By Jim Rowland
Over the years, blues rock legend Walter Trout has spent time playing with the likes of John Mayall, John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thornton and Canned Heat to name but a few, but he’s been a full time solo artist since the late 1980s and new album ‘Ride’ is the man’s 30th solo album.
Back in 2020, Trout’s tour in support of his ‘Ordinary Madness’ album was cut short by, you guessed it, the Covid pandemic. It left this blues warrior in the unusual situation of isolating at his current home in Denmark for a 16 month period (Trout is a liver-transplant survivor), an unusual situation for a man who has spent most of his time on the road since 1969! It gave him plenty of time to reflect, and the result of that is the deeply personal, profound and reflective nature of the lyrics on ‘Ride’, some of which go all the way back to childhood.
Musically, although obviously based in the blues, the album covers quite a few different flavours. The heavy blues power of opener ‘Ghosts’ sums up the aforementioned reflective lyrical themes well, with ‘High Is Low’ following in a similar raw and raucous power blues style. Elsewhere, ‘So Many Sad Goodbyes’ and the optimistic ‘Better Days Ahead’ have a more laid back, groove-laden heavy blues approach, whilst ‘Follow You Back Home’ and the very personal ‘Hey Mama’ are slower, darker, profound and dramatic ballads.
The title track ‘Ride’ is a real stand out for me, and was actually the track that piqued my interest in this album, as it’s currently getting quite a bit of air play on commercial rock radio. In fact when I first heard it, I thought it was some long lost diamond from the back catalogue of southern rock legends The Marshall Tucker Band, as it certainly bears more than a passing resemblance to their old sound, and really is a belter of a track. The country/southern rock flavour of ‘Fertile Soil’ and the up tempo good time honky tonk of ‘Leave It All Behind’ also sit fairly comfortably in the southern rock bracket.
Another up tempo highlight is ‘I Worry Too Much’, a bluesy shuffle with an irresistible funky feel to it, whilst ‘Destiny’ closes the album in a mellow, dreamy and soulful mood, with a touch of the influence of Hendrix if you think along the lines of ‘Little Wing’ or ‘Angel’.
‘Ride’ is a high quality album that illustrates why Waiter Trout has endured for so long, as is beloved of blues fans, and blues artists, old and young alike. This could well be set up to be his biggest selling album in quite some time.
- ‘Ride’ is released tomorrow (Friday 19 June). You can get your copy HERE.
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