From a young age, Derek Trucks was destined for guitar greatness. Growing up around the Allman Brothers scene, he had the greatest schooling any aspiring slide player could hope for. But his playing exceeded just about any expectations, high though they were, as he brought in a vast range of influences and ambition and cemented himself as one of the guitarists you need to know.

On this episode of 100 Guitarists, we’re joined by another one of the guitarists we think you need to know, Wilco guitarist and 6-string aficionado Nels Cline, who tells us about joining Trucks onstage in a number settings, and details how the two have developed a guitar playing relationship over the years.

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Foreign.

Hey, this is Nick Milavoy.

And this is Jason Shadrick.

And this is the 100 Guitarists podcast, where each week we are talking about one of the 100 guitar players that we think you should know.

This week, we're lucky to have not only the opportunity to talk about one of the 100 guitar players we think you should know who is Derek Trucks, we also have a guest, one of.

Who is also one of the 100 guitar players we think.

That's right.

Nels Klein is here to join us to talk about Derek.

Official friend of the pod.

Official friend of the pod.

Official friend of the pod.

Yep.

And official collaborator of Derek Trucks.

That's right.

And he had some great insight into Derek's playing and Derek's style.

And it's always great to talk to Nels.

And you can see here's a little spoiler.

There might be an upcoming feature written by Nels in an upcoming issue.

That's right.

Not on Derek Trucks, though.

Not on Derek Trucks.

But it's great to have Nels part of the extended premier guitar family.

And.

And it's always great to talk to him.

That's right.

All right, and today's episode is brought to you by Sweetwater.

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And now it's time to talk to Nels Klein about Derek Trucks's guitar playing.

All right, so we are so happy to welcome Nels Klein, a previous subject here on the 100 Guitarist podcast.

That's right.

You're the first of the hundred to join us.

You're the first of the hundred to join us.

That's right.

Right.

Well, I'm honored, I have to say, humbled, slightly embarrassed, and rather awestruck that you did a show on yours truly, which I actually finally watched, Slash listened to, and holy crap.

Wow.

I don't even know what to say except thanks very much.

And I'm amazed that.

Well, I was really interested to hear what your, you know, like, fave tunes and albums and stuff are, and I've never experienced anything like that, so.

Wow.

Thank you.

Nice to be here.

Nice.

It was a very fun episode to put together.

And so, I don't know, you know, obviously, Nels, we played a lot of phone calls on the.

On the episode.

We had a lot of call ins and we were very excited to talk to you, but we also got so many more that we didn't play.

So there's.

You got a lot of listeners who are big, Nels.

Clients, fans.

Oh, yeah.

Kind of always a little amazing to me, especially in light of you guys talking about music other than Wilco music, because I do have this.

Is it an illusion, a delusion, this idea that very few people ever really hear my other stuff?

So it was.

It's kind of heartwarming when people talk about the other stuff.

Yeah.

Well, I would say that, you know, I'm not the only person I know that can say this, but I got into Wilco because you joined Wilco.

So it's the opposite that to what your expectation is.

I get told that periodically.

Not regularly, but.

But yeah, I mean, it's been a wild ride.

So today we want to talk about Derek Trucks, and I want to.

I just want to set this up because you, you know, I've.

I've been familiar with Derek Trucks for a long time.

I mean, going way back early in his career when he was a kid, he was like one of the.

One of the 90s blues kids, right?

Like, he was one of.

One of those guys coming up that were blues prodigies.

And so he was in.

He's been in guitar magazines for decades now.

And that's where I first heard of him.

But I was never super tuned into, like, the Almonds universe, so I.

I didn't know this side of him and, you know, knew enough about him as a, you know, as a guitar journalist over the years and had never seen him or anything.

And you actually, at.

At a gig, we.

You and I were talking afterwards.

It was after you.

You came to a show that I played a Shape Shifter.

And I think the next night you were going to play with Derek.

And you were talking to me about your feelings about Derek Trucks and that.

It's like you telling me that is what clued me into, like, how much, even though I hadn't seen him, how deep his playing really is.

And I went.

