Full Circle by Walter Trout
.com
----
Guest-star projects can be such tiresome affairs. Too often,
the high-profile "friend" is nothing more than the record label's
idea of someone they can feature on the front cover to generate
additional sales. Additionally, these performances are frequently
overdubbed, so the artist and the guest never actually come in
contact with each other. Thankfully, neither is the case on
Walter Trout's first studio album of new material since 2001's Go
the Distance. Not only has the hot guitarist worked and
maintained friendships with these players, but they convened in
the same studio at the same time to nail these tunes. Not
surprisingly, the vast majority of Trout's friends are guitarists
who--like him--prefer to charge through songs with the intensity
of a salmon swimming upstream. Joe Bonamassa, Bernard Allison,
Guitar Shorty, Jeff Healey, Junior Watson, and Coco Montoya all
share guitar-duel duties, and while the results aren't exactly
subtle, there's enough explosive firepower here to level a small
building. Even an acoustic session with Eric Sardinas--a neighbor
of Trout's--attacks like an unplugged Rory Gallagher on a hot
Belfast night. John Mayall (keyboards/vocals), James Harman
(harp), Finis Tasby (vocals), Deacon Jones (Hammond B3 organ),
and Little Feat drummer Richie Hayward also bring their game
faces, and sometimes songs, contributing to various tracks with
energy and intensity. Trout plays with his usual all-stops-out
bluster, but there is an obvious affection for his guests on
every track, which both energizes and spurs him on to new heights
on what is arguably his best and most diverse effort yet. --Hal
Horowitz
About the Artist
----------------
Born in 1951 and raised in Ocean City, New Jersey, Walter
Trout felt the calling to music at a young age. Hearing the album
"THE PAUL BUTTERFIELD BLUES BAND" cemented Walters musical
ambitions towards the blues genre and the electric guitar. As a
shy teenager growing up in a turbulent household, his singular
solace became his rapidly developing ability to express his
feelings playing the guitar and his vision of becoming a
professional musician.
In his late teens and early twenties, Trout played in numerous
New Jersey bands, and in 1973, he packed up his belongings in a
VW Beetle and drove cross-country to California, arriving in Los
Angeles with only a few changes of clothes and his guitars.
He developed into an ace sideman, befriending and backing
California blues artists, often being the only "white boy" in the
black neighborhood clubs. His technique accelerated rapidly as he
played with Finis Tasby, Pee Wee Crayton, Lowell Fulsom, and
Percy Mayfield, among others. Walter often teamed with Hammond B3
wizard Deacon Jones and the apprenticeship continued in the bands
of John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thorton and Joe Tex.
By 1981, Trouts reputation led to the invitation to join
venerable blues rock band Canned Heat, where he remained through
1984. When the call came to join the legendary John Mayalls
Bluesbreakers, Trout jumped and found himself sharing the
spotlight with fellow guitarist Coco Montoya. Trout and Montoya
lifted the band to a new level, as Mayalls Bluesbreakers enjoyed
unprecedented album sales and high profile tours in the US and
abroad.
In 1989, he felt he had more to give than a few blazing solos as
a side man - he gathered musicians he knew from Los Angeles and
started The Walter Trout Band, which quickly segued into
immediate extensive touring of Europe, where he had several radio
hits and charted with his unique style of blues rock. His
commercial and critical success in Europe kept him so busy
outside of the US that his arrival back home found him only
resting to go back to the frantic pace his popularity demanded
overseas. Like many American blues and roots-music artists,
Walter Trout had developed an incredible following in Europe, but
came home to little fanfare.
Amazingly, the self-titled WALTER TROUT, released by Ruf Records
in 1998 was his first "official" domestic CD. Shortly after, the
band renamed as Walter Trout and The Free Radicals and began an
extensive touring pace stateside, steadily building a fan base
and bringing their high energy, impassioned live performances
back home. To date Ruf Records has released 7 titles in the US
and Walter has continued his frequent touring, splitting time
more evenly between continents.
Whether hes on stage in front of 50,000 people, or performing in
a small club for a couple hundred what matters to Walter Trout
is reaching peoples hearts through his artistry and relaying the
passion he has for all the musical styles which shape his sound.