Sunday, May 4, 2014

WALTER TROUT: "The Blues Came Callin'"

Rating: RRRRR
Label: Provogue/Mascot Label Group
Review by Martien Kolen

 Walter Trout has been working as a solo artist for 25 years and that calls for a celebration. But as you already may know Walter Trout is very ill at the moment, so the festivities will have to wait. Despite Walter's illness he continued touring, writing, playing, singing and even recording. So, very soon, the 5th of June, to be precise, Trout will release his new album called The Blues Came Callin'. The theme of the album is coloured by Trout's confrontation with mortality combined with a deep, all abiding drive to persevere.

 The new album, recorded throughout 2013 and early 2014 features 12 new songs of which 10 are originals. One, Mayall's Piano Boogie was written by John Mayall and the other one called The Whale, is a J.B. Lenoir cover. The Blues Came Callin' is one of Walter Trout's best albums, especially the amazing guitarsolos in Wastin' Away, The World Is Going Crazy, The Whale and Born In The City belong to the best solos Trout has ever recorded. Tight Shoes is an instrumental song and shows Trout's ability to play very cool and to express something special and emotional even without singing a single word. The only cover on the album, The Whale, was originally composed and played by J.B. Lenoire and it is a slow blues track with two mean and lean guitar solos, Another highlight is The Bottom Of The River, as the story deals with what Trout has been going through recently and musically this is a typical `old fashioned` Trout blues track. But Walter saves the best for last as Nobody Moves Me Like You Do, written for his wife Marie, is the absolute guitar highlight of the album. Walter Trout and the blues come full circle with this amazing album and The Blues Came callin' is one of the best blues rock albums I have heard in a long time.

Hats off for Walter, this is a superb album and now let's hope and prey that Walter will get his new liver soon and get better, so that he can make more albums like this one.
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