I went and looked for it and found it.

But it's you.

You spurred that.

So I'm really glad that you're here, because I feel like.

I feel like you have the power to inspire people to, like, really, really get Derek Trucks.

So not to put any pressure on you to tell people how to get their trucks.

I mean, it worked for me, okay.

I'm perplexed by what it would take to get Derek Trucks.

Because for me, the impact of his playing and his music is so profoundly immediate and so deep somewhere in my.

Maybe in my DNA or something.

But unlike you, I'm not someone who is aware specifically of young Derek.

I used to just hear about young Derek.

And, you know, I wasn't being dismissive, but I wasn't curious.

And the reason for that is kind of a.

Like a.

So, like, now I'm.

I just finished Moon Unit Zappa's books.

And I'm really kind of invested in the idea of deep trauma.

It's phenomenal, by the way, but very upsetting in.

On.

On many levels.

And I have been carrying around this trauma of relating to the death of Duane Allman, which for me signaled a kind of closing of a door for decades, pretty much on blues rock, for me, like, I was just inconsolable.

And I couldn't listen to the Allman Brothers Band.

And I really didn't listen to much music in that world for a really long time.

And when Derek was coming up, I was completely on another planet.

And then I also used to read things like, he sounds like Dwayne reincarnated.

And this really, really bothered me.

And I'm sure it bothered him at the time.

I don't even know how you really process something like that when you're.

Especially when you're that young and you're kind of to the man or born in a way, right?

So it was later, probably.

You know, it's probably the album Revelator is where it started for me, which is pretty late.

You know, when you look at the trajectory of Derek's career, which is very long because it Started so early.

And friend of Wilco, friend of mine, Jim Scott, produced that record and won a Grammy.

I remember seeing Jim, because we were.

Wilco was at the Grammys to lose to the Foo Fighters again.

And I ran into Jim, and of course they do the blues thing.

It's not part of the big show.

And now even, like, rock isn't really, but.

Right.

But he was really happy and I was happy to see him.

And I was on tour with Wilco and I said, I've got to listen to this record.

So I bought it.

I don't remember where we were.

And I listened to it on my laptop.

You know, I used to have a laptop that had a drive in it and really lost my shit pretty seriously.

And.

And this was the song.

And it's still.

I find it devastating, the song until youl Remember on that Record, which is a beautiful song and a beautifully voiced arrangement, but.

And then there's Derek's playing.

And so before the show, I listened to it.

Yesterday, I revisited it.

I hadn't heard it in a while, and it still just slays me and I end up with tears in my eyes.

And that's inexplicable to me.

And I've never been the same, honestly, since hearing that record.

And then, of course, hearing Derek play live.

The first time I heard him play live, I was sitting in with the Allman Brothers Band at the Beacon.

So that was pretty bizarre.

What year would that have been?

Oh, God, I don't know.

Was that during their big anniversary run where they had a ton of guests?

Well, they always had a ton of guests.

It was before their big last run, and I actually did get to hear the last ever Allan Brothers Band set.

They did a surprise third set and Wilco was in town down.

It's all because of my friend EJ who was at one time the director of the Allman Brothers Museum at the Big House in Macon, Georgia, that Warren became aware of me and invited me to play.

And that's how I met Derek.

Warren's just an incredible guy.

Also an incredible slide player.

That having played it, I guess next to Derek all these years, people kind of don't talk about it enough, in my opinion.

But.

But to get back to Derek, he and I didn't really even speak during those.

Other than polite hellos during the Allman Brothers gigs because he's very quiet and shy and retiring.

And there's kind of a lot going on, a lot of guests, you know.

So it wasn't really until, I guess, that I would.

They Were playing at the Beacon to, you know, basically replace the Allman Brothers Run to a certain extent.

And I got asked to sit in because I live in New York.

And they're like, hey, do you want to come and play that things got a little closer.

And then that was probably when I saw you at Shapeshifter, Nick, because.

And I remember being side stage waiting to play.

I don't even remember what we played.

We probably played maybe one of their tunes and maybe a cup.

Derek and the Domino's tune.

