Dan's Papers - October 31, 2008 - Derek Trucks, Guitar Genius, at Westhampton Beach

With a new album coming out in January, Derek Trucks, whose unique approach to roots music blends in elements of rock, jazz, blues and world music, will be hitting up the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center on Nov. 8.

And fans can expect to get a preview of the upcoming album, Almost Free. "We're going to break in a lot of the new tunes on this record," Trucks said. "But we'll be trying to keep it switched up."

Recorded in a studio Trucks and his band built behind his Jacksonville, FL home, this album is the first that he has ever self-produced. Bringing in close friends and family to write and record with him, he was afforded the leisure of putting Almost Free together with essentially no outside input. "It was nice to not be under the gun and to take my time," he said. "This was a completely different experience. Usually with a major label, you're under the gun. That's the beauty of having your own studio." The experience unleashed a wave of creativity for Trucks and his band. They would wake up, write a song, then spend the day recording and mixing that song. He came away with two albums' worth of material. So unless there's a great producer he really wants to work with in the future, Trucks says he plans on recording all of his albums this way.

The studio itself even lent to the sound of this new album. Trucks and his bandmates built the studio by hand, bringing in vintage gear. "It has a vintage sound, but we're not going retro. We really just made a classic album but in a new setting," he said.

A child guitar prodigy, Trucks broke into music at nine years old, sitting in with local blues bands. Eventually, he started touring with these bands. When he was 11, he began touring with his uncle, drummer Butch Trucks, in the Allman Brothers Band, becoming a full-fledged member in 1999, when he was 20. "I was lucky I had such supportive parents," Derek Trucks said. "I enjoyed [music] and I just took to it. So I did it just to do it. I never felt like I had to do it."

Even while touring with the Allman Brothers, Trucks formed the Derek Trucks Band as a teen, bringing in veteran musicians to join his band. Still today, Trucks balances his time on the road between his own band and the Allman Brothers, who will be heading out on a 40th anniversary tour this year. But there's little conflict between the two bands' schedules, Truck says. "The two bands feed off each other musically," he said. "There's such a good relationship that the schedule works out really well. We're all on the same page."

Trucks is also married to well-known blues guitarist/singer Susan Tedeschi. A family with two touring musicians means it's difficult to coordinate much time together. For that reason, they formed the Soul Stew Revival, a mixture of their two bands with some additional musicians, to tour during the summer, so they can bring their children on the road with them. The Soul Stew Revival has taken on a life of its own, though, says Trucks. While they won't be touring this coming summer because of the Allman Brothers tour, they're already planning for the following summer. "We're hoping in 2010 it'll be an even bigger version," he said. "We want it to be like a travelling circus, kind of like Joe Cocker in the '70s, with 40 people on the road. It's a different day though, so we can't be as crazy. But we'll try."

The Derek Trucks Band will be at the WHBPAC on November 8 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $85/$65/$35. For more information, go to www.whbpac.org or call 631-288-1500.