This Sky [Music] [Non-Sports]

What were you doing with your life when you were 11 years old?

I was in sixth grade and age 11 actually marked the apex of my athletic career. That summer was the only year I played football, and as an undersized offensive lineman by default, I carried my Jr. Plainsmen team (not really) to an undefeated season. It was also the only year I made a CYO Basketball team (St. Edwards Gold, baby) and we won our Diocesan Championship on a still legendary buzzer beater by Ange Michael. I played the crucial role of 7th man, coming off the bench for 6 points in the championship game against St. Paul's. For that one year, I was like the David Eckstein of Clifton Park, except I couldn't use being short as an excuse for why I sucked.

I only ask because at 11 years of age, Derek Trucks was already doing shows with the Allman Brothers Band. It probably helped that his uncle, Butch Trucks, was an original member of the Allmans, but they weren't going to throw the kid on stage if he wasn't something truly special.

Derek was born in 1979 and named after the Eric Clapton-led group Derek and the Dominoes. He bought his first acoustic guitar at a garage sale at the age of 9 for $5. Learning to play the guitar at any age takes a toll on the tips of your fingers, but young Derek simply couldn't put enough pressure on the strings of a $5 acoustic to play it. Since his Uncle was in the Allman Brothers, and he had grown up listening to his parents' LPs of Eat A Peach and Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, he decided to circumvent traditional playing and try the slide or "bottleneck" like his idol, Duane Allman.

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A slide is a tube-shaped device made of glass, metal, plastic or ceramics that totally transforms how the guitar is played. In a pinch, a Zippo or even a plastic lighter isn't that bad of an option. The slide has to be applied with enough pressure to keep the strings from buzzing when picked, but not so much as to make the strings touch the frets. I'm guessing the $5 guitar he bought had considerable space the between the strings and the fingerboard (action), which would make it very difficult to play normally, but perfect for slide.

When playing slide, the frets are only useful as a frame of reference as to where to position the slide itself. In that way, playing slide guitar is similar to the violin in that you don't have frets to land the note on. You have to find the notes yourself, which is done almost exclusively with your ear.

The modern incarnation of the technique is said to have come from Hawaiian guitarist named Joseph Kekuku.

He was walking along a road in Honolulu, holding an old Spanish guitar when he saw a rusty bolt on the ground. As he picked it up, the bolt accidentally vibrated one of the strings and produced a new tone that was rather pleasing. After practicing for a time with the metal bolt, Joe experimented with the back of a pocket knife, then with the back of a steel comb and still later on with a highly polished steel (bar) very similar to the sort that is used today.

Hawaii had already set a precedent for developing unique guitar traditions, inventing slack key in the late 19th century. The technique involves tuning the guitar down to form open chords, creating the mellow trademark Hawaiian sound you instantly associate with leis and luaus.

At 30 years old, Kekuku left O'ahu to pursue a recording career on the mainland, never to return to Hawaii. He spent the next 28 years touring the U.S. and Europe performing, teaching and popularizing the steel and slide guitar.

In Sub-Saharan African there were and still are one-stringed bowed instruments that are played using a smooth stone or piece of bone as a slide. This is thought to have carried over during the slave trade and morphed into a similar contraption called the Jitterbug that surfaced in the South in the 1800's.

In the early 1900's, guitars had begun to be manufactured instead of handcrafted, and this made them far more available to the masses. The reason it's also called "bottleneck", is that some of the original slides were parts of discarded broken bottles which were carefully cut with a heated blade at just the right point so they wouldn't shatter.

The confluence of these forces lead to the ubiquitization of slide guitar in blues and later country and rock music. Mississippi Delta Blues legends Willy Brown, Blind Willie McTell, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Son House, and the King, Robert Johnson (right) were among the first well known practitioners of the trade.

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When Trucks was 12 years old he got his first major gig, opening for Bob Dylan in Clearwater, Florida. He played "Highway 61 Revisited" and later recalled:

I remember leaving the show and I ran into Dylan, I was on my way out and he asked me if I wanted to stick around and sit in with him. I was only 12, but I knew how much weight he carried, I remember my dad being completely freaked out. He was much more nervous than me.

Derek Trucks was officially made a member of the Allman Brothers band in 1999 at the age of 19 and has been touring with them full-time ever since. Luckily for Sampson and I, we live a block away from the (recently restored) Beacon Theatre where the Allmans play 14 shows over a three week period every - well - every year that Gregg Allman's Hep C doesn't decide to flare up.

Another amazing thing about Derek is his stage presence. He's got a young-looking face and a long blond pony tail, and doesn't typically say much during his shows. He is also probably one of the least demonstrative lead guitarists you will ever see. He doesn't feel the need skip around the stage and bang his head or play to the crowd in any way. Instead, he stands there like a monk transfixed in prayer. Check out the clip of Desdemona below from the Beacon and you'll see what I mean. He rips an incredibly moving solo, but simply stands there without even much of a facial expression (and busts out the slide at the 2:10 mark with the sleight of hand of a magician).



Trucks met Eric Clapton backstage at a Folk Festival in 2003. Without warning two years later, he called Derek and asked him to contribute to his album with J.J. Cale, Road to Escondido. Two days into the recording, Clapton asked Trucks to go on tour with him. Having Derek along allowed Clapton to start playing more Derek and the Dominoes tunes including Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad, and Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out (both recent YouTubes from the tour).

His own group, The Derek Trucks Band came together when Trucks was 15 years old and they have been recording and experimenting ever since. In spite of his Southern blues and rock roots, the band is extremely eclectic, also drawing on jazz, funk, Latin, Indian & Pakistani, and classical music to form their own very unique sound.

The video below is a one minute excerpt from Sahib Teri Bandi Maki Madni.



