Off the Record: Derek Trucks

Derek Trucks is the best guitarist that this generation can claim as its own. He is 28 and has been playing guitar with the Allman Brothers since 1999. (His uncle Butch Trucks is their founding drummer.) At an early age, Trucks clung to the slide guitar creed crafted by Duane Allman, making him a perfect match for the Allman Brothers' revival.

There are certainly many worthy slide guitarists out there, but it only takes a single note to know when Trucks is in the room. His sound bleeds with emotion and lingers as if Duane Allman himself spent years bathing in Middle Eastern musical traditions - shaking hands with local musicians while still wearing a bottleneck slide on his left pinky. John Mayer compares Trucks's guitar tone to a soulful female singer's voice from the '50s or '60s, agreeing that Trucks's slide ability allows him to hit an infinite number of notes, many that Mayer admits that he himself could never access on his own fretboard.

Trucks picked up his first guitar at 9. Nurtured into form by listening to the likes of Derek & The Dominos, B.B. King, Elmore James, and, of course, the Allman Brothers Band, Trucks was sitting in with local blues bands within two years. At 15, he formed the Derek Trucks Band, which still remains his major songwriting outlet, despite splitting duties between the Allman Brothers and Eric Clapton's touring band.

The youthful Trucks is not afraid to inject his tonal personality into the Allman's well-established canon, pretty much completing the sentences left by Duane Allman's guitar before his untimely death in 1972. Allman also was a member of Clapton's short-lived Derek and the Dominos project, which most notably cut "Layla." Sure enough, the elder statesman Clapton had this in mind when he brought Trucks on the road.

Trucks does well to keep these major touring acts from sounding tired. With his own band, however, he can be himself - comfortably urging notes to transcend melodic barriers. Unlike Clapton, Trucks does not sing; rather, he allows his guitar to mirror vocal sentiments and leaves the singing duties up to the blissful grace of Mike Mattison. To some, Trucks may appear to be unconscious when performing live, focusing heavily on the peaceful union between his fingers and the neck of his guitar. Playing through the same amp that he has used since childhood, Trucks is a purist who can attack tightly wound strings without a pick, choking the guitar without apology, only to let it down gently once it has proven that it can behave.

For further listening, check out "Joyful Noise" and "Shahib Teri Bandi/Maki Madni" from the album Live at Georgia Theater, or you can see the band live in their Friday night opening set for Carlos Santana at the Agganis Arena.