DEREK TRUCKS INTERVIEW #1
(Originally aired on January 29, 2009)
To many 6-string connoisseurs, Derek Trucks is the most technically adept, original and soulful rock guitarist of his generation, and scores of slide fanatics rank him among the finest to ever lay glass on steel, regardless of age or musical style. A child prodigy, the Florida native began playing guitar at age nine, and a year later started touring under his dad's watchful eye. Since the late '90s, Trucks has split his time between the Allman Brothers (his uncle, Butch Trucks, is a founding member), and his own outfit, the Derek Trucks Band.
More than any other guitarist, Trucks has integrated the melismatic, microtonal melodies of Eastern music with the hot, harp-inspired sound of Mississippi juke-joint slide. In our exclusive interview, Trucks describes writing and recording Songlines, his 2006 album with the Derek Trucks Band, and how they completed one song a day in the studio.