Derek Trucks started out as a young guitar prodigy playing alongside his uncle Butch in the Allman Brothers Band, but began following his own path in the late 1990s. ALREADY FREE is the result of a decade-plus spent sharpening his skills and growing his soul. It's probably his loosest, warmest, funkiest offering to date. While it's not markedly different from the Southern-tinged blues-rock of his earlier albums, ALREADY FREE nevertheless mines an altogether greasier groove. The album leans heavily on an old-school Southern soul aesthetic, and the spirit of both Memphis and Muscle Shoals can be heard in much of the material here, whether Trucks and company are adding some Southern grit to Bob Dylan's "Down in the Flood" or getting down the to the groove of one of their blues-rocking originals.

• Genre: Pop
• Format: Vinyl
• Released: 6/8/2015