Even without the imagery I've added, you can clearly hear the Hindu influence in the song. The inspiration for this was the time DT spent studying at the Ali Akbar College of Music. The song is actually a combination of two Punjabi folk classics, "Sahib Teri Bandi" and "Maki Madni", written by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, into one song. What you heard in the beginning is called the "raga"; a section that sounds like improvisation, but is actually a composed segue to the scale the musician will be using. The melody established in the second half of the clip is "Sahib Teri Bandi". If you listen to the full version (the album cut is 9:54 long), you'll hear the "Maki Madni" melody line introduce itself about 3/4 of the way through.

Not everything they do is so musically advanced and intricate. Songs like Sailing On, I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free), Joyful Noise and Get What You Deserve have a more typical rock/blues flavor and less of a world music influence.

Trucks' wife is singer Susan Tedeschi, and they have two children, a boy named Charlie after legendary jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker and daughter Sophie, who takes her middle name, Naima, from a John Coltrane song. In addition to his duties with The Allmans, Clapton, and theDTB, Trucks and Tedeschi occasionally merge their bands into a group called Soul Stew Revival.

The title track of this post is obviously This Sky. It's the last track off the album Songlines, but never gets played live for one reason or another. It's and laid back, soothing and almost ethereal. Without further adieu:

Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad

When I was growing up, my parents had an extensive LP collection including The J. Geils Band, Santana, Eric Clapton, The Allman Brothers, The Who, Lynyrd Skynyrd and every Rolling Stones album ever made. One of the reasons my parents were so into music (and had such good taste) was that my Dad's best friend's sister had managed the three bands linked above and was able to get those two tickets to all sorts of different concerts.

One of the albums I grew up to was Eric Clapton Unplugged. Being that Unplugged was my first entrée into Clapton's music, my perception of him was badly skewed. I was still young, but knew little beyond Tears in Heaven, Alberta and the acoustic version of Layla. It wasn't until much later in life that I discovered Hello Old Friend, Lay Down Sally, Motherless Children and the versions of Layla and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out he recorded with Duane Allman during the Derek and the Dominoes (D&tD) sessions.

Before D&tD came to be in 1970, Clapton had already done work with numerous supergroups, including the Yardbirds, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith and Delaney, Bonnie & Friends (who my esteemed former college golf teammate Kyle brought up in the comments section of the Duane Allman post). It was the internal turmoil swirling around Delaney & Bonnie that allowed for the formation of D&tD.

Clapton, keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, drummer Jim Gordon and bassist Carl Radle had all played with D&B, but Delaney's ego and his fighting with Bonnie made them unbearable to record with. Whitlock later said:

"Delaney was a little James Brownish, real hard to work with, him and Bonnie fighting all the time and carrying on. Everyone got disenchanted with the situation"

It was Whitlock and Clapton who first connected after the four future Dominoes had left D&B. Whitlock was out of work at the time with $120 to his name when Clapton flew him out for a visit to London. Once Whitlock settled in, they began discussing the formation of a band and decided on a few parameters, "Our band was open - we didn't want no chicks, and no horn players, we wanted a four-piece rock 'n roll band, and we did it."

It was during this summit that the two would write the bulk of D&tD's catalog. Before Clapton, Whitlock, Radle and Gordon formed the band, they acted as studio musicians on George Harrison's first solo album, All Things Must Pass.

There are conflicting reports as to how the band actually came to be know as "Derek and the Dominoes". They all start with Derek as some sort of bastardization of Eric but differ on whether Dominoes was intentional or originally supposed to be Dynamos or Dynamics.

Their public debut came on June 14th, 1970 at the Lyceum Theatre in London, which was guitarist Dave Mason's first and only show with the band. During their first tour across small clubs in England, Clapton opted to play anonymously, having been burnt by the chaos surrounding Cream and Blind Faith. This, and the fact that it was a double LP, were reasons that Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs incredibly never charted in the UK.

As "Derek" was a cover for Eric, so too was "Layla" for Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's wife at the time. The relationship between her and Clapton was originally initiated by Boyd to get Harrison's attention, but to Eric, it far exceeded that. Nearly every song on the album was at least an oblique reference to Boyd.

Clapton drew Layla from "The Story of Layla & Majnoun" by the 12th century poet Nizami, considered the Romeo and Juliet of Persian culture. Layla and Majnoun were never actually together in the book, they were childhood friends who fall in love, but are kept apart. Layla is forced into a loveless marriage while Majnoun takes the route of solitude and reflection. By this introspection, Majnoun is said to come away with divine knowledge.

Presence of the Lord is not a song you would initially assume to be about a woman, but in light of that poem, look at the lyrics:

I have finally found a way to live,
Just like I never could before.
And I know I don't have much to give,
but I can open any door.

Everybody knows the secret,
I said everybody knows the score.
I have finally found a way to live,
In the presence of the lord.

Everybody indeed knew the secret, eventually. Clapton arranged a clandestine meeting between he and Boyd at a flat in South Kensington to play a song he wanted her to hear. Boyd later recalled:

He switched on the tape machine, turned up the volume and played me the most powerful, moving song I had ever heard. It was Layla, about a man who falls hopelessly in love with a woman who loves him but is unavailable.

He played it to me two or three times, all the while watching my face intently for my reaction . My first thought was: 'Oh God, every one's going to know this is about me'.

According to Bohe same night that Clapton first played Layla for Patty, the following took place in the garden of Harrison's manager Robert Stingwood's house:

"George kept asking, 'Where's Pattie?' But no one seemed to know. He was about to leave when he spotted me in the garden with Eric," Boyd said. "George came over and demanded, 'What’s going on?’ To my horror, Eric said, ‘I have to tell you, man, that I’m in love with your wife.’ I wanted to die. George was furious. He turned to me and said: ‘Well, are you going with him or coming with me?’ I went home with George".

This sounds like ex post facto exaggeration, but if that actually happened, it might be one of the greatest events in the history of humankind:

Clapton once showed up drunk at Harrison’s home and engaged the Beatles’ guitarist in a rock duel. “George handed him a guitar and an amp — as an 18th-century gentleman might have handed his rival a sword — and for two hours, without a word, they dueled,” Boyd said. “At the end, nothing was said but the general feeling was that Eric had won. He hadn’t allowed himself to get riled or go in for instrumental gymnastics as George had. Even when he was drunk, his guitar-playing was unbeatable.

