Walter Trout’s Resurrection Continues to Rise

For Walter Trout, naming his new record Survivor Blues isn’t just a concept snatched out of the air because it sounded cool. In 2014, Trout was dying, unable to speak or move due to complicatons from liver cancer. A liver transplant gave Trout a new life, and he’s made the most of it ever since, roaring back with some of the strongest work of his career. 2015’sBattle Scars was an incredible resurrection that showed off his mastery of a variety of blues styles, and 2017’s We’re All In This Together featured songs that Trout wrote specifically for each guest star, including Edgar Winter, Charlie Musselwhite, Sonny Landreth, Joe Bonamassa, and his old friend and ex-employer John Mayall.

For his latest, Trout wanted to pay homage to the blues masters who inspired them, but says he didn’t want to go the “Stormy Monday” route, reheating old chestnuts over-roasted by too many bloozy cooks. Instead he chose rather obscure titles by artists including Elmore James, B.B King, John Mayall, Hound Dog Taylor, and Sunnyland Slim.

Recording at Doors’ guitarist Robby Krieger’s LA studio, Trout and bassist Johnny Griparic, keyboardist Skip Edwards, and drummer Michael Leasure listened to the originals, then sat together in a circle and took off from there.

Trout’s performance on Sunnyland Slim’s “Be Careful How You Vote” is a blues guitar tutorial. Slim cut his version in 1983 on a album by the same name that featured a stellar array of venerable guest guitarists: Magic Slim, Eddie Taylor, Lurrie Bell, and Hunbert Sumlin. Trout’s revised take is an amalgam of all of those styles, amped up, rocked-out, balls-to-the-wall screamin’ blews that ought to be the soundtrack for every political ad on the airvanes.

The guitarist has more Albert King than Elmore James going on with James’ “Something Inside Of Me.” Where James’ original glides along, Trout is burning a hole in the melody with searing licks that seem to have blistered his vocal chords as well as he bellows like his tonsils were blasted by a blowtorch.

Hound Dog Taylor’s “Sadie” is transformed from Taylor’s relatively low key, kitchen table leg slide-driven version to a take that’s more Luther Allison than Taylor, Edward burbling churchily on organ behind him.

Trout executes J.B. Lenoir’s “God’s Word” with a big jolt of electricity, elevating Lenoir’s plantitive acoustic version to a Hendrix praise-a-thon with Jimi’s fiery licks underscoring Lenoir’s defiant retort to the Lord of the Underworld: “Release me devil / free me so I can go home / And if you don’t let me go home / My God will come and make you leave me alone.”

B.B. King’s “Please Love Me” is an interesting cover choice. Even though it’s big band jump blues, the intro and the solos throughout King’s 1953 version have more in common with Elmore James than King’s usual string-bending style. Ironically, Trout’s souped-up take sounds more like the King we’re used to.

This is one of the best blues cover projects in years. Trout is a true visionary who plays the blue screaming hell out of a guitar. Put this one on your wish list and keep it in a safe place with your other valuables — every blues burglar on the planet will be after this one.