Blues/blues-rock guitarist Derek Trucks is the nephew of longtime Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks. He displays a command of slide guitar styles running the gamut from blues to classic R&B and early rock & roll to classic jazz. Although blues players like Buddy Guy, Elmore James, and Duane Allman have been a strong influence on Trucks' slide guitar playing, so have pre-'70s jazz players like John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and Sun Ra. Trucks began playing guitar when he was nine, and shared stages and sat in with the likes of Buddy Guy and the Allman Brothers Band by the time he was 12. Trucks began his professional career playing with blues bands around his native Jacksonville, Florida, and formed his own group in high school. Before the age of 20, Trucks had shared stages and jammed with Bob Dylan, Joe Walsh, and Stephen Stills. The Derek Trucks Band, with members ranging in age from their twenties to their forties, released their self-titled debut album in 1997 on Landslide Records. Out of the Madness followed in late 1998. After the turn of the millennium, they released Joyful Noise (2002), Soul Serenade (2003), Live at Georgia Theatre (2004), and Songlines (2006). Already Free appeared from RCA in 2009. On June 22, 2010, the Derek Trucks Band released Roadsongs, which was recorded live in Chicago during the 2009 Already Free world tour. In addition to the album, Trucks and wife and guitar-slinging partner Susan Tedeschi formed a touring band, and appeared together on Herbie Hancock's The Imagine Project album, singing the Matthew Moore classic "Space Captain." The Hancock recording was issued on the same day as Roadsongs. The pair's group, the Tedeschi-Trucks Band, was an 11-piece soul-blues ensemble also included Oteil and Kofi Burbridge, on bass and keyboards, respectively, and drummers J.J. Johnson and Tyler Greenwell. The unit signed to Sony and released their debut album Revelator on its Masterworks imprint in June of 2011. ~ Richard Skelly
