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HEADLINE: BORN TO ROCK: Destiny propelled guitarist Derek Trucks to star status By EVELYN McDONNELL MIAMI HERALD Talk about Pygmalion Syndrome. In Jacksonville in the 1970s, a roofer, Chris Trucks, loved music so much that he named his son after one of his favorite bands, Eric Clapton's rock powerhouse Derek and the Dominos. Nine years later, Derek Trucks picked up a guitar and a child prodigy was born. Tonight, Trucks, 27, plays Miami's AmericanAirlines Arena: as a member of Clapton's band. ''My dad doesn't play, but he's one of those guys who's really affected by it,'' Trucks says over the phone from Minneapolis, the night before the tour's first U.S. stop. ``I remember that having a huge effect on my playing. When you see somebody in tears listening to music, it makes you realize how powerful it should be.'' For a dozen years, Trucks has been one of Florida's most powerful, gifted, inventive, and unusually humble musicians. By 10 years old, he had played with the Allman Brothers Band. A decade later, he became an official member of that seminal Southern rock group (a hire undoubtedly aided by the fact that his uncle, Butch, is the Allmans' longtime drummer). His own group, the Derek Trucks Band, has released six CDs, including Songlinesearlier this year. During the rare times he's not on the road with one group or another, Trucks still makes his home in Jacksonville, where he lives with his wife, singer/songwriter Susan Tedeschi, and their two young children. NO PEDALS OR PICKS Trucks eschews effects pedals and picks and uses the kind of open tuning favored by slide guitar players. This gives his tones a pure, raw sound. Trucks says he developed his distinctive style of playing because he was so young, he didn't really know better. Later, he tried effects but ``it just seemed more of a worry. ''Pretty early on I decided I wasn't going to do it,'' he says. ``There's something about the sound of plugging straight into an amp, it's just so much more direct. I would notice the response you would get from the audience when the sound was right. It was completely different than when you had this processed sound. If people can't hear it and feel it, they're not going to respond.'' Trucks has played with numerous veteran musicians, picking up tips and techniques from people like Jimmy Herring (Aquarium Rescue Unit, Phil Lesh and Friends) and Oteil Burbridge (Allmans). ''I would pick their brains,'' the affable guitarist with the long blond pony tail and sweet Southern accent says. ``The truly great musicians are always wide open about unloading their secrets. I've had some great teachers along the way.'' Playing with Clapton, of course, he has one of the greatest. The band includes Texas axman Doyle Bramhall II and legendary bassist Willie Weeks. The opening act is blues guitarist Robert Cray. The tour is an incredible meeting of guitar gods. In The Minneapolis Star Tribune, critic Jon Bream called the concert ``a ferocious rock performance for the ages.'' ``Between the three of us, Eric plays standard tuning strummed right handed, like a normal guitar player. I play in an open E all the time and Doyle is playing left handed upside down. It's three completely different ways of going about it. Obviously, when you're playing with guys of that caliber, you're going to pick stuff up and rip off licks here and there.'' Trucks says instead of the concert being a virtuoso competition, the musicians play together as a real band. ``When it's the Eric Clapton band, it's pretty obvious you let him do his thing. If he wants you to play, he'll nod or point. I don't think either me or Doyle are jockeying for position. There's enough mutual respect on stage. It's a really musical thing. No one is trying to show their worth, everyone's just excited to be here and play.'' The band first got together to rehearse in France. The set transformed during those two weeks. ''He realized what the band's strengths were and catered the set toward that.It changed quite a bit from what the original idea would be. We started doing a lot more of the older tunes, Derek and the Dominos and that era. That's right where I'm coming from,'' Trucks notes ruefully because of his being named after Derek and the Dominos. Trucks' dad came to London to see his son play with his hero at the Royal Albert Hall. Clapton and the two Truckses had tea. ''It was a pretty wild, full-circle moment that you don't imagine is ever going to happen,'' Derek says. BLUES, WORLD MUSIC Playing with Clapton has sparked Trucks' creative juices. 'With someone like Eric, who's had so many different careers basically, just seeing somebody's catalog, it's inspiring. It makes you really want to get it on and write some tunes where 30 years down the road you can say, `Look at me, I've got 40 great tunes.' '' Trucks' own music fuses blues with jazz and world music. Mixing original compositions with classic folk songs and covers of Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Songlines takes its name from Aboriginal myths. ''I'm trying to paint this picture of different struggles put in a more universal context,'' he says. ``It's about freedom, but not in a stock way, the way you hear it on the news, but in a more personal, figure-it-out-for-yourself way.'' Trucks has had a busy year. He toured this summer with the Allman Brothers. ``It was one of the better tours I had with them. There's no struggle for power anymore within the band.'' When he gets off the road with Clapton, he's going back on with Tedeschi; they play Pompano Beach Amphitheatre Dec. 29. ``This year, being so busy, the only way we can see each other and hang out is to book shows together.'' The musical couple are building a studio behind their house, so they can spend more time there. ''I feel like it's time to focus on getting my group out there,'' Trucks says. ``It's time to take a deep breath and figure things out.'' When he gets back home, he'll do the Florida thing: ``I told my brother to gas up the boat. It's nice to get out in the ocean where you can't see the shore.''