Las Vegas Weekly

[Southern Rock]

The Dereck Trucks Band

Already Free

When it comes to the titular namesake, it’s all relative. Not for the fact that Derek Trucks has been personally and professionally shaped by his uncle Butch’s Allman Brothers; it befits the perpetual wunderkind more than any other modern-day guitarist—while eschewing the mic in favor of leading with licks—to front his own outfit (sorry, Slash’s Snakepit).

More

The Derek Trucks Band

Beyond the Weekly

The Derek Trucks Band

Billboard.com: Derek Trucks

TDTB’s sixth studio album runs wet and hot across a blend of blues, Southern rock, soul, gospel and, yes, ’70s funk, but as producer and all-around overseer (Free was recorded in a home studio and features Mrs. Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, on the languidly wistful “Back Where I Started”), Trucks never fails to place himself proportionally within the mix. His is the rare position of scant showboating, total service to the song.

With Mike Mattison and guest Doyle Bramhall II also responsible for vocal duties over a patchwork of originals and covers, including a smoldering opening take on Bob Dylan’s “Down in the Flood,” there’s little that’s lyrically cohesive. But since it’s the sultan of slide we’re talking about, it all works, within as mainstream an overall sound as the band has yet dared approach. John Mayer only wishes he could dream up a collection as rootsy and informal that alternates between the serene and the restless.