Watkins: Tedeschi Trucks ‘happy and soulful’
Billy Watkins, The Clarion-Ledger 11:16 a.m. CDT May 14, 2015
Derek Trucks
Q. I wanted to know about [Derek Trucks‘s] style, about what he tries to say using his guitar.
A. “I try to convey some kind of emotion,” he says. “Like the great jazz drummer Elvin Jones said his mother used to say to him. She was a gospel singer, and whenever Elvin would play she would shout out, ‘Tell your story.’
“I totally get that. There has to be something behind what you’re playing. With all the great musicians, you can feel there is an art to it. It’s not, ‘Hey, check out all the stuff I figured out in my practice room.’ It’s more about improvising and playing what you feel. One of the first things I learned from hanging around blues clubs or during my time with the Allman Brothers was the importance of not playing the same thing the same way two nights in a row. It was all about ‘take it somewhere else tonight.’ ”
Scott K Fish 