Contemporary Blues Album' for Already Free". Top40-Charts.com. 2 August 2010. Retrieved 27 December 2011.
  2. ↑ Clash, Jim (2007). "Rocker Derek Trucks". Forbes Magazine's Adventurer Column. Forbes.com. pp. Video version. Retrieved 2009-05-16.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Tatangelo, Wade (January 4, 2007). "Derek Trucks on playing with Allman, Clapton, Dylan". McClatchy Newspapers. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  4. 1 2 Jambase (2009). "The Derek Trucks Band Biography". JamBase Inc. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
  5. ↑ "Derek Trucks: At Guitar Center – Influences and Slide". Guitar Center TV. June 1, 2010. Retrieved September 18, 2010.
  6. ↑ Braiker, Brian (January 20, 2009). "Derek Trucks Q&A: Guitar Hero on Jamming With Legends and Covering Dylan". Rolling Stone Magazine. Retrieved 2009-05-21.
  7. 1 2 "The Derek Trucks Band Artist Bio". Promotional talent biography. Entourage Talent Associates. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
  8. 1 2 Tennille, Andy (February 5, 2006). "Finding His Path". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-10-26.
  9. ↑ Skelly, Richard (2006). "Derek Trucks: Biography". MSN Music. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
  10. 1 2 Leslie,, Jimmy (June 2009). "Derek Trucks (FEATURES: Blues) Interview". Guitar Player Magazine. New Bay Media.
  11. 1 2 "Derek Trucks/Soul Stew Update". JamBase. 29 June 2008. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  12. ↑ Trucks and Tedeschi (June 16, 2008). "Derek Trucks Band Live at That Tent, Bonnaroo on 2008-06-16". Soul Stew Revival. Internet Archive. Retrieved 2008-08-12.
  13. ↑ Tennille, Andy. "Derek and Susan, It's a Family Thing". JamBase. Retrieved 28 September 2008.
  14. 1 2 Bryson, Alan (7 June 2010). "Susan Tedeschi: Dreams and Legends". All About Jazz. Retrieved 30 March 2011.
  15. ↑ "Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Reveal Band Lineup". Jam Base.com. March 29, 2010. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
  16. ↑ Doyle, Patrick (8 January 2014). "Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks Leaving Allman Brothers Band". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
  17. 1 2 Fricke, David (February 12, 2007). "The New Guitar Gods Mayer, Frusciante, Trucks on their Inspirations". Video and front page interview as one of the new "Guitar Gods" naming Trucks as the "Jam King". Rolling Stone magazine issue No. 1020. Retrieved March 3, 2012.
  18. 1 2 Fricke, David (February 22, 2007). "The New Guitar Gods: John Mayer, John Frusciante and Derek Trucks". Rolling Stone Magazine. pp. Issue No.&nbsp, 1020. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
  19. ↑ Wilcock, Don (November 29, 2012). "Derek Trucks and the Difference Between Discipline and Obsession". Americanbluesscene.com. Retrieved 2013-03-21.
  20. ↑ "Derek Trucks Band on Mountain Stage". Interview and Band Performance on National Public Radio. 2009 NPR. May 11, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  21. ↑ Machosky, Michael (August 19, 2009). "Derek Trucks backs luck with hard work". Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Archived from the original on August 23, 2009. Retrieved September 4, 2009.
  22. 1 2 MSN City Guide The Derek Trucks Band Archived October 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. Allmusic accessdate 2008-08-18
  23. ↑ Bhattacharya, Sumit (February 13, 2006). "New rock guitar god is Indian shishya". Retrieved 2008-06-01.
  24. 1 2 "Six-String Creation: The Derek Trucks Band". National Public Radio. NPR.org. March 25, 2006. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
  25. ↑ "Derek Trucks Interview". Muzicosphere. May 9, 2009. Archived from the original on December 28, 2010. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  26. ↑ Rolling Stone Magazine The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time 2003-08-27
  27. ↑ last.fm The Derek Trucks Band On Tour
  28. ↑ Wright, Jeb (2009). "The Moogis Industry: An Exclusive Interview with Butch Trucks". Classicrockrevisited.com. Archived from the original on June 27, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
  29. ↑ Suarez, Ernest (May 29, 2009). "'Already Free,' Trucks Rolls on the Guitar Hero Pays Homage to the Past". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-10-03.
  30. 1 2 WNEW; CBS Radio, Inc (2008). "Where Rock Lives; Derek Trucks Band". Derek, Conan and Cash. CBS Broadcasting. Archived from the original on August 13, 2010. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
  31. ↑ Lovejoy, Heather (February 14, 2012). "Jacksonville's Tedeschi Trucks band wins Grammy for best blues album". The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
  32. ↑ Sterdan, Darryl (February 12, 2012). "Grammy award lifetime achievements". jam.canoe.ca. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
  33. ↑ Marco R. delia Cava (February 7, 2012). "Allmans are all in for Grammys". USA Today. Retrieved April 26, 2012.
  34. ↑ "Performances at the WHITE HOUSE". Whitehouse.gov. Archived from the original on June 9, 2012. Retrieved February 22, 2012.
  35. ↑ Gammons, Peter (February 27, 2010). "Gammons: Music connects Trucks family Former Tigers great, kin share love of the game". MLB.com. MLB Advanced Media,. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
  36. ↑ Mayshark, Jesse Fox Mayshark (March 5, 2006). "MUSIC; Ramblin' Man and Woman, Married With Kids". Arts. The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-13.
  37. ↑ "Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi Soul Stew Revival". JamBase.com. 2007. Retrieved 2009-05-16.
  38. ↑ Spies, Jessica (July 16, 2010). "An Allman Brother does his own thing". The Patriot Ledger. Archived from the original on March 29, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2010.
  39. ↑ "Instagram". Instagram. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
  40. ↑ Armonaitis, Dan (October 19, 2012). "Derek Trucks on his great uncle Virgil, the infield fly rule and other baseball thoughts | Sound Observations". Soundobservations.blogs.goupstate.com. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
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