Derek Trucks (1979 -)

I was captivated by Derek Trucks the very first moment I heard him play. I have to confess, I wasn’t very familiar with his music at the time. Anyways, he came to town and I went to see him. Right away I was absolutely impressed with his unique sound, style and soul.

Derek is so tasteful at making a perfect blend of jazz, blues, rock, soul, funk and even Indian music. His uncle being Butch Trucks (drummer of the legendary The Allman Brothers Band), Derek grew up in a music environment mostly influenced by blues and rock music.

Even to these days, I’d say blues and rock are the main ingredients in Derek Trucks’ music, with a tendency to add jazz elements in his guitar playing as well. But to be fair, I don’t think his music should be labelled under a single genre.

In 1994, he assembled The Derek Trucks Band. Listening to them is such a refreshing experience. They truly work together as a band, where all instruments have their own space and yet they sound as one unit.

The rhythm section is rock-solid, with Todd Smallie and Yonrico Scott in the bass and drums, respectively. Kofi Burbridge plays the keyboards and flute, and Mike Mattison is the vocalist. Although guitar becomes the main solo instrument, Derek Trucks shares the space and lets his band mates shine, which is awesome since they’re such great musicians too

Watching his band live reminded me of Carlos Santana’s: great musicians having fun and letting loose.

Their first album, The Derek Trucks Band was released in 1997, when he was just 18 years old. Six years later he was included in Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time list. Although I don’t support such rankings, it’s important to mention he got such notoriety at age 21.

Guitar style

Derek Trucks’ guitar sound is very clean and smooth; he doesn’t use a pick and plays a glass slide on most of his songs. Although slide is traditionally linked to country and southern styles, his sound blends into any type of music. Along with players like Sonny Landreth, Derek Trucks takes slide guitar to a whole different level.

He has a great control of the instrument and is able to play fast or slow as he chooses. However, he plays moderate speed with great taste and soul, which proves how he places musicality above other aspects of playing.

He always plays finger style, which is part of that nice clean sound. He tends to minimize the number of strokes in his right hand by getting as many notes as possible from his left hand (by doing pull-offs, for instance). This contributes to his smooth sound too, as many notes are generated by the left hand in short, fading burst of notes. He also likes to end the notes abruptly by muting them with the left hand (a distinctive feature in Albert Collins playing). He mostly uses his right index finger to attack the notes, but when in need of a faster attack he alternates between thumb and index.

Right hand muting is very important when playing slide guitar, a technique he masters like few. This shows in the angle his right wrist keeps sometimes while attacking the strings. But he also mutes the strings with the right-hand thumb, specially when hitting high notes in the E string. Like many slide guitar players, his guitar is tuned in open E (E-B-E-G#-B-E). This also makes it easier for his preferred use of major scales for soloing.

Being slide his main style, he has mentioned Duane Allman and Elmore James as two of his main influences. On the jazz side, he has mentioned John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter.

See Derek Trucks’ influences on the Guitar Family Tree

Gear

His sound is as simple as it gets for today’s standards, and also very tasteful. He doesn’t use any guitar effects, just plugs-in straight to the amp. He mainly uses a 1965 Fender Super Reverb for his band. The only modification in this amp is the addition of Pyle Driver MH1020 speakers. When touring with the Allman Brothers he uses a 100-watt Marshall.

His main guitar is a Gibson SG '61 Reissue (Angus Young from AC/DC is another famous SG fan). The humbuckers in the SG have a very rich sound when played with the volume all the way up, which gives him a very good range of sounds just by using the guitar controls. When playing acoustic, he frequently uses a Martin guitar.

As you know now, he is famous for his slide guitar sound, being his choice a glass Coricidin one (Coricidin was a cold medicine sold in a bottle some time ago). As a guitar player, finding the right slide could take ages! It’s really a matter of trial and error and what feels right for each player.

His preferred strings are DR nickel-wound: 0.011, .014, .017, .026, .036 and .046.

Derek also plays the Sarod, a traditional Indian string instrument. Being fretless in nature, it is also a great fit for Derek’s slide skills. He became interested in Indian music and learned to play this instrument in the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music in California.

Album Highlights

Songlines

One of my favourite albums in my CD collection. Such a solid and tasteful mix of grooves and styles can’t be found easily.

Videos

Solo on Anyday, originally released by Derek and the Dominos in 1970 (there are several versions about how they got that name since there wasn’t anyone named Derek in the band). This song is a timeless rock classic, featuring Duane Allman (one of Derek Trucks’ main influences) in its original version. Actually, Derek Trucks was named after the band. Derek Trucks starts this solo without a slide. Check out the way he attacks the strings with his right hand. He alternates between the index and sometimes the thumb. In this case, rather than a precision stroke, he prefers an intense attack. His muting technique is very important to achieve a clean sound. I like that he switches to slide later in the song to build intensity. His right hand attack remains very similar with or without slide in this song.

Solo on Little Queen of Spades, performed live at the Crossroads festival in 2007. This is originally a tune by Robert Johnson. Great example on how Derek Trucks varies his tone by just using the guitar controls (remember, he doesn’t use any pedals at all). In this solo, he starts with a low volume, low gain setting and his trademark mixolydian mode phrasing. He also produces many notes from his left hand by only executing a single stroke. Then he changes the volume controls and gets a higher gain sound as he builds tension in the solo. You can get some close-ups to his Coricidin glass slide. I really recommend trying as many slides as you can before settling for one. There are so many options and they all work differently for each individual. My piece of advice is, when you go to the music store find the nicest guy in it to help you (it takes some patience for a $10 sale).

Live performance with the Allman Brothers, in this case an improvisation over Desdemona (although the chords sound more like My Favourite Things). It shows Derek playing without slide at the beginning of the solo and then building tension until it’s time to use the slide and bring it to the top. Nice demonstration of his left hand technique and how he uses pull-offs to deliver several notes out of one string stroke. Also, note he uses the neck pickup here. Also, check out in 2:09 how he attacks the neck with his right hand so he fills the space while he reaches for his slide (nice trick to keep in mind for a live performance).

Joyful Noise, from the Songlines Live DVD. This is the type of stuff that generates instant converts to Derek Trucks’ music. It’s also a great example of what the Derek Trucks Band is all about: a tight group of excellent musicians having fun and sounding great.

This video also shows the very distinct Derek Trucks’ slide guitar style. Starting with prolonged and open slide notes, he shows us the excellent control he has over the instrument. Then his playing evolves into the song and his trademark left-hand approach of producing many notes with a single stroke.

Discography