iconLog In  |  Register

On the town with Derek Trucks

It’s not yer average guitarist who begins a conversation, sitting amid a thicket of empty wine bottles in Radio Maria in Champaign, with a casual reference to Bruce Chatwin’s wonderful (if anthropologically controversial) book The Songlines, about the Australian Aborigines and their fascinating relationship with their landscape, whose geography and history they convert into songs that also act as maps. (Hence the title of his 2006 release, Songlines.)

But then again, if you’re on tour 300+ days a year and you’ve been working at that pace for close to 17 years, you’ve got to do something on the road to keep your mind alert. So what has Derek Trucks been reading recently?

Well, just now it’s been classic short stories, such as Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. But that was actually triggered by reading Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore, along with a slew of Murakami’s other works, while the band was in Japan. There’s something they don’t teach you when you’re getting your MFA in guitar at Berklee or the Miami School of Music: when you’re touring, immerse yourself in the literature of the country where you’re playing.

He’s also a connoisseur of good beer: on tour in Belgium, he tracked down all seven of the Trappist beers, including the almost mythical Westvleteren variety, sold in bottles without a label and found only within a 20-mile radius of the abbey where it is brewed. The Father Abbott of the Westvleteren Abbey has been quoted as saying, “We are not brewers. We are monks. We brew beer to be able to afford being monks.“

All of which leads me to imagine a scene in the Great Band Room in the Sky, where guitarists who never had time to read, or never learned how to read (it’s a matter of dispute whether Django couldn’t read, or he simply couldn’t be bothered to read any of the contracts that were shoved in front of him), finally get all the time in eternity to lounge around with a good book. What would they choose?

I can see Hendrix hanging out in a corner with the collected works of Sherman Alexie, finally getting in touch with his Native American roots. Les Paul, a relentless self-improver, has some kind of Great Books stack on the floor beside him, maybe a bunch of James Michener, or Will Durant’s The Story of Civilization. T-Bone Walker, always smarter than his nickname (which he hated) and his crowd-pleasing nightclub act, has made his way through W.E.B DuBois and James Baldwin and is now reading everything he can find by Barack Obama, just to make sure the guy is all he’s supposed to be. And Stevie Ray Vaughan? Well, call me prejudiced, but I see him finishing The Da Vinci Code, flinging it into a corner and saying, “Damn, man, I could have done better than that.“

Add your own ideas here. What would your favorite dead guitarist be reading? Or, come to think of it, what do you imagine your favorite living guitarist is reading? Who knows? Maybe word will trickle through the Internet and s/he will post back to let you know if you’re right….

Tim Brookes is the author of: Guitar: An American Life and the forthcoming The Greatest Guitarist in the History of the World. He’s in town to act as emcee, interviewer and man-on-the-sidewalk for the Ellnora Guitar Festival at the Krannert Center. Check out his blog at www.timbrookesinc.com.

1 comments

Ben Valocchi avatar featured_post

Ben Valocchi

#1

unbelievably good show tonight


Add A Comment

A note about our commenting policy.


Comment
  1.  captcha arrow

Most Recent Music Comments

Beth D avatar

Awesome looking lineup… I’m excited.  Another vote towards the Smoking Popes rocking out at the first Laughing Prairie Dog festival… it was a pretty good energy, and plenty of groups considering the cheap ticket.  The rest all look pretty good for the ticket price as well.  …

{username}

I was all set to pounce on this, but it’s the truth.  There used to be bands in town I was afraid of, like I’d have a heart attack during their set.  There are still some great bands, but they’re pretty and dainty and low in cholesterol. …

{username}

I will be at Danu this evening. And seeing as tomorrow - St. Pat’s - is my birthday, I will be celebrating with tons of green and fun!

{username}

Big Blue will actually be on 6-9, despite what is posted elsewhere. Then, hightail it over to Bentley’s!

John Steinbacher avatar

Ahh - good point - I will plug them in the appropriate sections.

emma reaux avatar

Yeeee! This sounds so fun! Any word on covers for any/all of these? Maybe SP could spring for punch cards and some discounts if we make it to all, eh?  

