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Nice article on Derek, although the reporter does make a mistake about when Derek joined the ABB. At least he doesn't say that he's Butch's son... Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO) March 1, 2005 HEADLINE: MONSTER TRUCKS; DEREK TRUCKS BAND TEARS DOWN THE ROAD WITH ONE TOUGH LINEUP BY Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News There are a lot of good stories out there about how someone found a lead vocalist, but Derek Trucks has one that trumps them all. While touring with the Allman Brothers, Trucks was trying to keep the Derek Trucks Band together, but it needed a singer. He put out the word he was on the lookout, including to producer John Snyder (who'd done his early albums) and producer Craig Street (who did Joyful Noise). "If you find one, give me a buzz," he told them. On the same day, he heard from Snyder and then Street, each of whom had found someone he thought would work. "The next day I'm in a hotel in New York City with the Allman Brothers. I get two Fed Ex packages. I open them up, and they're both the same CD," Trucks says. "I was like 'That's pretty random.' " He didn't have time to give the disc a listen, because he was late. "I had a meeting, so I jumped on the subway. As I was getting off the train, I see this guy walk by that I recognized from the CD," Trucks says. "I was trying to remember his name. I tentatively yelled out, 'Mike!' He turned around. I said: 'That's too weird. We have to at least try.' " And that's how Mike Mattison of Scrapomatic got his audition with the Derek Trucks Band, giving it what fans think is its best, tightest lineup since its 1997 debut. The stellar double-live album Live at the Georgia Theatre (2004) is the first recorded collaboration between Mattison and the band. They'll be at the Fox Theatre on Thursday and the Gothic in Englewood on Friday (as well as Fort Collins on Wednesday and Steamboat Springs on Saturday). A highlight off the live disc is a cover of Curtis Mayfield's Freddy's Dead, a song they'd always wanted to do but didn't have a vocalist to handle. "We just decided to play it on a whim on Halloween or something," Trucks says in a phone interview. "Mike is just a huge Curtis Mayfield fan, and his falsetto fit that really well." Many fans are surprised that as the nephew of Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks, Derek Trucks didn't pick up the drums rather than guitar. "I wasn't even around my uncle or the Allman Brothers early on," he says. "I didn't have much to do with him other than I was listening to those records. It was the slide guitar of Duane (Allman) and Elmore James that really intrigued me at first." It still wasn't nearly enough to interest him in a career until he stumbled on a guitar at a garage sale and started messing around. "It wasn't a big mission of mine to play guitar. It just happened," he says. And it happened quickly, with his debut being recorded at age 16 and constant touring following that. His gig with the Allman Brothers started after they parted ways with guitarist Dickey Betts. When he listens to his early work, "it sounds pretty young to me," Trucks says. "But if I listen to a show from two or three days ago, I'm pretty frustrated, too. You're your own worst critic." Besides classic blues and slide players, he's influenced by Indian music, particularly that of Ali Akbar Kahn, "which just seems like it's constant melody," he says. Trucks may rival only guitarist Warren Haynes for the sheer number of shows and road hours he's logging, both by himself and with the Allmans and other bands (his wife is blues singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi). But he can take the pace. "At times the schedule feels a bit daunting, but as long as you stay mentally fresh and healthy, it's good," he says. "Overall, it's nothing I would complain about. My dad is a roofer. I grew up around that. I've torn off a few roofs. That's not something I plan to do again. This is easy."