The Derek Trucks, Band Soul Serenade - Soul Serenade / Rasta Man Chant (C. Ousley, L. Dixon, B. Marley) 10:37
Bock to Bock (B. Montgomery) 5:59
Drown In My Own Tears (H. Glover) 5:08
Afro Blue (M. Santamaria) 5:42
Elvin (D. Trucks, T. Smallie, Y. Scott, B. McKay, K. Burbridge) 6:10
Oriental Folk Song (Traditional) 6:43
Sierra Leone (D. Trucks, Y. Scott, K. Burbridge) 2:15

Multimedia:
Soul Serenade 1:24
Musical Evolution 1:32
Indian Masters 1:22
Spirituality In Music 1:07
Being In The Moment 1:22
Making Music Today 2:36

Derek Trucks - guitar, sarod
Todd Smallie - bass
Yonrico Scott - drums, percussion
Bill McKay - Hammond B-3 Organ, Wurlitzer Piano, keyboards
Kofi Burbridge - flute, clavinet, Rhodes piano, acoustic piano, keyboards
Gregg Allman - vocal on Drown In My Own Tears

Derek Trucks has quite a following among John McLaughlin fans, not least I'm sure his cousin and fellow musician Vaylor. Perhaps the attraction stems from Trucks' quoting Hazrat Inayat Khan's "The Mysticism of Sound and Music" a favoured McLaughlin text, thereby implying a shared approach, or more likely because Trucks is a young guitarist willing to apply his raw gutsy blues playing to a range of musical styles, not just Rhythm and Blues, and maybe also because getting on the bandwaggon now means many years of prosperous interest in an artist who is sure to enjoy a long and successful career.
Trucks' playing is certainly accomplished and he gets a lovely rich deep tone, and it's nice to hear promiscuous use of slide, but it's not an earth shattering new sound. He's just bloody good and adaptable, and can be wonderfully loud. The problem with being versatile is that it's difficult to please all the people all the time. When other artists, including McLaughlin, change direction they often take their time as if the transition is part of a process. They don't flit between musical forms.

The music on this eclectic album, the fourth to be released under Trucks' leadership, includes blues, bluesy jazz, bluesy Indofusion and bluesy reggae. Too much for some no doubt, especially when there's nothing very new about the way that they're being presented. Unusual perhaps in this day and age to arrange for electric guitar, flute and Wurlitzer, but go back to more experimental times and innovative arrangements were more common. So, if your varied music is well executed but without flair or innovation then it might be time to take a lesson from the already greats and decide where one's heart really lies and cease the vacuous dabbling. Alas the new album "Songlines" seems equally confused about its direction.

If selective with "Soul Serenade" then what remains is tight, well played blues tunes with interesting arrangements such as on "Afro Blue" plus the guitar break in the opening title track and "Drown In My Own Tears" with guest vocalist Gregg Allman, all of which should be enough justification to buy the album and hear a great blues guitarist in the making.