Instead of fighting, two of the most prominent musical icons at the time decided to go riff for riff on the guitar over a love triangle? Every rapper worth his weight in 40oz's has battle-rapped against another MC, but I've never once heard of it between guitarists, especially in that stratosphere.

In the late summer of 1970, when D&tD were compiling Layla at Criteria Studios in Miami, they were working with a producer from Atlantic Records named Tom Dowd. Due to the fact that the Dominoes had very little experience playing the material as a four person band, the first few days of recording were tedious and uninspired. It was not what Dowd expected:

I had alerted the staff at Criteria that this was going to be brutal. Bring earmuffs, because these guys would be showing up with double stacks of Marshalls and God knows what. And when they showed up, all they had was a tweed champ and a Princeton, and Radle has a piggyback Ampeg B15... As I think back on it, I made the comment that if anybody walked into that studio with squeaky shoes, we'd blow a take. That's how quiet they were.

At the time, Dowd had just finished recording Idlewild South with the Allman Brothers in the same studios. Eric and Duane already had mutual respect for each other. Dowd later recanted:

Well, Duane came into the control room and I said,"Duane, I'm sorry, but that was Eric Clapton's manager and I had to take the call." Duane says, "You mean the guy in Cream?" He starts playing me Cream licks. "Man, are you going to record him? Oh, man, yeah, man. I gotta meet him."

After the first few lackluster sessions for Layla, Down received a call from Duane, saying they were playing a show at the Miami Beach Convention Center that night. Clapton recognized Duane's work on Wilson Pickett's Hey Jude and immediately wanted to go see the concert. As the legend goes, Duane didn't know he was going to be there and literally stopped playing during a solo. Still Dowd:

So I took the band down to this outdoor concert, and the crew for the Allman Brothers snuck us in on our hands and knees to the front of the stage right in front of the barricade, and we're sitting on the ground watching Duane playing a solo. All of a sudden he looks down and sees Clapton and his eyes bug out and he just stops playing. Dickie looks, and he figures Duane has broken a string or his amp's blown up, so he starts playing a solo, and all hell breaks loose. I'm really giggling, and they finally regained their composure and finished the show.

After the show, Clapton and Allman went back to the studio and jammed until two o'clock the next afternoon. The two bands swapped keyboardists and drummers, and the results can be found on the 20th Anniversary Edition of Layla on the second and third discs. The second one is especially awesome, containing only Jams I, II, III, IV & V with none of those clocking in at under 12 minutes.

An interesting fact: Duane's famous solo on the song Layla wasn't even recorded at the same time as the piano track (composed by Rita Coolidge and Jim Horn), it was applied two weeks after they finished recording.

It took them only ten days to record the whole album, but while they were in-studio Jimi Hendrix died in London from choking on his own vomit after he took nine of his girlfriend's Vesperax. Clapton had become friends with Jimi after first catching him on the London club circuit before he was a superstar. Clapton was initally quite jealous of Hendrix and the emotional, even sexual, stage presence he projected, but the two eventually forged a solid bond. Shortly before Hendrix died, Clapton had bought a white, left-handed Fender Stratocaster at guitar shop in the West End of London, but never got the chance to give it to him. The cover of Hendrix's Little Wing on Layla serves as Clapton's tribute to him.

Dowd's had his doubts about the album's commercial success at first, but still knew it was somethign special.

It literally died for a year after it was released. I thought it was the best work I had done in ten years-since Ray Charles - and I thought how embarrassing it would have been to have failed with such artistry and musicianship on that record. Thank God for Atlantic's marketing people, because they never gave up on it and eventually it became the national anthem of rock records.

Before the album was released in December of 1970 to little fanfare, Derek and the Dominoes embarked on their American tour. The two most widely distributed recordings are of the concerts the the Filmore East on October 23rd and 24th. Polydor Records first released a In Concert in 1973, but it wasn't until 1994 that they released the more complete version Live at the Filmore. (If you have the means to download them, the first one is much better.

I couldn't add it to this post, but I made a slideshow over the version of Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad from the first night. You can watch it here. It's 14:50 long, but the pictures help pass the time. In addition, it is one of the most emotional renditions of a song I've ever heard, right up there with the version of Soul Serenade Duane Allman played in honor of King Curtis at the same venue.

The verse for WDLGTBSS is in A-minor and the chorus is in D. Consequently, there is a key change everytime he switches back and forth, and there are solos in both keys. Without any musical knowledge, you will immediately notice that it flips from being angry during the verse (A-minor) to sweet and mournful in the chorus (D). Here is one of the verses:

Like a moth to a flame,
Like a song without a name,
I've never been the same since I met you.

Like a bird on the wing,
I've got a brand new song to sing,
I can't keep from singing about you.

D&tD wouldn't have been a 70's band if there weren't some drugs to go along with all that sex and rock and roll. Bobby Whitlock later described their usage habits when the band was together by saying:

We were a make-believe band. We were all hiding inside it. Derek and the Dominos — the whole thing ... assumed. So it couldn't last. I had to come out and admit that I was being me. I mean, being Derek was a cover for the fact that I was trying to steal someone else's wife. That was one of the reasons for doing it, so that I could write the song, and even use another name for Pattie. So Derek and Layla — it wasn't real at all.

Some of the greatest things this world has to offer just aren't meant to last. The level of drug use and emotional fluctuation that made the album and the performances as great as they were, was not sustainable. If Clapton was just smoking pot and signing about his girlfriend, we wouldn't still be talking about it.

Sneakin' Out The Beacon

In case you hadn't noticed, both Jay and I are pretty big music enthusiasts. One band we are both really big on is the Allman Brothers Band and I think the first exchange Jay and I had here on Fack Youk was regarding the annual Beacon run of this past March.

