Clapton tour brings guitar gods young and old together on stage

Clapton tour brings guitar gods young and old together on stage

By Gene Triplett
The Oklahoman

When Eric Clapton takes the stage Monday night at the Ford Center, he'll be covering career highlights that include songs from his Derek and The Dominos days. And this time, there really will be a guy named Derek in the lineup.

Derek Trucks, that is.

And there's some significant rock 'n' roll history at work here, not to mention a dream come true for young guitarist Trucks. His uncle, Butch Trucks, is one of the original drummers of The Allman Brothers Band. The late Duane Allman was the lead guitarist of that seminal Southern rock outfit, who also teamed with Clapton for The Dominos' single landmark album in 1970.

Duane Allman died in a motorcycle accident in 1971, 19 years before Derek Trucks was born, but Derek's dad raised him on a healthy diet of Allman Brothers and Derek and The Dominos records, and Duane and Eric became the youngster's heroes, inspiring him to pick up the guitar at age 9 and become a touring musician on the jam band circuit before he was in his teens.

Today, Derek Trucks is fast becoming a guitar giant in his own right, having just made Rolling Stone magazine's cover as one of the top 20 "new guitar gods” of the early 21st century. He's one of the hard-dest working players in the business, fronting his own Derek Trucks Band, filling Duane Allman's slot in the current edition of The Allman Brothers Band, and now finishing the last leg of a world tour in Clapton's road group.

When I caught up with him, he was in Atlanta rehearsing with the Allmans but getting ready to go back out on the final two weeks of the Clapton tour.

"The first time I really played with him was on the J.J. Cale record a little over a year ago,” Trucks said, referring to the Cale-Clapton collaboration "The Road to Escondido,” released in November on Reprise.

"Yeah, definitely not anything I planned on doing or ever thought I would get the opportunity to do, so it's pretty exciting just to get the call to come record in the first place. And when I got the offer to do the tour, it was pretty overwhelming. So, you know, it's pretty surreal to be onstage with, first, the Allman Brothers, playing this music I grew up hearing, and looking over and seeing the guys doing their thing. And now with Eric, doing the Albert Hall or Madison Square Garden and playing these tunes that I really grew up learning as a child. So, it's a pretty amazing opportunity.”

But Trucks hasn't fallen into the role of Duane Allman mimic when playing those songs. While his fluid, high-register solos owe much to the Allman canon, Trucks brings style and identity all his own to the fray, with an expressive slide technique that at times resembles a human vocal. It's a trait he picked up from sacred-steel master Aubrey Ghent.

"Somebody gave me a record of his, and in probably the first 30 seconds, I just thought I was listening to a woman singing,” Trucks said. "And then I heard the pick noise, and I think, ‘Oh! You can do that.' That really opened me up to taking a much more vocal, lyrical approach to the instrument.”

It's a blues, jazz and Indian-inflected sound that has earned Trucks the respect of critics and fans alike. But he doesn't allow the "new guitar god” label or the Rolling Stone cover to go to his blond, pony-tailed head.

"I always take stuff like that as lightly as possible,” he said with a Jacksonville, Fla., drawl. "It's great to be on there. I'm glad I'm on there upside down (with a right-side-up John Mayer, and an upside-down John Frusciante). It wouldn't be right any other way. It's just comical. I think being an instrumentalist, and at some point along the line with our band, really playing eclectic music and never really thinking you'd get any mainstream success, to be on the cover of Rolling Stone is pretty funny.”

Meanwhile, filling in for Duane on The Dominos material is serious business, and Trucks approaches it accordingly.

"I hint at it (Allman's licks) and try to evoke that era a little bit, but you try to take it elsewhere,” he said. "Because for me, one of the beauties of Duane's playing was the amount of fire and energy, and it really seemed like whatever situation he played in, he really kind of lit a fire under everyone else's a--.

"That's kind of the mentality that I try to take when playing in the Allmans and doing some of The Dominos stuff. You try to be a catalyst that way. Not so much coppin' all the licks. There are some really signature things that he does on those records that I think are nice to hint at or even occasionally just cop the lick. But for the most part, you just kind of get in that realm and improvise.”

As for sharing a stage with the living granddaddy of guitar gods, that's pretty serious stuff, too, but Clapton makes it easy.

"I don't really know a lot of guys of that caliber and have that kind of success and are that legendary that you feel as comfortable around,” Trucks said. "He wears it differently than most people. He's very humble that way. You don't feel like you shouldn't be onstage with him. Guys that are in their own skin, musically, you feel comfortable around.”