I can't remember.

I did it a couple, two or three times.

I've.

I've sat in with them and I can't remember exactly that first time what happened, except that I was like side stage where maybe Doyle or somebody was sitting in.

And then Derek starts soloing and I'm on deck, you know, and I just have tears in my eyes again.

I'm just slight on the what's happening.

And I have to try to keep my together before I walk out there and.

And, you know, whale and seem authoritative and, you know, and look professional or something.

You know, there's just a massive impact, emotional and musical impact on me that is.

Is something that I don't think can be rationally explained.

Yeah, it touches me on so many levels.

But I think it is the combination of his obvious eloquence and his technique and the emotion in his playing, but also that it embraces something beyond just.

Even though he's a blues scholar, for sure, as I've certainly become aware, it embraces also the Indian classical music and gospel worlds.

So to me, he sounds like an Indian classical player came out of gospel church singing, but who happens to play guitar in a kind of blues rhythm and blues band.

And yeah, one thing is, like, when Nick and I first started talking about this episode, I was pointing Nick to like the early Derek Trucks band albums, you know, that had straight up jazz covers, you know, like Coltrane tunes right on it, you know.

He was doing a tour with Eric Johnson.

He was opening for Eric Johnson.

And me and my guitar buddy's like, oh, it's gonna be great.

We're gonna see Eric Johnson.

Oh, cool.

This kid we've kind of heard of, Derek Trucks.

His band's gonna be opening and he.

Derek Truck comes out and just lights the place on fire.

Yeah, I mean, he.

He probably, you know, on stage, probably didn't take two steps one way or another.

The Whole time he stood right there, they played, you know, and.

And just the force and the energy that comes out of him.

And that was like at like the.

Maybe the Vic in Chicago or something.

And I've seen him in amphitheaters and stuff.

And that force, that energy that comes out when he really starts laying into it is like.

Very few guitar players I've seen puts out that kind of force when.

When they play.

That's, that's.

That's like all time, elite level stuff.

Well, I mean, it's.

At the risk of sounding.

I don't want to sound trite or cliche, but it's magical what he.

Oh yeah.

And also it's the feeling that he has, like why he does what he does.

Because I think he's doing what he's doing to really bridge gaps and bring people together and inspire in a way that's pretty much universal, I would think.

You know, kind of probably so for me.

And then he's touching on all these.

I guess we kind of call them some kind of traditions or whatever.

But I mean, just the fact.

Okay, I think the first time we ever chatted was at Lockin Festival.

And that's the first time I heard the band live.

Wilco was there playing and they were playing and our bassist, John Steer, it was talking to Derek and Susan and I just kind of walked up there tentatively and we all started chatting and they heard us and I heard them and, you know, it was really, really cool.

But their whole trajectory as a band aesthetically reminded me of so many things that I love so deeply and besides the All Brothers Band and besides, you know, various blues aspects with like Susan's, you know, she's steeped in the blues too, you know, and she's a great guitar player.

But it also reminded me of all the stuff that I loved when I was a teenager, like Mad Dogs and Englishman Joe Cocker and all the whole Leon Russell world.

Oh yeah, totally.

Just a whole bunch of stuff, you know.

So.

So for me this was so.

It was inspiring, but it was also just touched my soul.

So both of you guys mentioned records where you've heard Derek and it moved you.

And I.

I would say that my experience as far as like getting Derek or whatever that I'm.

That I mentioned before, it's like I could listen to the record and I could.

I could vibe on it.

Like I could hear it and I could get that this is this phenomenal guitar player.

But I think it wasn't.

I think at the time that I heard that stuff it while it is related to lots of blues rock stuff that I like, it's like maybe when I first heard.

Heard Tedeschi Trucks and his stuff, more his stuff before that, I just was in this, you know, weirdo avant garde space that it's like that stuff wasn't.

I could, I could hear that this is a master of like playing, but I.

It wasn't something that I kept coming back to.

And then eventually, I think after you and I talked, I went on a trip of like watching videos.

And then I realized, like, this is this.

There's this other thing that maybe is conveyed live, right?

