The LA Beat

Melody and Vaylor Trucks, photo by Frank Allen Sr.

Melody Trucks was born into one of the “first families” of blues and Southern Rock. Her father was Butch Trucks, one of the two drummers for the Allman Brothers Band. Her cousin is Derek Trucks, of the Tedeschi-Trucks Band. Melody, meanwhile, not only listened and played music, including that from the Allman Brothers as well as from her father’s side projects like Butch Trucks and the Freight Train Band. She also found an interest in music as a career, carrying high school music classes into a serious college-based music endeavor. These days, she has several music projects going, some which will be shown at The Blue Jay Listening Room near her home in Jacksonville, Florida.

Melody Trucks took some time to talk to The Boise Beat about her own Melody Trucks Project and some of her full band projects, as well as growing up with music around her and the Allman’s one-two drummer combo.

Q: Hello, Melody and thank you for telling us about your story. For many, such as myself, we grew up with the Allman Brothers Band and many of us were not only inspired to play music because of them, but many of us in the late 60s and later were turned onto Southern Rock and blues by your father and his bands.

A: My name is Melody Trucks; and we have more than one band, so I have my solo project which is Melody Trucks, I have a band with my brother [Vaylor Trucks], which is called Brother and Sister. I also have a concert series which I do with my brother as well called the Blue Jay Sessions. Plus, I’ve started going out on the road a couple times a year with the Lee Boys, so how’s that!

Q: What was it like growing up with so much music in your life?

A: My mom and dad split when I was very young. I don’t remember my parents boing together, I think I was maybe a year and a half or two years old when they split. Music has always been a part of my life—I grew up with my mom, so I wasn’t as immersed in it as if they had stayed together. But I got to see both sides of the coin growing up, because my brother and I moved with our mom to her home town, which is this very small town in central Florida called Wauchula. We lived a very humble and low-key life in a small town. Then I’d go visit my dad, we’d ride around in limos and hang out with Charlie Daniels. Lord only knows who else was in the studio at that time! So I got to see both sides of the coin growing up, which I really feel helped me have a much rounder perspective on life in general.

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