Watkins: Tedeschi Trucks 'happy and soulful'

Derek Trucks swore he was done with women.

"I told all my friends," Trucks says. "I'm not sure they believed me, but I was like, 'I'm serious. I'm done unless I can find one who listens to Howlin' Wolf ... people who can really play music," he says.

The universe is a wondrous thing. The words had barely drifted from his mouth in 1999 when he met Susan Tedeschi. Trucks, who's from Jacksonville, Florida, was in his first year as an official member of the Allman Brothers Band. Tedeschi, who hails from Boston, was their opening act on tour.

They met, they fell in love and they married. Today, they are the parents of two children — Charles Khalil Trucks, 13, and Sophia Naima Trucks, 11.

They also are considered two of the greatest guitar players in the world today. The husband and wife team bring their group, Tedeschi Trucks Band, to the Mississippi Coliseum on Saturday. Originally set for outdoors, the concert was moved from the Madison County town of Livingston because of rain in the forecast.

The new schedule: Doors open at 4 p.m. Osborne plays 5-5:45 p.m., Steve Earle & the Dukes are onstage 6:15-7:30 p.m., and Tedeschi Trucks Band performs from 8-10 p.m.-plus.

"Rolling Stone" magazine rated Trucks at No. 16 on its 2011 list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists. The player rated No. 2 told the magazine that Trucks "is like a bottomless pit ... his thing is very deep." That player would be Eric Clapton.

And anyone wanting to challenge Tedeschi in a six-string shootout should enter at his own risks.

"It is so cool to be on stage with some really, really great guitar players," Trucks says by cell phone, "and to watch Susan not only go toe to toe with them, but just cut 'em!"

He laughs as if to say "been there, boys."

It only seems like Trucks has been playing his magical slide guitar for half a century. At the age of 35, he has already earned a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his 15 years of work with the Allman Brothers.

He doesn't appear the part of a hard-living, road-loving rock 'n' roller. He has a forgiving face to go with a soft-spoken demeanor.

Part of that can be attributed to avoiding the mistakes so many rockers made when living on the edge was a necessary image ingredient.

"Growing up around a lot of that, I've seen the broken families and I've watched a lot of talent go up in flames," Trucks says. "Susan and I talked about it. You know, when you start having kids, you have to prioritize. We do have different parameters than a lot of the bands before us, but this is what's normal for us.

"I don't mean to make it sound like we're a church choir bus rolling down the road. We're not. We have fun. But you also make sure you know where to draw the line. It's 'family first' for us."

Stacey Allman, the ex-wife of Gregg Allman, lives in the metro Jackson area. She met Trucks when he was 15 and playing occasional gigs with the Allman Brothers. Stacey was around when Derek and Susan became a couple.

"Derek is humble — and an old soul," she says. "No one sounds like Derek. No one can get the sounds from a guitar that he can. And the same is true for Susan. She's a unique talent with a voice that will capture you. On stage, they go back and forth, back and forth. With them, it's all about the music, and we've lost so much of that these days.

"They play beautiful, happy, soulful music, and they send that out to their audiences in waves."

During our interview, Trucks mentions that he has played Jackson "a bunch of times."

"George Street Grocery. Hal & Mal's. Those are some places you remember. We had some crazy times there," he says. "I try to be aware of the history of the cities we travel to. Being such a fan of the blues, I love it when we get to play in Jackson and Mississippi in general."

I wanted to know about his style, about what he tries to say using his guitar.

"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.' "

He does so without a pick and usually with the same guitar, a Gibson SG3. The only time he switches instruments is when an alternate tuning or "a specific sound" is needed.

"When you play one instrument enough, you learn the overtones, the dead spots, how to manipulate it to do whatever you want it to," he says. "As far as not using a pick, I've found that the fewer things in the way when I'm playing, the better off I am."

His right hand technique always lures a laugh.

"I was doing some workshop thing in Japan once, and they were asking me how I did certain things with my right hand. And when I started looking at it and trying to explain, my hand wouldn't work. It didn't want to be studied, I guess."

Trucks, whose uncle Butch was the drummer and founding member of the Allman Brothers Band, says he "likes where our Tedeschi Trucks Band is today." It already has a Grammy Award — the 2012 Best Blues Album for its first CD, "Revelator." The band has since released two more: "Everybody's Talkin' " and "Made Up Mind."

In addition to Trucks and Tedeschi on guitar, the band includes two sets of drums, a keyboard, bass and a horn section.

"One thing I love about this group is that we don't want to let the other person down," he says. "If somebody has an off night, they'll say something about it afterward. And I like the fact that they're ticked off. It means they care."

Contact Billy Watkins at (769) 257-3079 or bwatkins@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @BillyWatkins11 on Twitter.