Derek Trucks

One reason Derek Trucks Band are great is that while the opening cut here, a cover of Bob Dylan's "Down In the Flood," may be meant to break them beyond the borders of semi-obscure critical acclaim, it is so densely constructed, murky and reverential of the dark rituals of classic rock that no commercial radio station will ever allow it more than cursory airplay. Trucks and Co. just go on reading each other's minds. Because of his name and his label backing, Trucks may be inside the mainstream, but he takes no cues from it and has made a career of playing well outside of it.

Derek Trucks could very well be the best guitarist of his generation, and his sixth studio
disc is his band's most accessible blues-rock set to date. Trucks hones the R&B, jazz and
Middle Eastern influences of his previous outings into a tight groove on Already Free. It
kicks off with a gritty, swamp-boogie take on Dylan's "Down in the Flood" and stomps
through a cover of the Southern-soul classic "Sweet Inspiration." The originals p... More >