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Photo: John Bull/Rockrpix
Walter Trout has consolidated his solo career, overcome major health issues, and remained relevant at the forefront of blues rock…
Damn right Walter’s got the blues! But he’s thrown out the clichés, blown away the cobwebs, and reconnected the genre with our daily lives and jammed it to its maximum potential. Pete Feenstra (2012)
In 2004, when we featured our first gig review about Walter Trout, the blues guitarist had already released albums and enjoyed a 30-year plus career. He had been a sideman to artists such as Joe Tex, Lowell Fulsom and John Lee Hooker as well as a five year stint in John Mayall’s Blues Breakers.
As Pete Feenstra commented “Trout, the former John Mayall/Canned Heat and John Lee Hooker guitarist, must now be considered a heavyweight in his own right. Aside from his dexterity , speed, tone and spontaneity on the guitar … he has channelled his life experience into some heart felt material.”
Pete continued, reviewing the Mean Fiddler gig in November 2004 “while Trout firmly retains one foots in the blues camp, it is his potent mixture of magnificent guitar playing and on stage passion that keeps the fans coming back for more…
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Walter’s playing is that he eschews any manner of effects, relying simply on judicious use of his volume control and a tone that has been garnered in his 3 decade plus, professional career.
On top of that he is a very strong songwriter…”
The GRTR! Years saw Trout consolidate his position at the forefront of the genre, in spite of a serious set-back in when he had a liver transplant. For sheer durability and in the face of extreme adversity, Trout is right up there. And this period coincides with a greater commerciality and even chart success. Something that was noted by Feenstra when he interviewed Trout in 2008, and the artists’ willingness to embrace different genres.
Photo: John Bull/Rockrpix
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This business is full of these people who come out like a comet across the sky but then they burn out immediately. So I think maybe I never had the big time glory but I’ve had nearly 20 years since ‘Life In The Jungle’, and longevity is hard to find in this business. Walter Trout (2008) |
In early 2005 fans could catch up on the earlier stuff by checking out Deep Trout but a year later he released a landmark album in ‘Full Circle’ “comprising artists such as John Mayall, Jeff Healy, Joe Bonamassa, Bernard Allison, Deacon Jones, James Harman etc who have punctuated Walter’s expansive career.”
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Walter admirably pays homage to the blues styles and players that have influenced him, without jettisoning his rock roots in the long term. And where better to start than with his old mentor John Mayall. Album review (Full Circle, 2006) |
Trout promoted the new album with a showcase gig at the BBC’s Maida Vale studio and a October tour organised by Feenstra who had long been an advocate.
Writing about Trout’s gig at his Boom Boom Club venue in Sutton, Surrey Pete noted “The really great thing about Trout as evinced by this celebratory show is the way he reacts to his crowd. Unlike so many of his contemporaries, Walter is a natural story teller both in his songs and in his humorous on stage banter. There never appears to be a set list and as was the case tonight there were moments of inspired spontaneity.”
In 2007 Alan Jones reviewed Trout at Pacific Road in Birkenhead :
“Walter and the boys shambled on stage like a local covers band playing at a wedding. Walter put his glasses on, squinted at the setlist, took his glasses off, wandered to the front of the stage and ripped out a howling blues riff that just wasn’t human! He had the crowd in his pocket.”
Alan went on “…it’s not just fret-wanking, it’s all structured, tuneful and totally mesmeric. It seems like every note is torn from his very soul as you watch his facial expressions. He occasionally looks at the guitar like even he can’t believe what’s just come out of it.”
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The album’s sequencing is excellent and the production is everything that you imagine Walter wanted. And in the company of new set of musicians and intuitive producer he plays to his optimum. He may seem himself as an ‘outsider’ but this album offers further evidence that Walter Trout is very much at the centre of the best blues rock out there. ***** Pete Feenstra Album review (The Outsider, 2008) |
In 2008 and the album ‘The Outsider’ Trout was well aware of the ephermeral and fickle nature of the music scene, as encapsulated in the song ‘The Next Big Thing’.
