Blues Blast Music Awards – Blues Blast Magazine". Bluesblastmagazine.com . Retrieved January 23, 2020. Ironically, the harmonica-laden and chunky riffathon of “High is Low” might just be the highest of the many highs here. Rich organ textures, crushing percussion, and a guitar solo with a tone to die for add another memorable stop-off along this exciting and varied musical ride. By 1981, Trout had switched to West Coast boogie-blues titans Canned Heat for a period he diplomatically recalls as “turbulent”, but even this gig was topped three years later by a fantastical phone call from John Mayall, dangling the revered guitar slot in his iconic Bluesbreakers outfit. “As far as being a blues-guitar sideman, that gig is the pinnacle,” states Trout. “That’s Mount Everest. You could play with B.B. King or Buddy Guy, but you’re just gonna play chords all night. This guy features you. You get to play solos. He yells your name after every song, brings you to the front of the stage, and lets you sing. He creates a place for you in the world. Where do you go from there…?”

Blues Music Awards Winner List – Blues411". May 6, 2016. Archived from the original on May 6, 2016 . Retrieved January 25, 2020. As Ride took form, such memories couldn’t help but flavour the music. “This album is obviously what I was going through mentally and emotionally,” he considers. “All I did was express it. I spent a lot of time crying, because I would dig down into my emotional core. I want my songs to have some sort of truth to them. BREAKING: Blues Music Awards winners announced; Taj Mahal & Keb' Mo's 'TajMo' wins seven awards". Blues.org. May 11, 2018. day ago LIES!: Dutch metallic hardcore gang drops video for “Propaganda” (ft. Hugo Zerrad – Worst Doubt) via Invisible Oranges; 2nd album comes early December From the grinding riff and freight-train harp that light the fuse of opener Ghosts, it’s clear Ride is like nothing else in Trout’s catalogue.

Tracklist

Undeniable blues guitar legend Walter Trout goes deep to reconcile his past, present, and future on his new album Ride. Trout joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers line-up in ’85, before embarking on an acclaimed solo career from ’89 onwards. Walter Trout We're All In This Together Chart History". Billboard.com . Retrieved January 23, 2020.

Of all the peaks in Trout’s trajectory, his abiding memory of the late Chicago bluesman is perhaps the most literal. It’s 1986, and high above Lake Geneva, at the palatial Alpine chalet of late Montreux Jazz Festival Svengali Claude Nobs, lunch is being served. “So we’re up at the top of the Alps,” Trout recalls, “in this big room with John Mayall, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Robert Cray, Otis Rush, and as we’re eating, Dr. John is serenading us on acoustic piano. I was sat there with Luther Allison, and we had a great talk. For Walter Trout, there is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Across his five-decade career, the great US bluesman’s music has always been a lifeline and call-to-arms, reminding listeners they are not alone. On the final leg of the albums journey we have ‘Hey Mama’ before the penultimate ‘Destiny’. It can’t be ignored that Trout is a master of procuring his albums into stories with each song lending itself as a chapter within. ‘Hey Mama’ feels much like the reconciliation following the last good time blast before ‘Destiny’ acts as the end of night credits rolling soother.

Versions

Yates, Henry; Trout, Walter (May 29, 2014). Rescued from Reality: The Life and Times of Walter Trout. Omnibus Press. ISBN 9789082200201– via Google Books. Trout may well have reached another high-water mark with Ride, which is amazing to consider. At the stage of life when many musicians choose to just play the hits, Trout is going artistically hard, pulling more out of his real self than ever and ripping the strings off of his guitar. We should all live this well. In 2019, Trout's album, Survivor Blues, debuted with two consecutive weeks on the Billboard Blues Chart at number one and stayed in the top ten for twelve weeks. [12] Metal Zone magazine, reviewed his performance in London by naming Trout "the ultimate, supreme bluesman of the 20th and 21st centuries." [13] But five albums and a whole lot of determined re-learning later and Trout is more than he has ever been before in both music and himself. As we come up to a decade since Trouts time in hospital and subsequently in recovery, it feels like common knowledge that his post operation fortitude was not just to prove to the world that he could continue as he had, but because whatever makes him play like he does lingers in his bones refusing to be rid of. In a way, that’s what makes it so wonderful, because if Walter Trout can feel like this, when he’s Walter Trout for goodness sake, then we can all feel like that. Consider this your permission.