So as the city prepares for the year's first Subway Series, today we report news (h/t jambands.com) about something that is as much a part of New York City to me as the Yankees or Mets. Says founding ABB member Butch Trucks:

"...we won't be at the Beacon anymore. They just announced that Cirque du Soleil is moving in there, sad to say. We'll still do a multi-show thing in New York, but we're looking for another venue. With things the way they are, there's a lot of empty theaters on Broadway."

That's some sad stuff right there, and it's gone relatively unnoticed. After years of freakin' and peakin' at The Beacon, now the ABB is sneakin' out The Beacon. I've gone to at least one show every Beacon Run since 2001. It's every bit as much a right of spring to me as "pitchers and catchers report" and Opening Day. Yet I can't say I'm surprised.

The Beacon came under the control of Cablevision in November 2006. As you may know, everything Cablevision touches - the Knicks, the Rangers, my buddy Art's cable installation - turns to shit. From the time they seized control of The Beacon I suspected this day was coming. Planned renovations nearly derailed the 2008 run, until a last minute deal was reached. In the end, a flare up of Gregg Allman's hepatitis cancelled the 2008 run. Now it's done for good. For Cirque du fucking Soleil. /vomits

Expected or not, it's the end of an era. The Allmans first played The Beacon on September 27, 1989, as part of their 20th Anniversary Reunion Tour. They would play there three more times that month and add 184 more Beacon shows through multishow runs in 1992, 1994, 1996-2007, and 2009. As it stands now, the last ABBeacon show ever was March 28, 2009 - a show I attended - but that's no consolation to the end of this tradition.

The Beacon Run was quintessential ABB. Guests came out of the woodwork to play there. Through the years I've seen Chuck Leavell, Gary Rossington, Peter Frampton, Hubert Sumlin, Bela Fleck, Luther Dickinson, Larry McCray, Dick Griffin, Robert Randolph, Susan Tedeschi, Roy Haynes, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and others. You may not recognize any, or all, of the names, but it was an atmosphere that couldn't be recereated elsewhere.

If 2009 was in fact the final Beacon Run, they went out with a bang. It was the band's 40th Anniversary celebration, and a tribute to the memory of founder Duane Allman. All manner of guests joined in to honor his memory and the history of the band, amongst them: Bonnie Bramlett, the aforementioned Weir and Lesh, John Hammond, Taj Mahal, Levon Helm, Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy, Trey Anastasio, Boz Scaggs, Jimmy Herring, and for the first time ever, Eric Clapton.

This won't be the first time the run moves from the Beacon. 1995 saw a six show run at Radio City Music Hall in place of the Beacon. Radio City is also Cablevision controlled, so I doubt that's where they'll go now. Butch mentioned a potential "Broadway Theater", but my guess would be the United Palace Theater up in Washington Heights. It's becoming the new "it" theater in the city, and was the rumored back-up destination had The Beacon fallen through in 2008.

But it won't be the same. Aside from the atmosphere, and the beautiful, classic venue, I'll miss the neighborhood. Brother Jimmy's, Blondie's, the since relocated P&G, the Gin Mill, the Westside Brewing Co. Amsterdam Ale House. And I'll miss the memories; some of the best music I've ever witnessed in person was at The Beacon, and making that annual pilgrimage with lifelong friends was something I looked forward to every year.

This also marks the end of an era for the ABB. Founding members Gregg Allman, Butch Trucks, and fellow CT resident Jaimoe are getting old. Guitar slingers Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks both have their own bands, which they have to neglect for large portions of the year while touring with the ABB. Outside of the NYC run next year and perhaps a summer festival or two, it doesn't appear that the band will be touring any more. And that's real sad. I strongly, strongly suggest you get out this summer and catch the ABB - preferably while they're on the road with Widespread Panic.

All good things must come to an end. And it appears that 2009 will mark the end of The Beacon Run and the ABB summer tour. Like Yankeee Stadium closing last year, it's sad. Something that means a lot to me won't be around anymore. But I look forward to what 2010 and beyond holds for Gov't Mule, the Derek Trucks Band, Soul Stew Revival, and whatever Oteil Burbridge is cooking up.

This is, afterall, a baseball blog. So lest we get chastised again, I'll end on a baseball note. Guitarist Derek Trucks is a big baseball fan and is the nephew of drummer Butch Trucks. Butch is the nephew of former Major League pitcher Virgil Trucks. Virgil is one of four men (Nolan Ryan, Johnny Vander Meer, and former Yankee Allie Reynolds) to throw two no hitters in the same season. He finished his 17 year Big League career in 1958 with the World Champion New York Yankees.

See, it all comes back to baseball....

Keep On Trucks-ing

As Alex Belth pointed out this morning, you can feel baseball getting closer. The air is starting to smell like spring just a little bit. I don't need to turn on my headlights on my drive home from work at the end of the day. Daylight Savings Time begins twelve days from now; the Spring Equinox comes six days later. Spring Training games start tomorrow.

Elsewhere in the world, the other rites of spring are taking place. The NHL trade deadline is tomorrow. NCAA Conference Tournaments begin over the next week and March Madness will soon follow.

For me, another rite of spring is the Allman Brothers Band's annual NYC residency. As we detailed last June, the ABB is vacating the Beacon Theater this year and heading waaaaay uptown to the United Palace Theatre for thirteen shows beginning March 11th.

Derek Trucks will be part of it, as he has been since joining the band at twenty years old following the 1999 Beacon run. We've talked about Derek quite often here, including detailing his family ties to former Tigers, Browns, White Sox, and A's pitcher, as well as the oldest living former Yankee, Virgil Trucks.