Photo: Mark Hughes/MHP Studios
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Let’s go back to Johnny Lang, Kenny Wayne Sheppard and these guys that are out in the States now who were gigantic superstars in their 20′s and now they have to try for the rest of their lives to regain it, trying make a comeback at 30!! It’s basically a look at the business. Not just blues rock. I was playing live on MTV over here some years ago on ‘The Bridge’ on VHI. I played ‘Let Me Be The One’. So I’m in the make up room with a guy acting like he was hot shit. He was the big time guy who wouldn’t speak to me. It was the guy from Kula Shaker. And when I’m writing this song I’m thinking to myself where the fuck is Kula Shaker now? And I’m still out here doing it. A lot of people who if they want to put me in a category say Blues-rock and I agree. I do a lot of genres but that’s my main thing. And one of the things I’ve done a lot and do well is what I like to call a power shuffle. It’s got a shuffle beat like an old blues song but it’s a rock shuffle. |
In 2009 Pete Feenstra reviewed Trout’s 20th Anniversary Tour commenting “he seamlessly wove his way through several career highlights from his prodigious 17 album solo career.” And in that year he released his latest album, the career retrospective ‘Unspoiled by Progress’.
Vintage Trout (and Pete Feenstra!) recorded in October 2009 following the release of ‘Unspoiled By Progress’.
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With all of Walter’s releases you always worry that he’s going to change and get all modern on our asses, but as the title says – he’s unspoiled by progress, and we hope that continues for a very long time. Album review (Unspoiled By Progress, 2009) |
According to Pete Feenstra, Trout’s already strong songwriting had moved up a notch on ‘Common Ground’ (2010)
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…while there is still lashings of Walter’s trademark guitar work and any number of soulful grooves, strong melodies, intense riffs and moments real emotion, feel and tenderness, there’s an overriding new maturity in his vocals and real expressive phrasing. ***** Pete Feenstra Album review (Common Ground, 2010) |
In 2011 the so-called Giant of Bluesrock tour with Popa Chubby restated Trout’s ascendancy “there’s no substitute for a meeting of charisma and great musicianship.”
A year later, Pete Feenstra enthused that here was another “landmark” album ‘Blues For The Modern Daze’. As Pete noted, Trout’s songs had covered the full spectrum of the human condition (the working class) , post 9/11, the music industry, greed and personal alienation. This made him a fully-rounded performer and “a blues artist with something to say”.
Photo: Mark Hughes/MHP Studios
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I was 15 when I first heard him, and apart from Rory Gallagher I didn’t know much about rock/blues. One thing I will say about Walter – great guitar player that he is – is that it’s his vocals that I really like. It’s his voice that really moves me as much as his guitar playing. But I also like the wildness of his playing. I like guitar players on the edge, with the wildness and intensity of Buddy Guy. I don’t mean I don’t think Walter isn’t polished – he is and doesn’t make mistakes – but I like his guitar playing because it has that edge. Danny Bryant (2013) |
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…the essential blues album he’s threatened to make over the last five years and he’s finally delivered. It’s got everything his fans would want from great songs to great playing and lashing of vigorous licks that bring the songs alive… The combination of meaningful lyrics in a blues idiom played by a scintillating guitarist with his road tested band is a potent force making this 21st album of his career his best so far” ***** Pete Feenstra Album review (Blues For The Modern Daze, 2012) |
In October 2012 Dave Atkinson described Trout at the Jazz Café in London “A show full of energy and electricity delivered by an artist at the very peak of his powers.”
On the same tour Andrew Lock noted “The audience were in the palm of his hand as we had plenty of anecdotes including … his reaction to someone shouting out “you’re a legend’ his lightning fast response was a diamond “that’s what they all say, it’s just because I’m still alive”.
But by early 2013 there was another – life-threatening – event that would influence Trout’s songwriting. He was told that he had cirrohosis of the liver and then needed a transplant within 90 days. In March 2013 Jason Ritchie published a shocking news item from Trout’s wife Marie.
Walter’s condition has worsened – he is now in full-fledged liver failure. If he does not get a new liver within the next few months – he will not make it. I have just reached out to all our cooperation partners and cancelled all Walter’s touring for 2014.
He will not be allowed to travel for the next six months minimum and he will need lots of recovery time post-surgery. Walter is very, very ill currently and at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles where teams of the best surgeons and liver specialists are taking care of his survival until they can secure a high quality liver for him.
