WALTER TROUT
''THE BLUES CAME CALLIN'''
JUNE 2 2014
57:46
1 /Wastin' Away 4:51
2 /The World Is Going Crazy (And So Am I) 4:32
3 /The Bottom of the River 5:22
4 /Take a Little Time 2:51
5 /The Whale Have Swallowed Me
J.B. Lenoir 4:51
6 /Willie 5:01
7 /Mayall's Piano Boogie
John Mayall 3:38
8 /Born in the City 5:49
9 /Tight Shoes 3:41
10 /The Blues Came Callin' 5:33
11 /Hard Time 4:18
12 /Nobody Moves Me Like You Do 7:12
Tracks By Trout, Except As Indicated
John Avila - Bass
Sam Avila - Hammond B3, Keyboards
Skip Edwards - Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3
Kenny Gradney - Bass
Deacon Jones - Hammond B3
Rick Knapp - Bass
Michael Leasure - Drums, Percussion
John Mayall - Hammond B3, Piano
Taras Prodaniuk - Bass
Sasha Smith - Piano
Walter Trout - Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
REVIEW
by Steve Leggett
There's a grim but ultimately wonderful story behind Walter Trout's The Blues Came Callin'. A fine songwriter with an explosive, searing guitar style, Trout, a New Jersey native, is a lifetime blues musician, having been a member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Canned Heat, toured in John Lee Hooker and Big Mama Thornton's road bands, and released a number of strong solo albums under his own name. When it was discovered that he had a disease that ruined his liver, a transplant was his only option, and he had neither the money nor the insurance to have the procedure done. He wrote the songs for this album knowing that it might well be his last. Thanks to social media and a fervent fan base, enough money was raised to allow the transplant, and The Blues Came Callin', another excellent outing from Trout, would appear to not be his last album after all. The blues may not be about happy endings, but it is a music about surviving hardships and reaching toward personal change and redemption, and Trout gives all of that credence with this fine release.
REVIEW
By Blues Rock
2014 should have been a grand celebration of Walter Trout’s 25th year as a solo artist. Instead Walter Trout has come down with a liver disease that has caused him to spend his time in the hospital waiting for a liver transplant instead of celebrating. Recorded over the last year, The Blues Came Callin’ is a collection of 12 songs that collects Walter’s thoughts about mortality and life.
“Wastin’ Away” opens the album with his typical muscular blues rock punch and squarely deals with Walter’s illness. He’s not going to give up even though he’s lost over 100 pounds due to his liver problem. Things don’t slow down from there as he transitions into the rocking political statement of “The World is Goin’ Crazy (And so Am I).” “The Bottom of the River” starts with a dobro line and a theme about a drowning man who comes to the realization that it’s not time to die and that he needs to fight for the surface. Pertinent subject matter considering what Walter has been through lately.
“Take a Little Time” is a ’50s style Chuck Berry sound. Things pick up again with “Willie,” which is a contemptuous indictment about management in the music business. On “Born in The City” Walter again lets the guitar step forward and do most of the rocking. “Tight Shoes” is an instrumental in the style of Freddie King.
For a while, Walter used to tour in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and he was a big influence on Walter. John is who turned him on to the late great Chicago bluesman J.B. Lenoir. “The Whale” is an updated cover of one of Lenoir’s lesser known tracks and is intended as a tribute to Mayall. Mayall also guests on the album and is quite evident on two tracks in particular. John lends his organ skills on the traditional blues title track “The Blues Came Callin’” and his playing clearly starts out “ Mayall’s Piano Boogie.”
The album closes out with “Nobody Moves Me Like You Do,” a track written for his wife. Walter describes it as his gift to her. Trout offers, “To play my music for people has become even more important to me. When I think about looking out into the crowds of people and connecting with everyone on a soul level, and sharing the experience of music with them, this is what keeps me fighting to get back: My family and my music is my lifeline. These days, it means more to me than ever before.”
BIOGRAPHY
by Jason Ankeny
New Jersey-born blues-rocker Walter Trout spent decades as an ace sideman, playing guitar behind the likes of John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, and Joe Tex. In 1981, he was also tapped to replace the late Bob Hite in Canned Heat, remaining with the venerable group through the middle of the decade. While filling in one night for an ailing John Mayall, Trout (also a Bluesbreaker for some five years) was spotted by a Danish concert promoter who agreed to finance a solo tour. Assembling his own backing band, in 1990 he released his debut LP, Life in the Jungle, trailed a year later by Prisoner of a Dream. Albums including 1992's Live (No More Fish Jokes), 1994's Tellin' Stories, and 1997's Positively Beale Street followed. Trout continued a steady release schedule, issuing Livin' Every Day in 1999, a live album the following year (recorded at the Tampa Bay Blues Fest), the 2001 studio album Go the Distance, 2003's Relentless -- which Trout and his band, the Radicals, recorded in front of a live audience -- and 2005's Deep Trout, a compilation of early and unreleased recordings. On the 2006 release Full Circle, Trout realized his dream of creating an album with some of his most admired musicians, including John Mayall, Coco Montoya, and Joe Bonamassa, among others. The 2009 compilation Unspoiled by Progress found Trout handpicking live tracks recorded on the road throughout his career. The following year he was back in the studio and released Common Ground. On 2012's Blues for the Modern Daze, Trout wrote 15 tracks based on his country blues roots. His 23rd album, Luther's Blues, was issued in 2013 which was a tribute to one of his main influences, the late Luther Allison.