But then for me, I just saw him play for the first time at King's Theater in Brooklyn.

I think it was two months ago, something like that.

And that was like the final step in my process.

Like, I already knew going to that.

Like, I.

I got it by then, you know, Know, I knew that he was masterful, but I.

I knew that before we could actually talk about Derek Trucks, like, I need to go see him and, and, and experience it and feel it and see.

Because you're not the only person who's told me that, that Derek has brought them to tears.

And I'm like, this is this thing that people say about this guy that seems so spec.

This is like a specific thing.

He's channeling something that I need to.

I need to feel.

And I gotta say, seeing him in person and feeling that sound and just like the way that he actually commands the stage when he plays.

And like you said, Jason, it's like he barely moves.

He's just there and then it's.

His sound is doing all the work.

It was a profound experience.

I did find the thing that I was looking for.

And the one thing we'd like to talk about, Nelson sometimes is maybe pointing people to certain songs.

I know you mentioned that one on Revelator or certain even sometimes certain videos.

And for me, one of the literally all time greatest guitar solos I've ever heard is that clip of him sitting next to John Mayer and B.B.

king at the Hollywood Bowl.

Have you seen that one?

You know which one I'm talking about?

I have not.

I've heard about it there.

There was some, you know, crazy backstory to that whole experience that I'm not privy to, but I know it was.

It was potentially like some of these things that Derek's done with BB There and like in the White House and all that stuff.

This stuff gets weird sometimes.

Yeah.

And he starts playing the solo in a flat and he's he's attuned to Open E.

He starts playing this blues in A flat.

That, that was incredible.

And it's, it literally left BB King like speechless and John Mayer.

I think you can just see on his face.

It's like that's, he's.

There's.

You're not going to get better than that.

You know, I'll check this out.

Well, you know that Susan sang with Bibi.

So I mean, so he was, I'm sure aware of Derek for a while because of all those crossroads gigs and all that stuff.

That to me is one following that to me is one solo that I just.

That, I mean, just one of the all time greatest guitar solos that I'm going to investigate.

So something that we can experience, that you have experience is playing with Derek.

And you already mentioned sitting in with the almonds and, and Tedescu trucks.

But there's also one of my favorite videos of the two of you guys together is him sitting in with Wilco playing Impossible Germany.

Yeah.

Was that.

That happened once, right?

Is there, Is that.

Yeah, yeah, certainly.

He's the only person that's ever sat in on Impossible Germany.

And it was all my idea to confess.

You know, Wilco is in St.

Augustine.

And I overheard somebody, because what do I know about Florida geography?

You know, very little, apparently.

So somebody mentioned, I overheard in the production office somebody talking about how close we were to Jacksonville.

And I was like, wait, what?

Yeah, it's like, you know, 20 minute drive or whatever.

And so I immediately texted Derek and Susan.

I said, hey, you know, we're going to be in town tomorrow, you know, do you have any interest in coming down?

And Derek wrote back saying that Susan was out of town, but he'd love to come.

And of course then I was perhaps predictably saying, writing, well, if you want to bring a guitar, you know.

And perhaps not surprisingly, he wrote, yeah, I'll come and play.

What she, what should I do?

And I thought about this.

This wasn't even the night before.

This was days before, now that I think about it, because I tossed and turned like, what can Derek and I do in Wilco repertoire land where we can do our thing, you know, which is really play off of each other and get into this conversation that's, you know, extremely rewarding and fun.

And I had like a couple of ideas.

And then one, one evening, probably in my bunk, you know, bing, light bulb, Impossible Germany.

And so I just tossed it out there.

I didn't ask Jeff.

It seemed like the only thing, you know, So I suggested it.

He Said he didn't know the song so he'd listen to it.

And.

And so when I saw Jeff in St.

Augustine backstage, Derek was coming to pick me up and take me to their house and show me his studio and stuff.

Like all these things that I've really been excited to do someday but never thought would happen.

And, and so I saw Jeff backstage right before he came to get me.

And, and you know, I guess we should add perhaps, obviously, that he's extremely lovely gentlemen.

