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Good morning ... Here's the transcript from Derek's appearance on National Public Radio. Of course, it doesn't have the music that went along with it, so if you don't know the words, just hum.... HEADLINE: Slide guitarist Derek Trucks ANCHORS: BOB EDWARDS REPORTERS: ASHLEY KAHN BODY: BOB EDWARDS, host: Derek Trucks is getting a reputation as one of the all-time great slide guitarists, and he's only 24 years old. In addition to leading his own band, Trucks is a featured soloist with the legendary Allman Brothers. But commentator Ashley Kahn says blues and rock are just a small part of Trucks' music world. (Soundbite of music) ASHLEY KAHN reporting: When Derek Trucks takes the stage with The Allman Brothers Band in place of the late, great slide guitarist Duane Allman, it seems a legacy he was born into. His uncle is drummer Butch Trucks, a founding member of the Allmans. Now imagine if Duane Allman had not died at the age of 25, but had gone on to integrate jazz, Latin, other sounds into his music, and you have a handle on the youthful and impressive talent of Derek Trucks. (Soundbite of music) KAHN: He can play with the agility of a saxophone. (Soundbite of music) KAHN: He can imitate the sound of an Indian sitar. (Soundbite of music) KAHN: And he can replicate the texture of the human voice. (Soundbite of music) KAHN: Amazingly, Trucks does it all with just his guitar and no special effects or sound-altering devices: just six strings, 10 fingers and the same amplifier he's been using since he was 11 years old. (Soundbite of applause; music) KAHN: What many musicians do offstage, experimenting with different genres and styles, Trucks does onstage, with The Allman Brothers and with his own group, the Derek Trucks Band. For the guitarist, it all started at the same point it did for Duane Allman, with the sound of the blues on the electric slide guitar. Mr. DEREK TRUCKS (Guitarist): That's what got me started, just the sound of the slide. I think it was so close to the human voice on one level, but then again, it was a different trip entirely. I just think something about that sound, the mystery and, you know, once you get the music bug, it's over with. You're stuck in a bus for the rest of your life. (Soundbite of music) KAHN: The sound that first got Trucks on the road came from Chicago. Mr. TRUCKS: For me, well, you know, the early blues guys like Elmore James and J.B. Hutto kind of originated that sound. This tune, "Done Somebody Wrong," which is an Elmore James tune, it's a great place to see where the slide kind of started. This is just the intro riff. (Soundbite of "Done Somebody Wrong") Mr. TRUCKS: With Duane, it almost seemed like he was trying to take the slide guitar and make it sound like a harmonica. (Soundbite of music) Mr. TRUCKS: You know, the same tune, same lick, just kind of taking on a little more life. (Soundbite of music) KAHN: A lot of guitarists dabble with slide guitar; yet very few have made the slide the primary voice, their lead instrument. Trucks is one of the few. His slide work is a marvel. New York Times critic Ben Ratliff. Mr. BEN RATLIFF (New York Times Critic): What's incredible is the experience of just watching him take a solo. He kind of goes into a trance with his strange kind of plucked picking style, which is very, very precise. There's no wasted motion, and there's no wasted ideas. You don't need to be an expert to know that something really striking is going on. (Soundbite of music) KAHN: There's a lot of jazz improvisation in Trucks' playing, and he is drawn to the sound of the tenor saxophone, especially when played by the likes of John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. (Soundbite of music) Mr. TRUCKS: With Wayne, the beauty of his writing, to me, and his playing is you can listen to some of his early records and hear him taking a solo and you 'll hear a line that's really memorable, and then five years later, that line from his solo will be a tune. Like a song like "Angola," it's just amazing to listen to him solo through something and then there's your tune all of a sudden. (Soundbite of music) Mr. TRUCKS: It's not the notes he plays all the time. It's a lot of times the notes that he leaves out. KAHN: John Coltrane is another major influence. (Soundbite of music) Mr. TRUCKS: Well, with me, a lot of the draw is the feel and the urgency. It just sounds like either the world's beginning or coming to an end, but it's just such urgency, man. KAHN: Can you give us an example? Mr. TRUCKS: Yeah. I can give you a small example of--this is from the second movement of "Love Supreme: Resolution." (Soundbite of music) KAHN: In 1971, just before Duane Allman's death, Allman was asked about his guitar playing and said, 'I'm beginning to think that this instrument is going to be so connected with my brain that my fingers aren't going to have to play it.' Trucks feels he's nearing that same level. Mr. TRUCKS: There's definitely sometimes, onstage where you're almost just watching it happen. You know, you're almost watching the instrument being played, and there's notes coming out of it that I don't think you thought of before it happened, so I think the idea is to, you know, hopefully let it run through you, you know, kind of be an antenna and let the music come through. It 's just a matter of getting out of the way and letting it happen. KAHN: Music is a journey, and the journey is endless. That's how jazz visionary Sun Ra once put it. Today, when so much music comes across like short day trips, Derek Trucks' journey is unexpectedly far-reaching. EDWARDS: Ashley Kahn is a music journalist and author of "A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album." The latest CD by The Derek Trucks Band is titled "Soul Serenade." This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Bob Edwards.... ...and you're not...EAPFP