The Derek Trucks Band: Joyful Noise : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Blond, waifish and just twenty-three, Derek Trucks looks more like the oldest Hanson brother than he does his uncle Butch, the longtime Allman Brothers Band drummer. But on his band's major-label debut, his skills as a guitarist and commitment to elastic grooves belie his age and paleness, as Trucks splashes his slide guitar over styles that range from straight-up blues to percussion-laden Latin frenzy. Trucks' wife, Susan Tedeschi, chimes in for the soul number "Baby, You're Right," while the Pakistani vocalist Rahat Fateh Ali Khan's warblings on "Maki Madni" fit in surprisingly well alongside the group's improvised forays into the mystic, several of which bring to mind the Allmans' "Mountain Jam." Boring-ass eclecticism is the hobgoblin of the jam-band nation, but here the kid tames a stylistic sprawl with nothing more than a bottleneck slide.

CHRISTIAN HOARD
(RS 905 - Sept. 19, 2002)