At MLB.com Saturday, Peter Gammons took an extended look at Virgil's career, in a great column that details how Derek's baseball fandom spurred him to seek out the relative he had never met:

Virgil Trucks had just turned 91 two years ago when this boyish kid who looked as if he were 20 showed up at his door. The kid introduced himself as Derek Trucks, Virgil's nephew's son, and they spent the day tying together the frayed generations of Trucks, of baseball stories Derek loved hearing, and music that Virgil says he didn't fully understand.

For years, Derek had Virgil "Fire" Trucks' baseball card on the back of his guitar, with the Allman Brothers or The Derek Trucks Band, with his wife Susan Tedeschi, playing lead on the Eric Clapton tour, backing Buddy Guy. That he told Virgil, and that Derek's uncle Butch, who has been the Allman's drummer since they formed in 1969, has often had another baseball card on his drums. "I haven't listened to the Allman Brothers too much," says Virgil. "They don't play them much on the Birmingham station."

When Virgil was told that Derek has a 1952 Tiger uniform with Virgil's 23 hanging in a trophy case, he said, "maybe I should start listening to the Allmans a little more."

For the Gammons haters out there - and you know I'm not one of them - you can take solace in the fact that Peter incorrectly claims Derek is Virgil's great-nephew. As we posted here in December, with thanks to Derek's cousin Vaylor, Virgil is the first cousin of Derek's grandfather, making them third cousins twice removed. That's the type of hard-hitting analysis you Fackers get here, something a Ford Frick Award winner can't bring you.

That notwithstanding, it's a great column. Head over and give it read. Just be sure to ignore the part about how the family of Derek's wife Susan Tedeschi are long-time Red Sox season ticket holders, or how they're taking their eight year old son to Red Sox camp this week. Hey - nobody's perfect.
As Jay detailed after we attended the Derek Trucks Band's concert at The Egg in December, the dTb is now on an extended hiatus. Derek and Susan are forming a new band, which at present appears to feature a rotating cast of musicians. They have dates scheduled through the spring and into summer, including stops as part of outstanding line ups at the Wanee Music Festival in Florida and the Mountain Jam in Hunter, NY.

Loan Me A Dime [Music] [Non-Sports]

[Before I started wasting all my free time writing for this site, I spent a considerable chunk of it downloading music. I have an amazing BitTorrent site (which I will not name for fear of the wrath of their fascist rules) that organizes pretty much every album by anyone ever (and a ton of live shows) by artist, by release date, and usually has them available in multiple sound qualities. It's the greatest thing ever. As result I've got a lot of pretty obscure stuff.

So, occasionally I'm going to include a YouTube of a song I really like and write a little bit about the tune and the artist. If this annoys you, please tell me I'm a tool in the comments or something. Rest assured that this is because we are in a relatively slow period for my rooting interests and this isn't going to turn into a Phish message board. We are all for expanding our minds here at Fack Youk, but if you folks think it's stupid, I won't do it.]


Today's Selection: Duane Allman (& Boz Scaggs) - Loan Me A Dime

That is actually just an excerpt, because the actual version off of The Duane Allman Anthology [Vol. 1] is 13 minutes long. Pulling out just the best part of the solo kills the context a little bit, but I know most people can't tolerate songs with long jams and get lost without lyrics. I'm probably an exception only because I devote a healthy amount of time to messing around with my hollowbody Paul Reed Smith and trying to pretend I'm good enough to justify owning it (and failing).

Give me a song with long jam and dominant lead guitar part by a virtuoso like Duane, Derek Trucks*, Clapton or Trey Anastasio and I can listen to it 1,000 times. No matter how good your memory is, you're not going to remember thirteen minutes worth of notes, so you don't get sick of it like you do songs with words in them. I cue one of these tunes up on my walk to work and it's a different experience every time.

*Dickey Betts actually put down the Basil Hayden's long enough to answer the "Duane vs. Derek" question incredibly diplomatically right here.

Why, Duane? I know it wasn't your fault, but why did you have to get on your motorcycle that day? You were only 24 years old and already Jesus Christ on the Les Paul. That version of "Hey, Jude" you did with Wilson Pickett was incredible. The tribute to King Curtis you gave two weeks before you died, at the Filmore East, where you played "You Don't Love Me" into "Soul Serenade" and then flowed right into a blistering, free-form 10 minute slide guitar solo, is one of the greatest things ever to vibrate my eardrums. It was simultaneously soulful, angry and beautiful. I just want to know what you would have done with the last 37 1/2 years.

Fack Youk Field Trip: The Egg

Time for another Field Trip Fackers, and with it being the baseball off-season this one will involve our other favorite pastime here: music. While the 21st Annual Warren Haynes Christmas Jam took place in Asheville, North Carolina this weekend, Jay and I will be heading to The Egg in Albany this evening to see Haynes' fellow Allman Brothers Band guitarist and blog favorite The Derek Trucks Band. We'll probably have a summary sometime tomorrow.

Unfortunately this show comes on a night that the Giants and Eagles meet in a crucial NFC East match up. As disappointing as it will be to miss the game, it figures to be worth it. dTb announced in November that they will be going on an indefinite hiatus in 2010, tonight's show is the band's final performance for the foreseeable future. They're a band I've seen countless time over the past decade, starting with a performance for about 20 people at Boston College's O'Connell House during my sophomore year at BC. It will be nice to catch their final performance for the next year or so.

As we've mentioned before, Derek Trucks is a relative of the oldest living former Yankee, Virgil Trucks. However, I previously fouled up the specifics of the relationship. Our last post about it was picked up by an Allman Brothers Band listserv, where Vaylor Trucks - Derek's cousin, Butch's son, and the little kid on the cover of the ABB's 1973 Brothers and Sisters album, set the record straight. Virgil is the first cousin of Butch's father, making Derek Virgil's third cousin twice removed.

Now that we have the family tree squared away we can head off to the show. Here's the Derek Trucks Band, along with Derek's wife Susan Tedeschi, covering some Derek and the Dominoes:

Game 130: Don't Keep Me Wonderin'

This afternoon the Yankees will go for the sweep while the reeling White Sox try to salvage a game of the series and keep their shrinking post-season hopes alive.

