Headline: Derek Trucks talks guitar solos, Muscle Shoals, Allmans

BYLINE: Matt Wake mwake@al.com
Huntsville (Ala.) Times

Asked for his guiltiest musical pleasures, Derek Trucks, one of the most tasteful guitar players who ever lived, just can't come up with one.

"I'm kind of a snob when it comes to that," Trucks says with a laugh. "I'm trying to think... We listen to a lot of great music on the bus but there are days when you're like, 'What's the worst song every recorded?' [Laughs.] And we'll get on iTunes, but it's not really a guilty pleasure it's just looking for the worst s-- ever recorded."

The point here isn't Trucks' reluctance to hold a private dance party with trashy pop hits when no one's looking. It's that for an integrity-forward guitarist like Trucks -- who is, incidentally, one of the nicest, most-laidback guitar heroes you'll ever speak with -- what goes in the ears eventually comes out the fingers.

In developing his own potent, slide-heavy style, Trucks pulled not just from blues and rock guitar deities, but also jazz saxophonist John Coltrane and Indian classical instruments like the sitar and sarod. The result is a rich tone and voicelike phrasing. And probably one of the reasons he was initially attracted to his now-wife Susan Tedeschi, who commands one of the most stunning voices in roots music.

"I think the first time I really heard her was at soundcheck," Trucks says. "She was opening for the Allman Brothers the first year I was in the band and just immediately you have that 'holy s---' moment. I wasn't expecting that sound to come out of that person.'"

Of course, a few years back people were making similar observations about Trucks, after he emerged as a 13-year-old, Atlanta Braves baseball cap-wearing wunderkind tearing up the slide guitar like he'd been possessed by Duane Allman's ghost. (The fact that Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks is Derek's uncle only heightened this sensation.)

Trucks, who was just 20 years old when he joined the Allman Brothers in 1999, wed Tedeschi in 2001. A few years after giving birth to a son and a daughter, Trucks and Tedeschi brought the Tedeschi Trucks Band into the world, after first touring together as Soul Stew Revival in 2009. Tedeschi Trucks Band's music draws from blues, soul, jazz, world music and classic rock.

The group also features keyboardist-flutist Kofi Burbridge, drummers Tyler Greenwell and J.J. Johnson, harmony vocalists Mike Mattison, Mark Rivers and Alecia Chakour, saxophonist Kebbi Williams, trumpeter Ephraim Owens, trombonist Elizabeth Lea and bassist Tim Lefebvre. The ensemble's 2011 debut LP "Revelator" won a Grammy for Best Blues Album, followed by 2012 live album "Everybody's Talkin'" and 2013 sophomore studio effort "Made Up Mind." If you prefer music with a heartbeat, tracks like "Midnight in Harlem," "Calling Out To You," "Come See About Me" and "The Storm" are highly recommended.

In 2011, Rolling Stone listed Trucks at number 16 on their 100 Greatest Guitarists list, the youngest living musician included. Only Freddy King, David Gilmour, Albert King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Harrison, Pete Townshend, Duane Allman, Eddie Van Halen, Chuck Berry, B.B. King, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix were ranked higher.

On a recent morning, Trucks called in for a phone interview from his Jacksonville, Fla., back porch, overlooking the Swamp Raga studios were Tedeschi Trucks Band records.

Derek, as a guitarist you never seem to wear out your welcome. How do you know when it's time to end a guitar solo?

[Laughs.] You know, when you've said what you need to say it's usually time to get out. I'm a big fan of other guitar players, Duane Allman and tons of them, but I don't really love totally guitar-specific albums. There's a lot of people where it's just all night and it's ... I don't really want to hear that. [Laughs.] And I don't want to be that person either. [Laughs.] The people that I always come back to are the people that leave you wanting a little bit more. I remember seeing B.B. 15 or 20 years ago and you would see him take 15 or 20 solos in a night but it was never too much. It was always just enough. When you left you still would have been happy to hear another one. There are times though when you pull out the trump cards that are in your back pocket. [Laughs.] You go full-bore. But you really have to pick and choose those moments.

Are there any aspects of Susan's singing you've grown to appreciate more over the years?

I think I appreciated it out of the gate. I mean you definitely grow to know the well is even deeper than you thought and there's a lot more there, but I've seen her stand onstage with some world-class musicians and singers and I've never seen her in a situation where she couldn't hang. Almost the opposite. I've never seen her in a situation where someone could truly hang with her. [Laughs.] If Susan's on top of her game it's pretty deadly. That's fun to watch I've got to say.

Duane Allman, as you mentioned a big inspiration to you, first made his mark as a studio musician down the road in Muscle Shoals. Have you ever made trek there to check out Fame Studios or Muscle Shoals Sound or other Muscle Shoals music landmarks?

Yeah, absolutely. We've spent a lot of time in that area over the years being a fan of all of that music. I remember recording with Johnny Sandlin at his place right outside Muscle Shoals and he turned me on to a lot of those musicians at an early age, like Roger Hawkins and David Hood and just a ton of great players. That sound is a big part of what we do. They took Southern soul and country and all these things and just made great music. You had these total hicks from Alabama recording with Aretha Franklin, these things you wouldn't think would happen and it was magic. In a lot of ways that's kind of what this band is. [Laughs.] It's a mix of all those things. My grandfather's from Pinson, Ala., all the Truckses came from there. When we built our studio down here in the swamp in Florida we really were thinking of that studio and those people. That whole area is a big inspiration for what we do. Yeah, there are a lot of direct lines to it.

There are 12 people in Tedeschi Trucks Band but the group's sound is never cluttered or too busy. Do you have a mantra for keeping a big band sounding that cohesive?

I guess it is kind of an overall way of thinking of making sure it's tasteful at all times -- and then when you need the full sound it's there and it's a powerful sound when everyone's blasting. If it's too much of that it can get tiring really quick so everyone is really good about dipping in and out when the time is right. And everyone really thinks in sections too. The two drummers are kind of a self-contained and they're playing so musical it's hard to tell if it's one or two people. The horn section is thinking of a unit and the background singers are thinking as a unit, and they have to coordinate so they're not stepping on each other's toes and not just creating this wall of sound that's indecipherable. Everybody's aware of it. That was a big part of putting this together is we wanted to make sure everything had a place and we weren't just throwing people up there because it looks cool. [Laughs.]

What song do you miss playing with the Allmans the most?

Not to be weird but there's really not one at the moment that I'm missing. I think there will definitely be a point where I start looking back on that and maybe tunes with pop up, but it's been such a busy and fulfilling year since I stepped away from it I haven't gone into reflection mode yet. I got to play a lot of those tunes for a long time and it was a huge part of my upbringing so I'm sure if I played one of them it would feel really good really quick. But none of them have been gnawing on me just yet.

If guitars were outlawed what instrument would you play?

Maybe bass? I guess that's a guitar too, but almost any instrument -- I love playing drums too. S---, I might have been a recording engineer. It all sounds like fun to me.