 Songlines
(2006)
Derek Trucks -- guitar & dobro
Todd Smallie -- bass & vocals
Yonrico Scott -- drums, percussion &
vocals
Kofi Burbridge -- keyboards, flute &
vocals
Mike Mattison - vocals
Count M'Butu - congas & percussion
Produced by Jay Joyce
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to clips and buy
Songlines is the first new studio
album in nearly four years from the continually inventive
young guitarist Derek Trucks and the soulful and eclectic
ensemble that carries his name. "Everybody in the band
is really excited about this record,” says Trucks. “We’ve
always strived to evolve as a band, always thought that there’s
a mission to what we’re doing, and ‘Songlines’
is the most honest representation of the band to date.”
Songlines is the next step in the
bold and fascinating musical evolution of The Derek Trucks
Band. It's the first DTB studio offering to showcase the straight-up
band, direct and pure and working-as-one, striking an uncanny
balance between the power and mystery of the group's transcendent
live performances and the coherent focus of a beautifully
conceived and realized studio production.
It's also the first Derek Trucks Band studio album to feature
the soul-stirring and versatile vocals of the band's latest
addition, Mike Mattison, who joined the DTB more than three
years ago (and can be heard on the 2004 online-only release,
Live at Georgia Theatre). "He really
steps it up in the studio," says Derek of Mike, whose
dusky full-throated sound is naturally at home whether moaning
Delta blues, soul-shaking the rafters, belting rock, scatting
jazz, or simply laying back in reggae syncopation.
The album's title, Songlines, was
inspired by the Aboriginal creation myths that hold that the
world itself was originally sung into existence by legendary
totemic elder beings who wandered the Australian continent
along invisible pathways (later known to Westerners as "songlines"
or "dreaming-tracks") singing out the names of everything--trees,
flowers, streams, animals, clouds, earth--breathing form,
order and beauty into the unfolding world.
"I was turned onto the book, 'The Songlines' [by Bruce
Chatwin], and it seemed to my mind appropriate," says
Derek Trucks regarding the album's inspiration. "With
the amount of different types of music we play, it's kind
of what we're doing: just wandering and taking a little bit
here and a little bit there. A lot of it is trying to turn
on a new generation of listeners to music that formed this
country and the culture. A lot of it falls by the wayside
if you don't introduce it to people. You have to judge a tree
by its roots."
The roots and the fruits of The Derek Trucks Band are manifest
in the breadth and scope of Songlines,
which premieres several brand-new DTB compositions including
the Hammond organ-driven "I'll Find My Way," the
spiritually yearning "This Sky," and the hypnotic
instrumental "Mahjoun,” while acknowleding a wide
range of influences--including American avant-garde jazz (Rahsaan
Roland Kirk's "Volunteered Slavery"), traditional
acoustic slide blues ("Crow Jane"), 700-year-old
Pakistani Qawwali music (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's "Sahib
Teri Bandi/Maki Madni"), and Jamaican reggae (Toots Hibbert's
"Sailing On").
Some of the credit for the coherence and flow of Songlines
lies with producer/collaborator Jay Joyce who recorded the
band at Tragedy/Tragedy in Nashville. "He's thinking
from a songwriter's perspective,” says Trucks. “The
recording process sparked a lot of creative ideas in the band
as far as songwriting, and Jay also helped make the covers
sound like they're our own tunes."
With Songlines, The Derek Trucks
Band has created a vibrant present tense experience that honors
the past while pointing into the future. "With the past,
you don't recreate it, you build on it," says Derek,
"inch it up a few notches and make sure you're moving
forward. Otherwise you’re devolving, or revolving, instead
of evolving. One way is commerce, the other is revelation."
 Live
at Georgia Theatre (2004)
Derek Trucks -- guitar & dobro
Todd Smallie -- bass & vocals
Yonrico Scott -- drums, percussion &
vocals
Kofi Burbridge -- keyboards, flute &
vocals
Mike Mattison - vocals
Count M'Butu - congas & percussion
Recorded October 23, 2003 in Athens, GA
Recorded by Marty Wall
Mixed by Marty Wall & Alex Lowe
Listen
to clips and buy
“The development of the Derek Trucks Band has followed
a progression that appears to be the perfect marketing plan.
But there’s nothing any more contrived about the sequence
of events than there is simply the music itself. The release
of the band's diverse major label debut, Joyful Noise
, segued smoothly to the next year’s almost-all instrumental
Soul Serenade (actually recorded before Noise
but held up in legalities), demonstrating why seeing DTB live
had become such a powerful experience.
No surprise then that a year later, we now have Live
at The Georgia Theatre , available as an online download
through iTunes and directly from the DTB website as well.