The Pale Hose send Freddy Garcia to the mound. In nine career starts against the Yankees, Garcia is 4-3 with 4.19 ERA and a WHIP of just 1.08. The Yankees have not faced him since 2006. Thanks to injuries, Garcia has made just five starts over the last two seasons, and just sixteen since the White Sox sent him to the Phillies after the 2006 season. He has a 5.70 ERA (81 ERA+) and 1.48 WHIP in that time. The White Sox are two games under .500, facing a sweep today, five games back and now in third place in the Central. The season is slipping away from them rapidly. They desperately need Garcia return to his early 2000s form today; Jake Peavy left his rehab start early last night - there is no help on the way.

Joba Chamberlain returns to the hill for the Yankees today, this time on regular rest. As Jay pointed out yesterday, the plan has changed again and we are now on the Joba Rules v2.2. Or v2.3 - I'm not even sure anymore. If the Yankees do truncate his start today, they'll have a well-rested bullpen at their disposal thanks to outstanding combined effort from Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin yesterday.

In his first three starts after the All-Star break, Chamberlain went 3-0 with a 0.83 ERA, a 0.74 WHIP and a .422 OPS against. In four starts since then, he's 1-2 with an 8.55 ERA, a 2.10 WHIP, and a .921 OPS against. Which Joba will show up today?

In many ways Joba has been frustrating to watch this season. Undeniably talented, he's gone through stretches like this most recent one where he seemingly refused to work with any semblance of rhythm and insisted upon nibbling rather than challenging hitters. Compounding that frustration has been Chamberlain's use of all manner of excuses and cliches following his starts: he thought he had good stuff, they hit good pitches, it was tough pitching on extra rest, etc.

I realize 23 year old pitchers are going to struggle. I realize the Yankees probably aren't doing him any favors by tweaking and re-tweaking their plan for how to use him. But I can do without the Nuke LaLoosh routine.

While we'll likely have to endure something similar next year with Phil Hughes thanks to his lack of usage this year, I'm hoping that this latest iteration to Joba's plan will be the last. No more wondering about when he's going to pitch or how deep he's going to go in his starts. Armed with that knowledge, I'm hopeful that Joba can put it together down the stretch and keep us from wondering whether Good Joba or Bad Joba is going to show up on any given day.

Jorge Posada returns to the line up today. Eric Hinske gives Nick Swisher a day off in right.

I'll catch the early innings on the tube and then it's off to the Widespread Panic and Allman Brothers Band show. While this concert isn't quite the Christmas in the summertime that it once was for me, it's still one I've been looking forward to all summer. As such, here's some vintage Allman Brothers Band from the old Fillmore East, 9/23/1970. Enjoy the game.



I think about the bad times
Lord I think about yours and mine
You were lost in the silver spoon
Thought I pulled you out in time
And I hope that you got reasons
For the way that you've been lying
Please don't keep me wonderin' no longer

Game 41: Don't Tell Me Your Troubles

The Yankees are embarking on a road trip tonight, but only by the strictest baseball definition of the term. They'll be sleeping in their own beds this weekend but showing up to play over in Queens against the Metropolitans.

Javy Vazquez again gets a road start in a spacious ballpark, circumstances under which he has posted his two best performances of the year. His seven inning, two run effort against the Tigers was especially encouraging despite the fact that he was tagged with a loss. That part wasn't his fault as the Yankees got shut out by Rick Porcello and two Detroit relievers. In the meantime though, enabled by the fact that he was again skipped in the rotation, he evened things out by picking up a cheap win in relief after facing just one batter in Monday's game against the Red Sox. While he did pick up a victory, he had another extra long layoff. It didn't seem to bother him last time and hopefully that will be the case again tonight.

It seems like every start has been a big one for Vazquez this year, but tonight feels like an important game for the team as well. Given the skid they've found themselves sliding in, the Yanks could really use a win to right the ship.

The trouble the Yankees are having pales in comparison to what the Mets are going through, however. The Yanks might have lost eight of their last twelve but the Mets have dropped nine over that same span and are now two games under .500 and six behind the Phillies.

Rumors are flying about Jerry Manuel after he removed John Maine from last night's game against his will after just five pitches and the feeling is that he could be axed as early as this weekend if things don't go well against the Yankees. The Mets won last night, despite leaning on their bullpen for all nine innings, and just in case the 'pen wasn't depleted enough after that, they are pushing one of the relievers who has done a good job for them this year into starting duty.

Because of the injury to Jon Niese last Sunday, Hisanori Takahashi will be making a spot start tonight. Although he hasn't been stretched out yet, he is apparently good for 100 pitches. Since being acquired in February, the Japanese import has filled the role of long man if necessary, pitching up to three innings at a time, with seven appearances of two innings or longer. He's been effective over that span as well and given up just nine runs in 26 innings (3.12 ERA) while striking out 33. The left hander only throws about 88mph, but employs four pitches (fastball, curve, slider & change) and has a bit of a hitch in his delivery, which hitters say throws off their timing.

Although this is his first start in the Major Leagues Takahashi has actually faced the Yankees before. Back in 2004, he started an exhibition game between the Bombers and Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo, a contest that the Yankees went on to win 6-2.

Both teams are currently going through their own struggles and you can't expect one team to have much sympathy for the other. Thankfully for one the teams, somebody has to win tonight.

Leave me alone,
Go on home,
Tell it to a friend,
I got troubles of my own,
Troubles of my own.

It happens to the best of us,
That's a what they always say,
Take it baby like a man,
Don't throw it away.

[Song Notes: Since you can't tell the title by this video, this is Don't Tell Me Your Troubles by Ronnie Hawkins with Duane Allman sitting in and playing some nasty slide guitar. It's on The Duane Allman Anthology (which is incredibly awesome) but was originally recorded for Hawkins creatively titled album The Hawk.]

