Music Review: The Derek Trucks Band, Already Free

By Steve Morley

When the slide guitar prodigy Derek Trucks first began playing with the venerable Allman Brothers Band as a pre-teen around 1990, the resemblance between Trucks’ fretwork and that of the late Duane Allman was uncanny. As the nephew of Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks, Derek grew up closer to the source than most. But to have absorbed the passion and maturity of Duane Allman’s still-legendary slide work by age 12 is as inconceivable as a young Arthur pulling Excalibur from the stone and becoming King of Camelot. If there’s anything more impressive than his innate ability and his acquired sophistication, it’s that Trucks came of age without ever succumbing to the big-money men waving rock-star fantasies in his face. He’s a legitimate heir to the slide-guitar throne and the embodiment of artistic integrity in a celebrity-fixated culture. The now-29-year-old’s eponymously named band is 15 years old and sounds every second of it on Already Free, a relaxed but solid collection that steps away from Trucks’ jazz and world music influences to focus on the rich and rootsy blues-rock on which he cut his teeth.

High-caliber musicianship forms the album’s foundation, but Trucks and company don’t squander the chance to relay some thoughtful and positive messages. “Maybe This Time” describes a troubled relationship, but pushes toward forgiveness and reconciliation. The acoustic-based “Our Love” sweetly oozes the cozy family atmosphere of the Trucks home, where the album was casually cut while the kids played nearby and Trucks’ wife, singer Susan Tedeschi, pitched in. Their feel-good remake of the 1968 soul chestnut “Sweet Inspiration” retains the pop-gospel flavor of the original, which lightly touches on the spiritual dimension of committed romance.

Conversely, Bob Dylan’s “Down in the Flood” receives a gritty southern-rock treatment that befits its vaguely apocalyptic theme, while the band’s lowdown shuffle “Get What You Deserve” addresses retribution over a quicksilver riff and projects a possible future when mercy may be in desperate need. (“You can do what you please/ But you get what you deserve/ Sooner or later, some kind of savior/ Is gonna come down through the roof/ Do me a favor—let me off easy when you do.”) The band belies its relative youth on “Days Is Almost Gone,” boasting a classic and fully ripened R&B sound replete with horns. The slow and soulful number soothes even as it urges consideration of waning opportunities to make a change for the better. (“When you wait too long to get it right/ Life can pass you by/ The second chance could be your last/ I’m reaching for the light…”)

With his rustic title track, Trucks nearly revises musical mythology, creating a period-perfect early-1900s rural blues that substitutes joyous liberation—and a hint of salvation—for the now-infamous legends of soul-selling associated with the origin of the genre. (“I am already free/ I am already free/ Gonna be like Christmas/ When the devil comes for me/ I am already free.”) While Trucks’ emotive improvisations and his band’s vigorous support offer plenty to satisfy the mortal appetite, it’s doubtful that the vibrant and generally wholesome music on Already Free owes any debt to the devil.     

Audio Clips

"Down in the Flood"

"Maybe This Time"

"Something to Make You Happy"

"Sweet Inspiration"