Guest Book

Whether you like it or not (and there still seems to be divided opinion on this) one thing that can't be denied is that it is absolutely amazing that an artist like Derek Trucks with admittedly limited commercial potential ( I am commenting strictly from a record sales standpoint, which has nothing to do with artistic integrity) was able to secure almost total creative control over the project, especially on a such a huge, established label like Sony. First time artists just don't get that kind of deal with major labels. It must be an indication of how much respect the label has for Derek's talent that Sony didn't try to package him and turn him into something different than what he is in order to sell records. I think he probably is being classified as a "Prestige Artist" which every label has. They don't sell a lot of records but have great artistic credibility which in turn reflects well on the label. These artists usually have a long shelf life and aren't subject to the same pressure to sell units like your basic flash-in-the-pan bands. We can only hope that Sony is willing to support Derek in this fashion and nuture him to his full potential so that we can all watch him as his talent continues to blossom and delight us.