So her present to me for my 70th birthday was a brand-new record deal she had negotiated. My producer, Eric Corne, scoped out a new studio in LA, and my plan was to fly home to make a new album.” This one-two punch of explosive guitar playing and relentless oomph is classic Trout and a reminder (if one were needed) of the brilliance when he steps his foot on the gas. However it’s not quite full steam ahead from this point as Trout (as he always does) pulls over for the occasional, soul-searching ballad. However fast or far a man travels, he can never truly outrun his past. On his new album he found himself eyeing the horizon and the green shoots of his triumphant late career. There was a new record deal with Mascot/Provogue. Find sources: "Walter Trout"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( January 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Local bands never got the breaks, and in 1973, Trout made the death-or-glory move to LA, where he slept on couches and scrabbled for work. “I came out here and it was a overwhelming thing,” he says, “because I didn’t know anybody. I just started going around to clubs where there were bands playing and asked if I could sit in. My first gig, I was stand-up lead singer in a country band, singing Merle Haggard tunes. And with my third paycheque, I went and bought that Strat that’s still on the cover of all my CDs.”

For Sale on Discogs

This year he releases his 30th solo effort album ‘Ride’ on Provogue /Mascot Label Group. Not only is it yet another double digit milepost, it also marks nine years since Trout was left brain damaged after cirrhosis of the liver required him to have a liver transplant. Left not being able to walk, talk or remember how to play even a simple open chord on the guitar it was unsure what would be left of Trouts career or even his sense of self. As we move into the second half of the album we’re blessed with Trout signature protean ways. Personally I think the brilliant thing about Trout is his ability to give each song on his many albums a completely different feel. The blues can only be done a certain amount of ways but it’s with layered production and attention to detail that he succeeds in doing just that. Marie Trout" Introduces "Walter Trout" @ The RAH". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-19 . Retrieved January 19, 2020.

In 2002, he was featured on the Bo Diddley tribute album, Hey Bo Diddley – A Tribute!, performing the song " Road Runner" and many more guest appearances on other recordings. If the blues ever needed someone to cling on for its dear life, you can bet your bottom soul the name of perennial blues stalwart Walter Trout would be leaping out of the water. He’s recovered from a last-gasp liver transplant, survived addiction, and found sanctuary when thrown into the deep end without a paddle.Trout still speaks to the modern world with 21st Century energy but he found himself also writing lyrics about his darkest times gone by. These memories include growing up around a cruel, unstable stepfather who had been a prisoner of war, playing guitar for revered-but-difficult blues pioneers John Lee Hooker and Big Mama Thornton, and a stint in an 80s Canned Heat lineup. All this and more gave Trout an endless supply of emotional truth to fuel his creative process. Released June 10, 2013 on Provogue Records, this latest collection was bottled at Hollywood’s Entourage Studios alongside producer Eric Corne: the same combination that birthed 2012’s acclaimed solo release, Blues For The Modern Daze. The atmosphere, remembers Trout, was one of spit, grit and seat-of-the-pants energy: “Spontaneity is so important with this sort of music. Everybody was saying, ‘Well, aren’t you gonna get together and rehearse?’, but you don’t want to over-analyse or get too sterile. This album was all pretty much first or second takes. It’s gotta have warts on it. It’s gotta have a bit of grease in it.” Trout would answer that question in emphatic style on March 6, 1989. As guitarist, his tenure had brought thrilling flammability to the Breakers’ sound and produced stone-cold classics including One Life To Live, but as the newly sober guitarist played a lavish show at a Gothenburg symphony hall on his 38th birthday, he sensed the hand of destiny. “To walk away from the Bluesbreakers,” he admits, “a lot of people thought was completely crazy, because I could have stayed with John as long as I wanted. I mean, John to this day is like a dad to me. He was behind me when I was all screwed up, kept me in the band, believed in me, and gave me the opportunity to progress and grow up in a certain way. So that was a huge decision, and it was scary, but I had to do it, because I knew I had more, y’know?”