About 9 years ago I saw a very lacklustre Eric Clapton show in Brisbane. We had almost had dinner with him the night before. He and Ian Botham were in the same restaurant eating outside through the window from Jan and I). While the song choice was great (lots off Layla) the man seemed to have had his personality extracted and the show really lacked energy.
At the time he had two support guitarists who really held the show together- particularly the guy that looked a bit like a beefier Duanne Allman.
Unusually for me, and probably because I am not a great Clapton (Clapped Out?) fan I had not done any research on his band and if I had I would have known the pedegree of his two "support" guitarists in Doyle Bramhill II and Derek Trucks. Bramhill's father having played with Freddy King and Stevie Ray and Trucks apparently named after Derek and the Dominos and the nephew of Butch Trucks the Allman Brothers drummer.
Fast forward about five years and I passed a stand on new release CDs in HMV Singapore and this album caught my eye. It was an import, which in Singapore I was never sure what it meant as all non Chinese music is imported, other than of course it was more expensive. Anyway I bought the CD based on its cover and some review extracts on the plastic cover.
Great Buy and I now have a few Derek Trucks and related CDs. But this is still the favourite by a long way. I know others would say he has done better (especially when he ties up with his wife Susan Tedeschi in the Tedeschi Trucks Band). It is well paced starting with a formidable bvlues infused cover of Dylan's Down in the Flood and then he is joined by Doyle Bramhill on Something to Make You Happy, then a great cover of Dan Penn's Sweet Inspiration, the blues boogie of Get What you Deserve and closes with Already Free
File it alongside Derek and The Dominos, The Allman Brothers Band, The Black Crowes and the more recent Trigger Hippy. Great stuff.
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