With the dual virtues of individual instrumental chops and
band unity brimming on such eclectic choices as Rahsaan Kirk’s
“Volunteered Slavery,” this set also marks the
next step in the group’s evolution, as it features the
regular vocal contributions of Mike Mattison; whether wailing
ecstatically on “Gonna Move” or whispering on
“Feel So Bad,” Mattison is never an intrusion,
but instead gives the listener a chance to hear how Trucks
plays around a singer, where you can hear him demonstrating
an equally sure grasp of nuance and dynamics.
The contributions of latter-day (2002) recruit Kofi Burbridge,
brother of Allman Brother bassist Oteil, have broadened as
well, so that his multiple keyboards, as well as the injection
of airy flute work, extends the range of the band even more.
And with Mattison around, the Derek Trucks Band now has two
first class vocalists, listen to their call and response on
“Joyful Noise.” Burbridge and drummer Yonrico
Scott strut their respective stuff on “Angola”
before the entry of the rest of the band, including bassist
Todd Smallie, who makes his presence felt in the deft navigation
of the lightning changes in the band’s direction. The
sound recording captures such detail impeccably, but impressive
as is that technical virtue, it’s less so than the noticeable
democracy at work within DTB.
That’s no small compliment to its leader since the
profoundly imaginative approach Derek Trucks takes to electric
guitar is all the more extraordinary given his comparative
youth. The scholarly, spiritual approach to music suggested
in the liner notes suggests the source of his humility, perfectly
in keeping with his beatific countenance, which itself belies
the intensity with which he plays. Giving new definition to
the role of guitar hero, he takes a Far Eastern approach in
his playing, where patience is a step in the deconstruction
and rebuilding of the band’s momentum during a performance
such as “Sahib Teri/Maki Madni.”
S leek (the DTB original “So Close, So Far Away”)
or syncopated (Curtis Mayfield’s Superfly tune “Freddie’s
Dead”), the purity of inspiration and execution over
the course of two-plus hours will doubtless bring delight
to any true aficionado of progressive music, all the more
so because Live At The Georgia Theatre suggests that
the reach of the Derek Trucks Band may never exceed its members'
collective grasp.”
-by Doug Collette – Allaboutjazz.com
 Soul
Serenade (2003)
Derek Trucks -- guitar, sarod
Todd Smallie – bass
Yonrico Scott -- drums, percussion
Bill McKay -- Hammond B-3 organ, Wurlitzer
piano, keyboards
Kofi Burbridge -- flute, clavinet, Rhodes
piano, acoustic piano, keyboards
Gregg Allman -- vocal on "Drown In
My Own Tears"
Produced by John Snyder
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to clips and buy
Drawing inspiration from unified mood masterpieces like Kind
Of Blue (Miles Davis), Somethin' Else (Cannonball Adderley),
What's Going On (Marvin Gaye) and others, The Derek Trucks
Band entered Dockside Studios in October 1999 (shortly after
keyboardist/flautist Kofi Burbridge became a permanent member)
to begin work on Soul Serenade.
Chronologically, Soul Serenade was recorded in-between 1998's
Out Of The Madness and 2002's Joyful Noise, but the release
was delayed until 2003 due to record label litigation. Spiritually
and musically, the album is a watershed in the evolution of
the Derek Trucks Band.
According to Derek, the album was "done pretty much
live in the studio" during two remarkably brief sessions:
October 13-15, 1999, and February 16-20, 2000. With the exception
of Derek's sarod (a fretless lute-like Indian instrument)
on the track "Sierra Leone" and guest artist Gregg
Allman's powerhouse blues vocals on "Drown In My Own
Tears," Soul Serenade is virtually free of overdubs.
"We would set up in the studio," Derek remembers,
"and run down two or three tunes in a row...like in a
show. Then we would go back and listen to them and, most of
the time, one or two or maybe all three of them would be a
take. The record went down really quick and really painlessly.
Everyone realized when we left the studio that this was definitely
a unique studio experience. We caught the band on a good week...with
everyone feeling good and playing good. I think that's the
way it's supposed to happen."
 Joyful
Noise (2002)
Derek Trucks – guitar
Kofi Burbridge -- keyboards, flute &
vocals
Todd Smallie -- bass & vocals
Yonrico Scott - drums, percussion, &
vocals
Count M’Butu – congas & percussion
Produced by Craig Street
Listen
to clips and buy
Joyful Noise, the Derek Trucks Band's debut album on Columbia
Records, combines the group's naturally diverse sound with
an even more eclectic mix of styles and performers, concocting
a spiritually-based "world soul" collection. At
the core is the band's energetic rhythmic unity, blending
Derek's skilled-beyond-his-years slide guitar technique, Todd
Smallie's deep and steady six-string bass grooves, Yonrico
Scott's vibrant drum rhythms, and Kofi Burbridge's inimitably
inventive keyboard textures and flute flourishes.
