Walter Trout

Walter Trout is an American blues guitarist, singer and songwriter, born in 1951 in Ocean City, United States. He works in blues, blues rock, electric blues and rock, and is associated with hard rock and contemporary blues.

Career

Trout begins his career in the United States and later moves to Los Angeles in 1973, where he plays club dates, sits in with local bands and works as a stand-up lead singer in a country band before building a reputation as a guitarist. Early in his career he performs with Jesse Ed Davis and also works alongside Big Mama Thornton, Lowell Fulson and Joe Tex.

By 1981 he joins Canned Heat, and three years later John Mayall invites him into the Bluesbreakers. His time with Mayall proves especially significant: he plays feature solos, sings and becomes part of a line-up that includes songs such as One Life To Live. He leaves the Bluesbreakers in March 1989, after a period in which he is newly sober and ready to establish his own career.

Solo work

Trout builds a solo catalogue that reaches 22 albums and develops a large following. His original album Blues For The Modern Daze is recorded with producer Eric Corne at Hollywood’s Entourage Studios and is described as a particularly strong statement in his solo output. He later records Luther Allison’s Blues, his first covers album, on Provogue Records. That album is shaped by his long connection to Luther Allison, whom he meets at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1986 and with whom he performs once that year. Trout says the record is intended to draw attention back to Allison’s original songs.

Recognition

Trout receives recognition that includes a description as “the world’s greatest rock guitarist” in Bob Harris’s autobiography The Whispering Years and a number 6 placing in BBC Radio One’s countdown of the Top 20 Guitarists of All Time. He continues to record and perform as a solo artist with Walter Trout Band and Walter Trout & The Free Radicals also listed among his associated groups.