Where does an 11-year-old go with a guitar? Derek Trucks went on tour. The slide guitar virtuoso says he has been playing since he was nine when he picked up a cheap acoustic for 5 dollars at a garage sale.
“It was nothing special,” Trucks, now 23, said. “I had no desire to play. It was just the only thing that looked interesting.”
The independent releases of The Derek Trucks Bands’ first two albums looked interesting enough to Capitol Records. The label signed the band earlier this year and just released Trucks’ latest effort, “Joyful Noise,” a glorious boiling pot of equatorial sounds and soul.
“Joyful Noise” jams to a new groove with Trucks stretching those dexterous hands and branching out on the band’s most ambitious record yet.
Looking like a long-lost Nordic guitar god, with his fair skin and flowing blond hair, Trucks is an imposing figure with a six string in hand. The Derek Trucks Band imposes its brand of delta blues on Baton Rouge Wednesday night at Chelsea’s.
“He’s an old gospel singer or guitar player come back–reincarnated,” flautist/keyboardist Kofi Burbridge said. “We just don’t know who.”
Filling in Truck’s rhythm section are drummer Yonrico Scott and bassist Todd Smallie who streak through “Joyful Noise” with old school rhythm and blues, swirling gospel and fusion jazz to produce one pearl of jam.
It’s difficult to argue with the uniqueness of an album touted as a “spiritually-based ‘world soul’ collection” with renowned guest artists like Salsa sultan Ruben Blades and Soul pioneer Solomon Burke.
“The performances Solomon did were just off the scale,” Derek said in awe. “He brought tears to everybody’s eyes.”
But the as the title suggests, the “Joyful Noise” sessions were not all tear jerkers. Trucks says the recordings were mostly a laid-back affair.
“We’ve probably had more liberty to try other things on top of the tracks this time,” Trucks said. “We felt like we didn’t have to do a live record in the studio. We wanted to do a studio record.”
Produced by Craig Street, the record also features Trucks’ wife, songwriter Susan Tedeschi. She joins the studio party and cranks the sultry meter up to 10 on James Brown’s 1962 hit “Baby, You’re Right.”
“I was just so overjoyed to work with these people,” Burbridge said. “I mean Ruben Blades? Come on.”
The Derek Trucks Band is also writing material for a record Burbridge hopes to release next year. “Every band should always be writing,” he said.
Balancing studio experimentation with a rigid tour schedule, Trucks is also splitting time with another group. But it’s not just any band, it’s the Allman Brothers.
The Allmans asked Trucks to join on lead guitar in 1999. Unable to refuse his childhood heroes, the slide guitar guru now tours summers with the Allmans and plays and records with his own band the rest of the year. Original Allman Brothers guitarist Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident in 1969, 10 years before Trucks was born.
“They’re a great bunch of guys and really professional,” Burbridge said of the Allmans. “It’s cool to watch them and see how things should be done.”
The Derek Trucks Band does share rock-and-roll traits with their forebears. Though influences from Indian classical and John Coltrane, to Wayne Shorter and Santana seep through, Trucks’ music is jam-based which throws it into the most misunderstood of genres. But what really is there to understand? The band prefers to let the music do he talking.
Expect a “Joyful Noise” rattling those Chelsea walls on Wednesday night.