So.

And I said, jeff, I got the idea for Derek.

And he said, what?

And I said, impossible Germany.

And he had this really kind of frozen grin on his face.

He just kind of stopped him in his tracks and he said, whoa, does he know it?

And I said, he's working on it right now.

And he wrote, you know, a great song and blah, blah, blah.

And then.

So then, you know, we listened to it in his car on the way back and driving back, and then he and I kind of played through it, the two of us.

And then we always do this kind of warm up jam kind of practice before we play and we'll go, you know, little room set up, kind of the same way Tedeschi Trucks band does.

They have little amps, they, they get together for the show, they play songs, they go over details that might need to be gone over, play cover songs, whatever we're doing.

It's really fun.

And so we did it and sounded good, you know, Derek very affable, very relaxed, and we went for it, you know.

And yeah, there is, there are some YouTube clips.

And it was probably the first time ever that I got up the next day and said, I Hope there's some YouTube clips because I gotta see how it came out.

I.

I have regret that I somehow bumped the tone knob on my Clon Centaur.

It's too, too trebly.

But, you know, such as life, it's like that happens.

My tone's pretty egregious in a way, but that's life.

Well, from.

From somebody who's a listener and not one of the players in that video, I can tell you.

I've listened to that video.

I've.

I've listened to those clips and thought that they were perfect clips.

So.

Well, I have.

I have to say that playing with Derek is extremely rewarding and fun and very natural experience for me.

And by natural, I mean it just, it doesn't freak me out.

I just feel happy when.

And we're listening.

You know, one of the times, I think maybe the second time I played with them at the Beacon with Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Beacon was after Signs was out, and we played oh, God, like, what's the name of that song?

You know, it's the really Tough Shame.

We played Shame.

It's a really tough rocker.

And we did a really long intro to something, and he started playing Lonnie's Lament Coltrane.

And I just thought, whoa, you know, and Susan's smiling the whole time.

And, you know, it's just one of those really incredible things.

And I had played, like, the first time Tim Lefebvre was still in the band, the first time I played with them.

And Tim is well known in New York for his jazz identity, his jazz abilities, you know, and he was, you know, really crushing it on bass.

And he got really happy about the music and started writing to me.

And it was just.

It's just.

And I played these, you know, complete last Waltz gigs is how I met a lot of people that I now play with periodically, like Scott Metzger, for example, a great guitar player and now a great friend.

But Alicia Shakur is one of the singers, and she was on these gigs with Scott and these complete Last Waltz gigs.

So there are already people I knew in the band in a way.

So it's just this big, friendly, really, really kind of, like, deep but relaxed kind of experience.

And I love it.

I love that vibe, you know, And I think it emanates from Derek and Susan in a.

In a kind of very organic way.

And Derek's running the show.

I mean, as far as musical direction, you can see he does, like, his big move.

The night is a guitar neck.

Yeah, like that.

You know what I mean?

And that's a cue.

Or he just turns around, like, halfway.

And you can see everyone's in 10A.

Just extend.

And I don't know what to do, you know, It's a beautiful thing.

Yeah.

So I would say about maybe 10 years ago, I was in New York filming some rig rundowns.

And it was during the Beacon Run.

It was in March, during the Beacon Run.

And Warren's tech reached out to me and said, hey, why don't you guys come by the show?

And we went by, and I met Bobby and Ryan, their guitar techs, Tedeschi trucks, guitar techs.

And I got to play a little bit on Derek's guitar, on his.

On his sg.

And I couldn't believe how low of action he has.

I think you can tell, but by the way he uses his slide that he's pressing down, all the way down, but there's no heavy effort there.

It has to be.

And that's really interesting, right?

Yeah.

That, like, blew my mind because I just thought of, you know, I think slide guitar.

I think heavy strings.

You're, you know, depending on what tuning you're using, maybe you're tuning down.

Maybe it's open E, where you're tuning up a little bit and fairly high action so that way you don't hear the clank or the frets.

Right.

I'm just curious if you ever had.

What you kind of mentioned, you ever had the experience of picking up his guitar and.