{username}

...and given the lack of smiley emoticons i chose to employ, that reads far more sarcastically than i ever intended (my apologies).  i actually find this to be a great article and an interesting discussion, seriously : )

{username}

Once it leaves the basement, it is then called what? hmmm…....could it be mainstream? accessible? appealing on a mass-level? POP???  Quickly it will become a fad, over-saturate the media, and piss people off.  Then everyone can write articles based on how that shit sucks, too.  chickens are…

John Steinbacher avatar

In general, I think music is much more interesting now than in 1995. I definitely am very glad contemporary music has expanded beyond the four-piece rock lineup that dominated much of the 90’s. The point of the above isn’t so much about a sound or an instrument…

{username}

2010 is not 1995. I’m not sure why anyone would expect a music scene to remain stationary as the world of popular music moves around it. Also, today, making popular music with mainstream appeal and being innovative and cutting-edge are usually exact opposites.

Most Recent Comments

Beth D avatar

Awesome looking lineup… I’m excited.  Another vote towards the Smoking Popes rocking out at the first Laughing Prairie Dog festival… it was a pretty good energy, and plenty of groups considering the cheap ticket.  The rest all look pretty good for the ticket price as well.  …

Beth D avatar

(Not to talk too much, but I would delight in being proven wrong.  I hope that there are many vegan dishes, and next time I am there, I will ask the owner for dishes that are vegan that are offered and post them as a comment here,…

Beth D avatar

I understand the disclaimer, and I appreciate it, but given the title of the article, it would be nice to have more of a talk with the owner and less of a “to the best of my knowledge” thrown in the article as an aside, when vegan…

{username}

Nate, No offers to crash but I was wondering if you’d ever considered publishing the plans to your trailer.  You might make a dollar or two especially after you go solar! Let me know if you do it. Sincerely, Don

{username}

Not sure if it’s been mentioned here, but they’ll also be playing the Old Rock House in St. Louis on May 22

{username}

Interesting about who owns land in the path of the Olympian Drive extension. My comment was in response to ‘Tony C’s remarks about the I-74 expansion. Just who owns land in the 150 [BloomingtonRd]-I-74 corridor?? Because the corridor is zoned for future use as Commercial/Industrial, I am…

{username}

(happy face)

Timbo avatar

Wow, great article.  I wish you the best in your endeavors and hope you have a nice trip.

Seth Fein avatar

Um. Yeah — check out that “General Disclaimer” at the bottom of the article, folks.

{username}

As an adoptee, I can empathize—although I’m not an international adoptee, and I apologize if I’m assuming too much on the nature of your adoption.  You can feel what you feel, but don’t be too hard on yourself.  When I started a search for my birth family,…

{username}

I highly doubt a single dish is vegan at Bombay.  Most Indian dishes use Ghee(essentially clarrified butter) as the base fat. While I guess they could make some dishes with canola oil, I would for sure ask the exact ingredients before I consumed if you are following a vegan diet.

{username}

You’re right!  Every runner, in my opinion, is a real runner.

Mica Swyers avatar

Congratulations on the AG place! In all of your accomplishments, don’t forget what it was like to think a mile was an impossible distance. Getting to the six-mile point takes a lot of training and preparation to acclimate the mind and musculature to so much pounding. Your…

{username}

Sounds like it!

emma reaux avatar

I heading out on my 9 miler before my 10 hour work day right now. Do I have what it takes?

{username}

Nice, killer work pretty man…the channeled, one sided collaborated rhyming poem.  An oft forgot genre.   The ruckus was felt even here in my living room, which is normally a safe haven from ruckus.    

{username}

wait, I was commenting on the wrong thing - sorry - he’s actually a gigantic sellout but who really knows what all this is about.

{username}

If the democrats didn’t have Kucinich, and the republicans didn’t have Ron Paul, where would both these parties really stand? These men actually mean what they say.

{username}

Joel, thank you for the opportunity to answer these questions and have them posted here. I really appreciate it! Yes, I was thrilled to see that Rep. Kucinich flipped today, so he will has committed to voting yes for health reform. I appreciated his comments which seem…

{username}

It appears to me that your reviewer did all that could be expected: she paid her money, saw the play and conveyed her impressions. The review (on the whole, laudatory) may have been rushed, in a generous attempt to publicize the production while it was still available…

Log In



Auto-login on future visits

Forgot your password?