Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!, September 3, 2004
Some of the reviews here are quite funny. Some folks don't like this album because it dares to be different. It doesn't sound like the Allman Brothers or Albert King or Howlin Wolf or B.B. King or Freddie King or any other blues legend. What these other reviewers apparently fail to understand is that the Derek Trucks Band is trying to create ORIGINAL music here. Not just make an easy buck by covering songs already done by other people. Just because DT has a side gig playing in the Allman Brother's Band doesn't mean he's trying to be Duane Allman. He's trying to be Derek Trucks and I think they succeed marvelously. I love this album.
I've seen the Derek Trucks Band perform live. In fact, I stood about 15 feet in front of him recently in a small club while he played for 2 hours. You truly cannot appreciate this young man's talent until you've seen him play live. The speed and precision with which he plays slide guitar are dizzying. And his ability to switch back and forth between playing with and without the slide in the same song is amazing. One of the best measures of a musician's true talent is how well they can perform live on stage the great sounds you hear on the album. Derek Trucks live tone is every bit as wonderful as it is on the album.
No, this is not a traditional blues rock album. It's a mixture of blues, jazz, Indian, and African rhythms combined with awesome guitar playing and I think it's absolutely terrific.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mixture of styles---, September 27, 2004
Each track on this CD is of a different musical style-Blues, Rock, Jazz, Soul, Jazz-Fusion, Eastern and Latin. There are many guests artists from the various musical styles. But, it all has a commonality in sound, being built around Derek Truck's slide guitar and the continuity of the rest of the band. The CD is around 55 minutes long and the sound quality is excellent.
It is great to hear an artist experiment with styles. Doing it all on one CD prevents the CD from getting boring. However, doing too much can make an album very uneven. There is a little of that on this CD. And the band is not totally successful in all music styles.
There are some great tracks on this CD. The Blues, Rock and Soul songs are all excellent. The Jazz-Fusion track, Look-Out 31 may be the best thing on the CD. It is better than much of the lastest work from fusion superstars like Chick Corea and Al DiMeola.
There are some lesser tracks that pull this down from a five star rating. Every Good Boy is a silly keyboard solo. It sounds like a cross between Don't Sit Under the Apple, and the theme song to Sugar Crisp cereal (Can't Get Enough of Sugar Crisp, Sugar Crisp, Sugar Crisp). Maki Mandi, is an interesting Indian tune, but at over 8 minutes it gets repetitive and goes on a little bit too long. Kam-Ma-Lay is a very nice Latin tune, along the lines of Santana, but doesn't compare witht the best of Santana. It reminds me of Santana wannabe's from the seventies (like Malo, which feature Carlos Santana's brother).
This is a very good CD. Some complain because it explores new areas and is not just Southern boogie or blues. If that is all you want, then you shouldn't buy this CD. If you like new and different, played very well, then this is a small treasure.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very Diverse, but interesting, September 12, 2002
For starters, I am a little disapointed in this album, but that does not mean that it is not a good record. Personally, I enjoyed "out of the Madness" a lot more because I like the blues. However, on this album Derek runs the gauntlet with a diverse set ranging from blues, soul, jazz, and what sounds egyptian, not sure but it is cool. This kid is a great player, no doubt about it, but this set is to diverse for me to get into it. However, you have to give Derek credit for making an album that is so diverse because most artist never change or evolve, he is great talent, but I will stick to the blues.
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