And seeing what his setup is.

You know, I've never, never touched any of his guitars.

Oh, wow.

I didn't feel like it was verboten, but it just.

No, you know.

You know.

Yeah.

He only tours, I think, with, like, three guitars and.

And.

Wow.

First it was just the two SGs, but then like, Like a K or.

Or.

Or harmony or something, you know, for a different kind of sound and maybe a different tuning is playing slide on.

On one song.

And that sounded really cool, but I didn't look at it.

I didn't touch it either.

Well, yeah, I don't know, but, yeah, he just handed me the guitar and I was like, oh, man.

And it felt like.

I think he had 11s on there, but it felt like a normal, like, setup.

There was no secret sauce to.

To his setup.

It seemed like.

It just seemed like that touch he has is just, you know, what sets it, what sets everything apart.

Well, that in his right hand, the way he's obviously able to mute while he's really banging away, you know, very specifically isolating strings and.

And, you know, you look at his hand, you know, he's like, really, like, sometimes he's doing this really hard, and it's still extremely specific, you know, very articulate.

What I think the.

The best video I've seen that illustrates that point, Nels, is the video of him playing Layla at Lockin.

And when he plays the intro riff up high, you see his hand literally hitting the guitar like this.

Yeah.

Like.

And it.

But.

But that riff comes out so precise and so clean and so powerful.

Like that, to me, is like, where the tone is coming from, how he's attacking that string.

Yep.

So I want to kind of wrap up here, Nick, and maybe you could jump into.

I want to.

Each of us, let's pick if we're to slide somebody an album from Derek's discography, and I'm going to spoil it right now.

I'm not going to pick a Tedeschi Trucks or Derek Trucks Band album.

There's one album in his discography that I think really shows an interesting side of him.

If you were to slide somebody one record with Derek, which would it be?

I'll let you go first, Nels.

Well, I.

I must start with the caveat that I am no expert on Derek's discography.

I haven't heard every Derek thing.

You know, I investigated, perhaps, much like Nick the Derek Trucks Band.

And it was kind of in this zone that was not quite jazz enough or blues enough for me.

And that was kind of not as completely blown away by that as I am by Tedeschi Trucks band.

I don't know why.

Certainly the playing is amazing.

So I haven't heard all those records, you know, honestly.

And I really love Revelator and.

But I also have to say, the most recent record, you know, there's four.

I Am the Moon.

I Am the Moon.

There are four of those.

And I get.

I get zeroed in on specific songs.

Maybe more than saying, like, this is the one I'm going to slide to you.

That.

So I just play.

And I think it's the second record that ends with hold that line.

Hold that line for me.

Just as a song.

And there's beautiful raga, like, if you will, slide playing on it.

This song got me through the pandemic.

This song got me through a lot of shit.

It's just a beautiful song.

So I'm just going to have to say whatever I Am the Moon album too, or whatever just for holding that line.

And there's plenty of good songs there.

And then there's, you know, I think Revelator is a justifiably great record.

I mean, Grammy award winning record because it's got some.

Besides like Midnight in Harlem and all these songs that people really recognize from their repertoire.

And it's got, you know, until you remember on it.

Yeah.

Which I, you know, can't get enough of that.

So I'm sorry, I'm kind of wimping out.

No, that totally works.

It totally works.

I'm gonna win about even more because given my experience that I.

That I explained, I think for me, I'm.

I'm not as much of an album guy, an album listener as the live videos.

And unfortunately, like, for me, it's like the last video that I've seen is always my favorite.

Like, he just.

Every.

I feel like every video of Derek playing is consistently amazing.

Sounds amazing.

And it's like, you know, the first half of this, like, I think it's 10 or 12 minutes long.

I don't have it in front of me.

You know, it's the Warren show, and he's.

He's doing it, and then Derek just opens up and it.

Like, while I was watching that, it's like, I.

I really did have the feeling, like, this is the best thing, like, every.

I've had that experience.

Oh, I'll send you the link.

Yeah, okay.

I.

I was like, this is the best thing.

This is the best guitar playing.