Photo: Mark Hughes/MHP Studios
However, in spite of daunting health issues Trout struggled on playing gigs in late 2013, and following the release of his Luther Allison tribute, and reviewed by Pete Feenstra at Shepherds Bush Empire: “Walter Trout’s most durable qualities are his intense guitar playing and his ever ready sense of humour. Both were in evidence at a packed Shepherd’s Bush Empire as he overcame his daunting health problems in front of his biggest London crowd in years.”
But in early 2014 – waiting for a donor - he suffered from brain damage and lost the ability to speak, play the guitar, and recognize his family and had to relearn how to speak and walk. He also had to re-learn the guitar.
Just prior to the successful transplant (supported by fan donations) in May 2014 there was a special “evening for Walter Trout” at London’s Shepherd Bush Empire. This featured contributions from Roger Chapman, Otis Grand and several Trout protégées including Danny Bryant and Laurence Jones.
Amazingly, whilst waiting for the transplant Trout cut another album to commemorate his 25th anniversary as a solo artist. The Blues Came Callin’ was released in June 2013.
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It’s a deeply introspective album that speaks form the soul and doubtless recording it pushed Walter to the limit … If you ever were ever in any doubt as to what the blues is, play this album back to back, it speaks volumes. **** Pete Feenstra Album review (The Blues Came Callin’, 2014) |
Trout’s career trials and tribulations were documented in a book he co-authored with Henry Yates published in 2014.
Photo: Prakash Prak
After a period of recuperation Trout had sufficiently recovered to go on tour in Europe in 2015 releasing the album ‘Battle Scars’. The year was topped by his appearance at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the Lead Belly Festival when Pete Feenstra noted “On an evening in which the primacy of the voice was paramount, here was a performer who had not only re-found his booming voice, but he’d got his life back!”
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‘Battle Scars’ finds Walter Trout back at the top of his game and it’s a clarion call for all that is great in both life and music. Album review (Battle Scars, 2015) |
Pete Feenstra interviewed Walter Trout for his show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, playing tracks from ‘Battle Scars’. First broadcast 8 November 2015.
By November 2015, Trout played a series of UK dates including the O2 Forum in London where Pete Feenstra opined:
Where too many blues rockers fail to cross the significant divide between clubs and bigger venues, Trout has always had the ability to hold an audience. And tonight he rides rough shot over the sheer weight of expectation to strike a significant chord with everybody in the big crowd.
He veers from the reflective and dark to the deeply … on a set that veers from real intensity to sheer exhilaration.
Photo: John Bull/Rockrpix
In 2016 won the rock/blues album and song of the year categories at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, and a new live album, recorded in 2015, reiterated that he was – in Feenstra’s words – “truly reborn”.
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I love Joe Bonamassa and Walter Trout when they get into the kind of emotion filled dark epics that they can produce. It’s been my great pleasure to open for the latter two and I have also exchanged CD’s with them. They probably use mine for coasters. Gary Boner (Roadhouse), 2013 |
If blues is about feel and emotion Walter has it in bucket loads, and he’s unafraid to share it with his fans. Pete Feenstra (2017)
Pete Feenstra chatted to Walter for his show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, with tracks from the ALIVE In Amsterdam. First broadcast 10 July 2016.
2017 saw Trout play UK dates in July ahead of an appearance at the Ramblin Man Fair (24 July) and again in October promoting the latest album “We’re All In This Together”. Like ‘Full Circle’ the album features several guest contributors including Mike Zito, Edgar Winter and Robben Ford.
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It’s an aptly titled album that reflects Trout’s high standing in the blues rock world. It’s more than a follow up to 2006′s ‘Full Circle’ as the material is stronger and Trout’s own performance is so much more focused and disciplined. His guests act as catalyst for a broad based blues-rock album that flows from beginning to end. It burns with commitment, passion and sparkles with real quality that mirrors the triumph of the whole over the minutiae of its making. ****½ Pete Feenstra Album review (We’re All In This Together, 2017) |
Pete Feenstra chatted to Walter for his show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio playing tracks from his album ‘We’re All In This Together’. First broadcast 22 October 2017.
Perpetuating the impression of high productivity even when faced with the grim reaper, Trout released a new album in 2019 the appropriately titled ‘Survivor Blues’. This was essentially an album of cover versions where he “paid his dues to the blues”.
