Derek Trucks Band, June 27 at the Centre

The Derek Trucks Band took to the Centre’s stage Saturday night amid a constant outpouring of dry ice clouds and played a powerhouse two-hour set that sent us back to the heyday of the Allman Brothers. Indeed, as the nephew of Allman Bro drummer, Butch Trucks, and having toured with the Allman Brothers as a guitar prodigy, many of the songs had whiffs of In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.

Trucks is a true guitar god and his level of virtuosity – especially slide guitar - is astonishing for someone so young. Yet, despite his commanding playing, Trucks remained verbally mute through the whole set, leaving drummer Yonrico Scott to do the introductions.

Few of the songs were introduced, though we assume they are contained on the new CD, Already Free. Midway through, Trucks played an extensive version of My Favorite Things – video shown here – which featured B-3/keyboardman Kofi Burbridge playing flute. It’s hard to not think of Will Farrell as the Anchorman when we think of jazz flute, but in this case, the rendition was not laughable. Burbridge’s use of the B3 Hammond organ only increased the audible association with the Allman Brothers that made us time trip to the early 1970s.

The encore included two cover songs, with Mike Mattison doing an eloquent job on vocals. The first, a blues song, sounded very familiar, but for the life of me I can’t place the title. The last number had the whole audience singing along to Anyday, from the album Layla by Derek and the Dominos. It was a great way to end a memorable evening

Trucks Band also included Todd Smallie bass/vocals, Count M’Butu congas/percussion.

Alas, no video of opener Steve Dawson and his band who played an eclectic mix of blues, roots, and rock, including a countrified cover of Dylan’s, Leopardskin Pillbox Hat and a Hawaiian-style steel guitar version of An Orange Grove in California by Irving Berlin.

-Mari