So I have that experience every time I listen to him.

I don't think I'm discerning enough to say, like, something is better than the other at this point.

I just.

That's the last one I saw today.

That is my favorite recording of Derek Trucks.

All right, I will go totally left to center with y'all.

I'm gonna pick one album and then one.

One track.

It's called Project Z.

Have you guys heard of this record?

No.

No.

Okay.

So the band on the record is Jimmy Herring, Jeff Seipe, Derek Trucks, and Ricky Keller on bass with Colonel Bruce Hampton in there, too.

And it's largely improvised, from my understanding.

A lot of little short.

You know, there's tracks that are called guitargument two, guitargument three.

And it's a lot of real back and forth.

Colonel Bruce.

Right.

And it's a lot of real back and forth interplay between Jimmy and Derek, who I think have a real special connection, you know, because they're literal family.

And so that, to me, is one record that I would.

It's.

It's not only an incredible showcase for Derek, I think it's an incredible showcase for Jimmy as well.

Nice.

I'm gonna write it down here.

And the other sneaky track.

Derek's not on the whole album, but he's on a couple tracks.

Is the McCoy Tyner album called Guitar?

Oh, yeah.

I mean, that one is a cool record.

That's a great record, you know, not only for Derek stuff, but Frizzell, Mark, Rebo Schofield, Bail Flex on it.

And the rhythm section is Ron Carter and Jack Dijon.

Never.

Never heard of them.

Never heard.

But those two.

Those two records, I would point people to.

To really hear and really two different sides, you know.

Project Z is way more experimental and off the wall and weird.

And the McCoy one is.

Is hearing, you know, a little bit of.

Derek made a straight ahead jazz record, you know, at some point, which I hope someday he still does.

I hope someday he does, you know, aim to do that.

Well, see, now you're making me think about that.

And that's not probably in any way definitive.

The track these Walls on Revelator where Derek's playing square sounds like square neck Dobro, except when you first hear it, you think like, wow, who's that incredible Sirode player?

Right.

Yeah.

And so that.

That is.

That's pretty inspiring, in fact.

Yeah.

I'm just gonna leave it at that.

Yeah.

And he's.

He's one of the few players I've heard that inspires me to play an open E without a slide, you know, because he's.

He's so good at that.

Well, yeah, like the.

The long instrumental at the end of the first I Am the Moon record.

It begins with a P.

It's a one word.

Oh, Pascal, not Pascagoula, but I know what you're talking about.

Pasaquan.

Pasaquan.

Pasaquan, man.

Come on.

It's like he's playing.

There's no slide on that, you know, and it's kind of like a cross between Mountain Jam and Third Stone from the Sun.

Like, as a composition, to me, that's.

That's a really rewarding track.

Incredible.

That helped me through a lot of shit, too.

Oh, wait, I swore.

I'm sorry.

That's all right.

All right, Nels, thank you again so much for coming to hang with us.

What do you have coming up later this year that people can look out for?

Well, that'll be Wilco tour.

At that point, I will have probably already played Big Ears with the Singers and Concentric Quartet and played with Joe Russo and John Modeski and Larry Oakes.

I can't.

So that's Wilco tour time.

All right, Mountain here.

Wilco.

I think a lot of it's going to be in Europe.

That's summer anyway.

All right, thank you.

Thank you so much for talking about Derek with us so much.

Derek rules.

What can you do?

That's right.

That's the way it goes.

All right, so that was our talk with Nell's Klein about Derek Trucks, and now I, like, magically appeared.

The Derek Trucks.

Focus in on that.

I think it's upside down.

Signature.

Signature slide right there.

Do you sound like Derek when you play it?

Exactly like it.

Do you have an SG and Alessandro amp right there.

Oh, there's the sg.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Boom.

Now you need an Alessandro amp.

Alessandro amp.

And that's all I need.

That's literally it.

I'm 66.6% of the way there.

I guess that's right.

So thanks again to Nels for joining us.

And thanks again to Sweetwater for all the awesome support and all the awesome gear.

There we go.

All the links are below and we'll see you all next time.

See you next week.

100.