Derek Trucks is 35 years old today. Trucks is a guitarist, - TopicsExpress

Derek Trucks is 35 years old today. Trucks is a guitarist, songwriter and founder of the The Derek Trucks Band. He became an official member of The Allman Brothers Band in 1999 and formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band in 2010 with his wife Susan Tedeschi. Trucks was born in Jacksonville, Florida. His uncle, Butch, is a founding member of The Allman Brothers Band. According to Trucks, the name of Eric Claptons band, Derek and the Dominos, had something to do with the name [Derek] if not the spelling.” His great-uncle, Virgil Trucks, was a professional baseball player. Trucks bought his first guitar at a yard sale for $5 at age nine and became a child prodigy who played his first paid performance at age 11. Trucks began playing the guitar using a slide bar because it allowed him to play the guitar despite his small, young hands. By his 13th birthday Trucks had played alongside Buddy Guy and gone on tour with The Allman Brothers Band. Trucks formed The Derek Trucks Band in 1996 and by his twentieth birthday, he had played with artists including Bob Dylan, Joe Walsh and Stephen Stills. After performing with The Allman Brothers Band for several years as a guest musician, Trucks became a formal member in 1999 and appeared on the albums Live at the Beacon Theatre and Hittin the Note. (He will be leaving the Allman Brothers Band after the current tour.) In 2006, Trucks began a studio collaboration with Eric Clapton called The Road to Escondido and Trucks found himself performing with three bands in 17 different countries that year. Trucks was invited to perform at the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival and after the festival he toured as part of Claptons band. Trucks built a studio in his home in January 2008, and he and his band recorded the album Already Free. Trucks and his wife, Susan Tedeschi, combined their bands to form the Soul Stew Revival in 2007 and performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in June 2008. In late 2009, Trucks and his band went on hiatus and then dissolved. In 2010, Trucks formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band with his wife. Trucks credits guitarist Duane Allman and blues man Elmore James as the two slide guitarists that influenced his early style but has since been inspired by John Lee Hooker, Howlin Wolf and Albert King, Miles Davis, Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian, Wayne Shorter, Freddy King and B.B. King. His music is reported to encompass categories such as jam band, Southern rock and jazz while simultaneously being rooted in the blues and rock genres. Trucks plays an eclectic blend of blues, soul, jazz, rock, qawwali music (a genre of music from Pakistan and Eastern India), Latin music and other kinds of world music. Trucks became a fan of Ali Akbar Khan and studied at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael. Here, Trucks performs a solo on “Desdemona” with the Allman Brothers Band at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.