OFFICIAL SITE
''THE BLUES CAME CALLIN'''
JUNE 2 2014
57:46
1 /Wastin' Away 4:51
2 /The World Is Going Crazy (And So Am I) 4:32
3 /The Bottom of the River 5:22
4 /Take a Little Time 2:51
5 /The Whale Have Swallowed Me
J.B. Lenoir 4:51
6 /Willie 5:01
7 /Mayall's Piano Boogie
John Mayall 3:38
8 /Born in the City 5:49
9 /Tight Shoes 3:41
10 /The Blues Came Callin' 5:33
11 /Hard Time 4:18
12 /Nobody Moves Me Like You Do 7:12
Tracks By Trout, Except As Indicated
John Avila - Bass
Sam Avila - Hammond B3, Keyboards
Skip Edwards - Fender Rhodes, Hammond B3
Kenny Gradney - Bass
Deacon Jones - Hammond B3
Rick Knapp - Bass
Michael Leasure - Drums, Percussion
John Mayall - Hammond B3, Piano
Taras Prodaniuk - Bass
Sasha Smith - Piano
Walter Trout - Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
REVIEW
by Steve Leggett
There's a grim but ultimately wonderful story behind Walter Trout's The Blues Came Callin'. A fine songwriter with an explosive, searing guitar style, Trout, a New Jersey native, is a lifetime blues musician, having been a member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Canned Heat, toured in John Lee Hooker and Big Mama Thornton's road bands, and released a number of strong solo albums under his own name. When it was discovered that he had a disease that ruined his liver, a transplant was his only option, and he had neither the money nor the insurance to have the procedure done. He wrote the songs for this album knowing that it might well be his last. Thanks to social media and a fervent fan base, enough money was raised to allow the transplant, and The Blues Came Callin', another excellent outing from Trout, would appear to not be his last album after all. The blues may not be about happy endings, but it is a music about surviving hardships and reaching toward personal change and redemption, and Trout gives all of that credence with this fine release.
REVIEW
By Blues Rock
2014 should have been a grand celebration of Walter Trout’s 25th year as a solo artist. Instead Walter Trout has come down with a liver disease that has caused him to spend his time in the hospital waiting for a liver transplant instead of celebrating. Recorded over the last year, The Blues Came Callin’ is a collection of 12 songs that collects Walter’s thoughts about mortality and life.
“Wastin’ Away” opens the album with his typical muscular blues rock punch and squarely deals with Walter’s illness. He’s not going to give up even though he’s lost over 100 pounds due to his liver problem. Things don’t slow down from there as he transitions into the rocking political statement of “The World is Goin’ Crazy (And so Am I).” “The Bottom of the River” starts with a dobro line and a theme about a drowning man who comes to the realization that it’s not time to die and that he needs to fight for the surface. Pertinent subject matter considering what Walter has been through lately.
“Take a Little Time” is a ’50s style Chuck Berry sound. Things pick up again with “Willie,” which is a contemptuous indictment about management in the music business. On “Born in The City” Walter again lets the guitar step forward and do most of the rocking. “Tight Shoes” is an instrumental in the style of Freddie King.
For a while, Walter used to tour in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and he was a big influence on Walter. John is who turned him on to the late great Chicago bluesman J.B. Lenoir. “The Whale” is an updated cover of one of Lenoir’s lesser known tracks and is intended as a tribute to Mayall. Mayall also guests on the album and is quite evident on two tracks in particular. John lends his organ skills on the traditional blues title track “The Blues Came Callin’” and his playing clearly starts out “ Mayall’s Piano Boogie.”
The album closes out with “Nobody Moves Me Like You Do,” a track written for his wife. Walter describes it as his gift to her. Trout offers, “To play my music for people has become even more important to me. When I think about looking out into the crowds of people and connecting with everyone on a soul level, and sharing the experience of music with them, this is what keeps me fighting to get back: My family and my music is my lifeline. These days, it means more to me than ever before.”
BIOGRAPHY
by Jason Ankeny
New Jersey-born blues-rocker Walter Trout spent decades as an ace sideman, playing guitar behind the likes of John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, and Joe Tex. In 1981, he was also tapped to replace the late Bob Hite in Canned Heat, remaining with the venerable group through the middle of the decade. While filling in one night for an ailing John Mayall, Trout (also a Bluesbreaker for some five years) was spotted by a Danish concert promoter who agreed to finance a solo tour. Assembling his own backing band, in 1990 he released his debut LP, Life in the Jungle, trailed a year later by Prisoner of a Dream. Albums including 1992's Live (No More Fish Jokes), 1994's Tellin' Stories, and 1997's Positively Beale Street followed. Trout continued a steady release schedule, issuing Livin' Every Day in 1999, a live album the following year (recorded at the Tampa Bay Blues Fest), the 2001 studio album Go the Distance, 2003's Relentless -- which Trout and his band, the Radicals, recorded in front of a live audience -- and 2005's Deep Trout, a compilation of early and unreleased recordings. On the 2006 release Full Circle, Trout realized his dream of creating an album with some of his most admired musicians, including John Mayall, Coco Montoya, and Joe Bonamassa, among others. The 2009 compilation Unspoiled by Progress found Trout handpicking live tracks recorded on the road throughout his career. The following year he was back in the studio and released Common Ground. On 2012's Blues for the Modern Daze, Trout wrote 15 tracks based on his country blues roots. His 23rd album, Luther's Blues, was issued in 2013 which was a tribute to one of his main influences, the late Luther Allison.
OFFICIAL SITE
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