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‘Survivor Blues’ finds him on a mission to uncover lesser known blues covers and to strike a balance between the past and its relevance in contemporary times. **** Pete Feenstra Album review (Survivor Blues, 2018) |
2019 saw Trout participate in the Rocking The Blues tour which also featured Jonny Lang and Kris Barras. Pete Feenstra summed it up: “Tonight Walter Trout revels in the qualities of passion, spark, durability, possibly his best ever singing and above all good humour, all glued together with lashings of guitar”.
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‘Ordinary Madness’ is a triumph of creativity, vim and vigour. The future of rock-blues is in inspired hands. ***** Pete Feenstra Album review (Ordinary Madness, 2020) |
Pete chatted to Walter for his show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio playing tracks from the album ‘Ordinary Madness’. First broadcast 6 September 2020.
Walter Trout’s latest release ‘Ride’ came out in August 2022 and once again attested the blues/rock guitarist’s longevity at the forefront of the genre.
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The difference between this album and everything he’s cut before is simply that while Walter’s post-op albums have all conveyed deep emotion and lyrical substance, on ‘Ride’ he’s found a broader musical landscape in which to express himself. **** Pete Feenstra Album review (Ride, 2022) |
The album demonstrated the artist’s appeal and – as back in 2003 – a willingness to cross genres sustained by solid songwriting and incendiary guitar playing. During our twenty year coverage Walter Trout has never had anything less than a four out of five star album review.
Pete Feenstra sums up: When asked to pen an appraisal of Walter Trout, the prolific blues-rock icon and his durability over the last 20 years, it was a bit like searching for needles in a haystack to find a meaningful starting point.
Happily Trout’s prodigious recording output mirrors his durability and is that of a musician whose incredible guitar playing is an extension of his song-writing ability.
Trout’s releases over this period represent roughly two-thirds of his total output, and perhaps our immediate attention should be focussed on his last two albums ‘Ordinary Madness’ and ‘Drive’. Both albums find his song-writing, arrangements and band interplay at an all time high. No mean feat for an artist on the verge of his 31st album.
They say you should save your best for last, and both ‘Ordinary Madness’ and ‘Drive’ are right up there among Trout’s best albums, well crafted songs, full of variety and all beautifully played. Listen for example to the title track of ‘Ordinary Madness’, the Americana feel of ‘Heartland’ and the gut wrenching ‘All Out Of Tears’.
Then there’s the autobiographical title track ‘Drive’, the quite beautifully crafted ‘Waiting For The Dawn’ and a trade mark rocker ‘Leave It All Behind’ – complete with horns – which all suggest a blues rocker at the top of his game.
Trout fought back against incredible odds, a real life version of ‘Go The Distance’, pouring his soul into a brace of unflinching albums, ‘The Blues Came Callin’ and ‘Battle Scars’.
The fact the fans not only stuck with him, but grew in numbers spoke volumes about his standing in the blues-rock world.
Going back to his early album in the millennium, he’s certainly relentless, and there’s surely plenty more to come from a man born to play blues-rock.
Story coordination: David Randall
Contributors: Dave Atkinson, Pete Feenstra, Alan Jones, Andrew Lock, Jason Ritchie
UK Tour Dates
Tue May 9th EXETER Phoenix
Wed May 10th BIRMINGHAM Town Hall
Fri May 12th HOLMFIRTH Picturedrome
Sat May 13th SUNDERLAND Fire Station
Sun May 14th GLASGOW Oran Mor
Tue May 16th LIVERPOOL Epstein Theatre
Wed May 17th CAMBRIDGE Junction
Thu May 18th ILKLEY Kings Hall
Fri May 19t GATESHEAD Sage
Sat May 20th MANCHESTER Academy 2
Sun May 21st ISLINGTON Assembly Hall
The GRTR! Grotto of Greatness (Home page)
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.
In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.
Latest session: Sunday 14 April
Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio
David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 14 April 2024.
UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 9 April 2024.
How to Listen Live?
Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)
Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”
Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.
More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com
Power Plays w/c 29 April 2024
BRIGITTE PURDY Sugar Fried Candy (Dirtshack Records)
ATTIC THEORY The Legacy (indie)
THE HOWLERS I Need Your Love (indie)
VELVETEEN QUEEN Bad Reputation (indie)
WILLS AND THE WILLING Scuffed Knees (Smash & Grab Music Ltd)
READY THE PRINCE Still Believe (indie)
Featured Albums w/c 29 April 2024
09:00-12:00 PRAYING MANTIS Defiance (Frontiers)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003-2023
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