Hear Derek Trucks SG sing when he’s got a slide in his hand…
With family connections as respected in the music industry as Derek Trucks’, he could have been forgiven if he’d chosen to pursue a different career path. His uncle Butch is a founder member of the Allman Brothers band, and, according to some sources, the name of Eric Clapton’s band, Derek and the Dominoes, is connected in some way to the Florida born SG slinger. However, he picked up the guitar at the age of 9, and was giving his first paid performance by the time he was 11. Precocious, eh?
As he was young when he began to play, Derek Trucks started to use a slide, as he found it an easy way to overcome the difficulties of playing with his smaller hands. As anyone who has heard him play will testify, he got to be really rather good at slide guitar…
All you need is an SG, and a bottle-neck. Easy.
Unlike many prodigious guitarists who are hailed as guitar heroes (usually in guitar magazines), Trucks has a touch that is far beyond his years. Soulful, musical and full of invention, it’s not hard to see why Rolling Stone have twice voted him as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. But then, at the age of 33, he has had 20 years playing with the biggest names in music already (Buddy Guy, Bob Dylan, Joe Walsh, Stephen Stills)
Most frequently you’ll see him with an SG (his signature model has been available from Gibson for a short while), and a slide in his hand, but whatever Derek Trucks plays, it tends to be pretty jaw-dropping. And, to illustrate this, here’s a video of him performing for a US radio station, with the vocals muted out. Inspirational stuff. Enjoy.
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