The Derek Trucks Band played the Ritz in Tampa this past weekend and it was a wonderful display of slide guitar prowess by one of the undisputed masters of the instrument. Colonel Bruce Hampton & the Quark Alliance opened the show with a nice set by one of the original innovators that created the jamband genre. Derek’s wife Susan Tedeschi joined him for part of his set. Derek’s brother Duane played drums.

Story and photos by John Davisson

The Derek Trucks Band opened their set with “Meet Me At The Bottom,” featuring some sizzling slide work. Next up was “Volunteered Slavery,” which featured some more amazing slide work and a nice flute intro from Kofi Burbridge. The music continued to diversify with the funky “I’d Rather be Blind, Crippled and Crazy,” followed by “Done Got Over” which had more of a jazz feel and a soaring guitar part that brought the song to a climax. The lights then switched from reds and blues to green for the mellower “Manjoun,” which was almost a ballad had a heavy percussive groove going on underneath that had the fans stomping and clapping along.

After a run through the blues song “Key to the Highway,” Susan Tedeschi and Col. Bruce Hampton (retired) joined in for a couple of songs, followed by the gospel tune “Sweet Inspiration.” “My Favorite Things” then featured another nice slide and flute duet by Derek and Kofi before the set ended with the “Joyful Noise” jam. The encore was the raveup “Hook and Sling,” after which the fans were by now sweaty but satiated from dancing to the thick grooves.

Throughout the set, it was Derek's amazing slide work that got the most attention, although the rest of the band was solid. The diversity of the music was also astounding, flexing from rock to blues to jazz to funk. Derek is definitely a musician rather than just a performer. The band is a staple of the jamband scene, whose followers flock to the shows to dance to the grooves, unfortunately the audience probably can’t appreciate the depth of the music, they’re happy as long as they can dance and as long as the guitar is grooving. The jamband scene is fading though and there were some people in the audience to check out the fretwork rather than twirl.

The Derek Trucks Band will be on hiatus for much of 2010, although Derek will be busy, either with the Allmans, Eric Clapton, or doing some select dates with his wife (and Susan tends to bring more of a r&b style to the band which makes for some nice grooves for the twirling hippies). Hopefully he’ll be at the Wanee Festival again, too. It is his ability to adapt to different genres and styles that will continue to make him a player worth checking out no matter what he’s doing.

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