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NEW YORK: Derek Trucks' Already Free CD Review - by J. Blake
Posted on 11/24/2009 by J. Blake
I’ve been attempting to keep my recent CD reviews as current as possible, but when an album has been a staple of Billboard’s Blues Music Top 10 for 44 weeks, it really needs to be mentioned. ALREADY FREE marks The Derek Trucks Band’s 6th studio effort and reflects a maturity that can only come from experience and life lessons learned. The blonde pony-tailed guitar prodigy is now 30 years-old, the husband of fellow seasoned blues performer Susan Tedeschi and a father of two. He’s played with everybody from Buddy Guy to Eric Clapton, has been a member of The Allman Brothers Band for a decade and has led his own self-titled group since 1994. He’s a guy that has packed a lot of living and performing into a relatively short lifetime and if ALREADY FREE is the fruit of all the labor it was certainly all worth it.
The album runs 12 tracks (with Best Buy and iTunes editions reportedly featuring “bonus tracks”), features guests like Susan Tedeschi, Doyle Bramhall II and Oteil Burbridge and finds Trucks and his band fusing blues and soul with a touch of rock. With the exception of the rollicking roadhouse-style blues number, Get What You Deserve, Trucks doesn’t seem to restrict himself to basic 12-bar blues formulas, but manages to never stray too far from that all-important roots music sound.
Truck’s guitar playing is as always controlled, precise and soulful and with ALREADY FREE, he lives up to his reputation as one of music’s “New Guitar Gods”; delivering a tastefully executed album that manages to transcend the common notion of “the blues”, while undoubtedly being able to satisfy even the most skeptic of blues purists.
Standout "blues" tracks include Down In The Flood, Don’t Miss Me, Get What You Deserve and the album’s title track, Already Free.
The album runs 12 tracks (with Best Buy and iTunes editions reportedly featuring “bonus tracks”), features guests like Susan Tedeschi, Doyle Bramhall II and Oteil Burbridge and finds Trucks and his band fusing blues and soul with a touch of rock. With the exception of the rollicking roadhouse-style blues number, Get What You Deserve, Trucks doesn’t seem to restrict himself to basic 12-bar blues formulas, but manages to never stray too far from that all-important roots music sound.
Truck’s guitar playing is as always controlled, precise and soulful and with ALREADY FREE, he lives up to his reputation as one of music’s “New Guitar Gods”; delivering a tastefully executed album that manages to transcend the common notion of “the blues”, while undoubtedly being able to satisfy even the most skeptic of blues purists.
Standout "blues" tracks include Down In The Flood, Don’t Miss Me, Get What You Deserve and the album’s title track, Already Free.
*If you enjoyed this article, you may get furiously angered by: Doyle Bramhall II...Mediocre At Best
Copyright © 2009 - J. Blake. All Rights Reserved