-Lineups-

Yankees:
Matt here with the lineups. Kevin Russo gets his first Major League start and it doesn't come at his primary position of second base, his secondary position of third base, or even at shortstop. He'll be in left field tonight, where he's made seven minor league appearances, but just one this year. Upon his demotion just over a week ago the organization said he'd be getting the Jerry Hairston Jr super utility treatment and it appears that's what they're doing. Two things of note: first it'll be interesting to see how the inexperienced Russo handles the spacious Citi Field outfield. And secondly, I would have figured that the start still would have gone to Randy Winn with the versatile and speedy Russo held in reserve as a weapon off the bench in an NL park.

Francisco Cervelli gets his fifth straight start behind the plate. Just for the hell of it, Javier Vazquez is a career .207/.238/.247 hitter in 620 PA, which is halfway decent for a pitcher.

Derek Jeter SS
Brett Gardner CF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Francisco Cervelli C
Kevin Russo LF
Javier Vazquez P

Mets:
If the Yankees are going to win the Subway Series opener on dropped pop up, like they did last year, they're going to have a bit of a tougher go of it this time around. Mets second baseman Luis Castillo, who had the infamous error last year, has been scratched with a sore foot. He's replaced by super-overpaid-but-really-friendly utility guy Alex Cora. During Cora's final season in Boston, he happened to enter the bar I was in, the same night the Red Sox clinched the Wild Card and officially eliminated the Yankees from playoff contention. I found him to be quite obnoxious. But that's a story for another time.

Jose Reyes SS
Alex Cora 2B
Jason Bay LF
Ike Davis 1B
David Wright 3B
Angel Pagan CF
Rod Barajas C
Jeff Francoeur RF
Hisanori Takahashi P

World Boogie Is Coming

"If you've got Dickinson, you don't need anyone else"
- Bob Dylan to Harp Magazine, May 2003

This will have nothing to do with the Yankees and little to do with anything previously posted at Fack Youk, but given our musical leanings here, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention it. Last week I mentioned how August seems to be a terrible month for deaths, both in baseball and music. Just hours before that post published, Les Paul went to the great beyond. Now, there is another loss to mourn.

Last night, as I was finishing cooking dinner, I logged onto to my favorite music website, jambands.com. It was only then that I learned that Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson passed away Saturday, at the age of 67, following triple bypass surgery.

Even if you're a music buff like Jay or me, you may never have heard of Jim Dickinson, but chances are you've heard Jim Dickinson. The man's music career has spanned the past forty-plus years and has associated him with some of the biggest names in music history.

As a sideman, Dickinson recorded with the likes of Arethra Franklin, Sam & Dave, Ry Cooder, Delaney and Bonnie, Arlo Guthrie, Mavis Staples, and Duane Allman. His Dixie Flyers were the house band during the heyday of Criteria Studios in Miami, where he worked with legenedary producer Tom Dowd.

Dickinson later recorded and toured with the Rolling Stones. He provides the piano on the recording of "Wild Horses". In the Stones documentary Gimme Shelter, Dickinson can be seen lounging next to Keith Richards as the band listens to the playback of the freshly cut track. More than twenty five years later, Dickinson would record with Bob Dylan on his critically acclaimed comeback album, Time Out of Mind.

In the early 1970s, Dickinson returned to the Memphis area, where he'd spent most of his youth. From then until the end of his days, he was at the forefront of the Memphis music scene, the city from which Sam Phillips and his Million Dollar Quartet brought rock and roll to the rest of the nation. He was instrumental in the rediscovery of blues acts such as Furry Lewis, Bukka White*, and Sleepy John Estes, often playing in their backing bands.

*White once played in the Negro Leagues, gifted his cousin B.B. King with the first guitar B.B. ever owned, and was an innovator of the National Steel guitar. One of his steel guitars is currently owned by blog favorite Derek Trucks.

Upon his return to the Memphis area, Dickinson also began a solo career, releasing the critically acclaimed Dixie Fried in 1972 (featuring Dr. John and Eric Clapton). After a 30 year hiatus, he jump started his solo career in 2002, releasing four more albums prior to his passing. During his recording hiatus, Dickinson continued to perform, assembling the legendary Memphis band Mudboy and the Neutrons.

For more than thirty years Dickinson has also enjoyed a wildly successful second career as a producer. He guided the recordings of artists such as Big Star, Toots Hibbert, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, The Replacements, Albert King, The Radiators, and John Hiatt.

In the mid 1970s, Dickinson moved slighly south of Memphis, to the hill country of north Mississippi. There, he established his Zebra Ranch Studios, and along with his wife Mary, raised their sons Luther and Cody. Growing up in that household, and in that region of the country, the Dickinson boys were exposed to a wealth of musical greatness, and were soon taken with the famed blues musicians of the hill country: Otha Turner, R.L. Burnside, and Junior Kimbrough. In 1996 the brothers Dickinson and childhood friend Chris Chew formed the North Mississippi Allstars, my favorite band, whose song "The Meeting" I used for our game preview just last Wednesday. The lyric I quoted at the bottom, "If you ain't right you better get right" was an old phrase Jim was fond of using. As father, mentor, and producer, Jim was a guiding force for NMA.

While Jim Dickinson is now gone, his legacy, in the recorded music he left behind as a performer and a producer and in the music that will continue to be created by his progeny, will last. Another phrase Jim was fond of was "World Boogie is coming". Indeed it is, and when it does, Jim Dickinson will be largely to thank for it. Rest in peace Jim.

"Soon"

I took this screen shot this morning when I went into do a screen grab recap of the incredible end of the Tigers vs. Blue Jays game. But guess what? I can't because the game isn't available. As I mentioned before, I split the MLB.tv Premium Package with my sister, which should entitle us to watching archived and condensed games.

The archived games are supposed to be up 45 minutes after they end. It's 7:45 the following morning and 5 of the 12 games aren't up at all. How about the condensed games from the day before?

Nada.