Joyful Noise builds upon original songwriting and cover selections,
augmenting the band's own style with a host of impressive
guest singers and players. Count M'Butu, a former band mate
of Kofi's from his days in the Aquarium Rescue Unit and a
longtime friend of The Derek Trucks Band, adds percussion
to most of the songs.
Soul pioneer Solomon Burke testifies on two tunes -- a new
interpretation of the R&B classic "Home In Your Heart"
(written by Winfield Scott and Otis Blackwell, originally
included on Burke's 1963 If You Need Me album) -- and on the
groove ballad "Like Anyone Else," one of several
songwriting contributions by Kofi. "The performances
Solomon did were just off the scale," Derek says, awe-stricken.
"He brought tears to everyone's eyes."
World-renowned Pakistani vocalist Rahat Fateh Ali Khan lends
his voice and, according to Derek, his stamp of authenticity
to the mystical Qawwali song "Maki Madni." A true
Rahat fan and a fan of Rahat's mentor and uncle Nusrat Fateh
Ali Khan, who originally sang and recorded the internationally
recognized Sufi chant, Derek considered the collaboration
the "heaviest experience" of the recording process.
"I was really surprised that we were able to make that
happen," Derek admits. "We did conference calls
and cell phones and interpreters…" The band recorded
the song and sent the tape to Rahat in Karachi, Pakistan where
he would lay down the vocal tracks. "We told him to just
have his way with it. And he did."
Panamanian Salsa sensation Rubén Blades adds Latin
flavor to "Kam-ma-lay," one of many tunes written
by the entire band, with lyrics written by Blades.?"We
had been thinking of a Latin singer for this tune for a long
time," Derek explains. "We listened to him and it
just seemed obvious." Rubén recorded a dozen tracks
of lead and background vocals, handclaps, and the cowbell.
"When he left the studio everyone was just worn out.
He worked everyone!"
Susan Tedeschi -- an accomplished singer, songwriter, and
guitarist in her own right, as well as Mrs. Derek Trucks and
the proud mother of the couple's two children -- lends sweet
sultry soul to the Joe Tex tune "Baby, You're Right"
(first popularized by James Brown in 1962). While the band
has recorded with Susan a few times in the past, this is the
first time they've released a track with her.
Produced primarily by Craig Street (Chris Whitley, Cassandra
Wilson) -- Russ Kunkel produced "Home in Your Heart"
and "Baby, You're Right" -- and recorded mainly
in Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, NY, the recording sessions
were "a laid-back affair" marked by a sense of freedom
and experimentation. "We've probably had more liberty
this time than ever to go back and try other things on top
of the tracks. We just felt like we didn't have to do a live
record in the studio this time. We wanted to do a studio record."
Engineer S. Husky Hoskulds also contributed to the album's
unique sound and sense of adventure. Derek gives Husky significant
credit both for bringing out the band's natural sound and
for helping to expand it.
 Out
of the Madness (1998)
Derek Trucks - Guitar & Sarod
Todd Smallie – Bass
Yonrico Scott - Drums & Percussion
Bill McKay – Keyboards
Produced by John Snyder
*Not available in stores. Go to DTB
merch page to purchase.
Out of the Madness, released in 1998 on House of Blues Records,
is the second CD released by The Derek Trucks Band. The band
continued to build on the jazz influences evident in their
first release, this time adding more blues and funk elements
to the eclectic mix. Warren Haynes adds vocals on two classic
blues tracks. Guitarist Jimmy Herring, longtime friend of
The Derek Trucks Band, guests on most of the tracks. Blues
vocalist and guitarist Larry McCray also adds vocals and guitar
to the Bobby Bland standard, "Ain't That Lovin' You".
 The
Derek Trucks Band (1997)
Derek Trucks - Guitar, Sarod
Todd Smallie – Bass
Yonrico Scott - Drums & Percussion
Bill McKay - Keyboards & Vocals
Produced by John Snyder
*Not available in stores. Go to DTB
merch page to purchase.
"Backed by a skin-tight rhythm section and complimented
by a top-notch organist, the youthful guitarist blazes through
new arrangements of jazz and blues classics. He turns the
trumpet wizardry of Miles Davis into slide-guitar magic, and
his readings of a couple of Coltrane tunes pack a terrific
punch. The band also contributes several of their own compositions,
paving the way for a bright future as a group of tight-knit,
talented musicians. A flawless recording." -Michael B.
Smith - Allmusic.com
©2006 Legacy Recordings Sony BMG Music Entertainment
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