CARRABASSETT VALLEY – Derek Trucks – the youngest musician named in Rolling Stone’s list of the Top 100 Guitarists of All Time, and one of those featured on the cover of the esteemed magazine’s 2007 New Guitar Gods issue – will headline Sugarloaf’s Bud Light Concert Series Saturday, Feb. 7.

The following weekend, on Saturday, Feb. 14, Soulive and Lettuce will headline the series bringing top national acts to Sugarloaf’s King Pine Room throughout the winter season.

The Derek Trucks Band is renowned throughout the world for its unique mix of jazz, rock, blues, Latin, Eastern Indian and other world music. It will appear with special guest Erik Mongrain, a 28-year-old acoustic guitarist from Montreal, Quebec, who has earned comparisons to such guitar virtuosos as Stanley Jordan, Don Rossand the late Michael Hedges.

The Derek Trucks Band will perform in support of its sixth studio album, “Already Free,” released on Jan 13.

When Derek Trucks, who has opened for Carlos Santana, plays guitar, listeners hear blues, soul, jazz, flourishes of world music from afro-beat to qawwali, even the advanced tonalities of the modern European masters.

Trucks performed on stage at age 9, jammed with his own group at age 11 and formed the core of the Derek Trucks Band at 15. He was asked to join the Allman Brothers Band as a permanent member in 1999 and accepted but only if he’d be able to concurrently pursue his own work as a leader.

Ever since the release of its self-titled 1997 debut, the Derek Trucks Band has operated more as a unit than as a band under the control of a single leader. Core members are bassist Todd Smallie, drummer Yonrico Scott, keyboardist and flutist Kofi Burbridge, singer Mike Mattison and percusionist Count M’Butu. Together, they give the Derek Trucks Band a four-decade age span, a quality that has had an indelible impact on the group’s musical vision.

Soulive was formed in 1999 by guitarist Eric Krasno, organist Neal Evans and drummer Alan Evans, and has gained national attention as one of the country’s top instrumental soul-funk trios.

Lettuce, a seven person band, was originally formed in 1992 after its members met at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. The group is known for its unique funk style and is touring in support of its third studio album, “RAGE!.”

Both shows are 21-plus only, and proper identification is required at the door. Tickets for Derek Trucks are $40 for platinum seating with cocktail service, $30 for gold seating and $15 for general admission (standing). Tickets are available at 1-800-THE-LOAF.

Doors will open at 8 p.m. Mongrain will play from 8:30 to 9 p.m. The Derek Trucks Band will perform from 9:30 p.m. until 12:30 a.m.

Tickets for Soulive and Lettuce are general admission only; they are $18 in advance, $22 at the door.

A special one-night concert ski and stay package is available for the Derek Trucks Band Concert; for more information, visit www.sugarloaf.com. or call 1-800-THE-LOAF

For more on the Derek Trucks Band, visit www.derektrucks.com. For more information on Soulive and Lettuce visit www.soulive.com and www.lettucefunk.com.


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