Derek Trucks has accomplished a lot in his 29 years. At age 11, he began sitting in on Allman Brothers Band (ABB) concerts as a replacement for the late, great Duane Allman, and industry publications such as Rolling Stone Magazine have long lauded him as one of the greatest younger-generation guitarists in the world. In addition to his work with ABB, Trucks has led the Derek Trucks Band (DTB), whose much-hyped sixth studio album, "Already Free," was released on Jan. 13. With their latest disc, Derek Trucks Band has not broken any new ground, but it's given listeners a solid continuation of the blues-rock sound that first made them famous fifteen years ago.
While known for its incorporation of eclectic musical influences derived from Africa, Latin America, India and Eastern Europe, the band's sound has always been predicated on the deep, swampy tones and musical traditions of the American South. The blues make a prominent appearance throughout this album. Trucks's reverence for American roots music is epitomized in the album's opening track, a heavy, hard-rocking arrangement of Bob Dylan's "Down in the Flood," that calls to mind the layered, overdriven guitar riffs of Led Zeppelin's darkest works and sets the tone for the rest of the album.
Musically, the band's performance is as tight as ever. Lead singer Mike Mattison rasps out crystal-clear lyrics in a rich, throaty baritone reminiscent of John Mayer, and Trucks displays his prodigious talents not only as a composer and guitarist, but also as a keen and accomplished studio producer.
Songs like "Something To Make You Happy" feature enough overdubbed instruments to make Phil Spector jealous, but the instrumentation never seems excessive. Every guitar-fill and organ-swell fits together in a tastefully assembled auditory collage. Trucks and Mattison work hard to ensure that the songs don't all sound the same, and the band explores a wide range of styles across the album's twelve songs. These styles include an eerie sitar intro and fade-out in "Maybe This Time," the penultimate track, to "Sweet Inspiration," a funky, rollicking gospel tune that would fit right in at a Sly and the Family Stone show.
Although the musicianship is consistent and strong, "Already Free" is by no means a perfect album. By the time track eight rolls around, the band's momentum has started to significantly lag, and the generic themes of women, booze and "I'm gonna leave you" that so idiomatically define blues songwriting have gotten a bit tired.
Mattison's lyrics are by no means bad, but they are certainly not outstanding. It seems at times that the verses exist for the sole purpose of giving the musicians an excuse to build a jam song around words, which, to their credit, they do quite well. Trucks is in top form, taking elegant and technically virtuosic slide guitar solos with impunity, and his rhythm section keeps pace admirably.
But at this point in the band's career, even instrumental perfection is really just more of the same. Since their 1994 debut, DTB has been consistently noted for the strength of its musical performances and for Trucks's guitar playing in particular. But there's nothing altogether innovative or groundbreaking about the music on this album.
Despite these gripes, it would be unfair not to acknowledge the few gems that exist in Trucks' new album. "Down in the Flood" is one of the best Dylan covers in recent memory, and the requisite acoustic country crooner -- a heartfelt ballad called "Back Where I Started" featuring Boston native (and Trucks' wife) Susan Tedeschi on lead vocals -- is a superb neo-folk tune in the style of Ryan Adams or Stevie Nicks.
The best track on the album, however, is the masterfully crafted "Our Love," a lyrical, guitar-and-piano driven folk-rock masterpiece. Guest singer Doyle Bramhall II's smooth and steady voice perfectly matches and harmonizes with Trucks's violin-like guitar tone, lending the song a haunting, angelic beauty.
Operating under the well-established mantra "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," the Derek Trucks Band has stuck once more to the formulaic reliability of its southern-rock roots and given listeners an album steeped in Americana and the musical heritage of the Mississippi Delta. While it probably won't go down in the annals of history as a definitive milestone of twenty-first century rock, "Already Free" is still a solid album -- maybe even a great one.