None of the main home or away archived audio feeds are up either. (Many of the alternates are in Spanish)

In addition, the in-game DVR functionality is extremely slow and clumsy. Although it tells you what half of the inning you are in, you have to fast forward blindly and guess where you are going to end up. It's not like an actual DVR, where you can see the frames going by.

I'm going to give them a little while to get things sorted out, but this is pretty frustrating. It's $110 and if they are going to charge than kind of money, they should probably have the service in order by the time it goes live.

I'm not a whiner in general. I paid the full $125 for Moogis (a lot more than my $55 share of MLB.tv) so I could watch the Allman Brothers play live at the Beacon Theater, and didn't complain at all, because, you know, it actually worked and delivered what it promised.

I wish I could say the same for MLB.tv.

How High The Moon

Yesterday, on the long drive out to Darien Lake (which is just outside of Buffalo) to see Phish, I was tooling around on my iPhone and came across the unfortunate news of Les Paul's passing on Baseball Musings. I only say "unfortunate" because when someone dies, it's always unfortunate, but Paul lived a fantastic life and died at the ripe old age of 94.

If you're a guitar player or fan of rock music, you probably recognize his name from the famous line of Gibson guitars he endorsed, played by legends such as Duane Allman, Dickey Betts, Warren Haynes, Pete Townshend, Peter Frampton, David Gilmour, Keith Richards, George Harrison, Slash, Jimmy Page, Neil Young and Frank Zappa, to only skim the cream of the crop. Chances are, if fancy yourself a guitar player, you either have a Les Paul or have wanted one badly.

If his only accomplishment was pioneering the solid body electric guitar by crafting it out of a four inch thick piece of a railroad track, he would have had an incredibly successful career in the music business. However, that was only the tip of the iceberg. He also invented multi-track recording, which allowed multiple instruments and vocal arrangements to be stacked on top of each other, which is how virtually every album is recorded in the modern day. A musician in his own right, Paul played his regular gig at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York city until within just months of his death, a performance that we urged you all to experience and one I'm ashamed to say I never did.

To learn more about his long and rich life, head over to the Gibson website for a full scale tribute.

There is also a great PBS special on him, which I'm guessing will be re-aired in the near future. Keep an eye out for that as well.

Last night at the Phish show, they stopped briefly before setbreak to acknowledge Paul's passing, explaining that if he hadn't decided that guitars weren't just for background filler in a band, rock and roll as we know it may never have come to fruition. They played a short version of "How High The Moon", which was perhaps Paul's biggest hit and led into Golgi Appartus, a song replete with lead guitar and a beautiful quiet jazzy solo, a signature of Paul's own music. It was a great moment and I thought of all the other concerts going on simultaneously with similar tributes prompting burts of cheers in outdoor amphitheaters across the country and around the world.

The video below was captured during the advent of multi-tracking at which point it was still a novelty, not the standard industry practice. Most songs don't have 26 tracks (except maybe this one) but this video depicts a man far ahead of his time, bright an vibrant, which is exactly how he should be remembered. Rest in peace, sir.

Somewhere there's music,
It's where you are,
Somewhere there's heaven,
How near, how far.

The darkest night would shine,
If you would come to me soon,
Until you will, how still my heart,
How high the moon.

Off Night: Call It Stormy Monday

As we discussed last week, these off nights are a real pain in the balls. It's a Monday, what the hell else am I doing if I'm not watching the Yankees game? Unfortunately, this is the second of three consecutive Mondays during which there'll be no Yankee baseball. So what are our options?

There are four MLB games scheduled for tonight. The Mets and Cards will be on SNY at 7:10, so you can do some advance scouting before this weekend's Subway Series. For those outside the metro-NYC area, that game will also be broadcast on ESPN2. The mothership will have LSU vs. Texas in the College World Series, which I believe is now in its 43rd round.

The Cubs visit the Braves tonight in a make-up of a rainout from earlier this month. My cable system carries WGN and TBS, but unfortunately CSN has the Cubs' telecast and TBS doesn't carry the Braves any longer, so there'll be no advance scouting of the Braves for me. Of course if you sprung for MLB.tv or the Extra Innings package, you can watch this. They'll probably replay the final round of the U.S. Open somewhere too since virtually no one could watch it today.

There's a probably a bunch of shit on premium channels I don't get: Weeds, a re-run of Friday's Bill Maher, Carmela Soprano's new show, but I'm not watching any of that. Unfortunately Joe Buck Live doesn't return for another few weeks, so there will be no televised train wrecks tonight.

For those of you who want to venture out into the world, don't forget Bernie Williams plays two shows at The Iridium tonight. Alternatively, you could head to Home Depot and start buying enough lumber to construct a large wooden ark. Then tomorrow you can start rounding up the animals two by two.

A few quick news items:

• A.J. Burnett had his suspension reduced from six games to five and began serving yesterday. Thanks to the off day today Burnett won't miss a single start. That's the type of hard line discipline I like to see out of MLB.



• Don Fehr is stepping down as the head of the MLBPA. Good riddance. Take Orza with you and see if you both can convince Bud to retire too. I hope some sort of unrest amongst the players regarding Fehr's blind-eye PED policies was behind this.



• In music news, while the Yankees invade Atlanta, about 75 miles east in Athens the famed Georgia Theater burned to the ground Friday. No word as to whether General William Tecumseh Sherman was involved. The Georgia Theater had hosted many a good band in its time, and served as a launcing pad for Athens bands Widespread Panic and the Drive-By Truckers. Two of my favorite live albums were recorded there: Panic's Live in the Classic City and the Derek Trucks Band's Live at Georgia Theater.

That's all I got. It's still raining here in CT, and the radar says it's on and off in NYC as well. Summer's gotta get here eventually. Stormy Monday is one the most-covered blues tunes in history. YouTube has great versions by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert King, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers Band, Bobby Blue Bland, and B.B. King. But we'll go with the original. Take it away Mr. T-Bone Walker...