WALTER TROUT will release his new studio album ‘Ordinary Madness’ on August 28th, via Provogue Records.
Watch below the new EPK where Walter tells all about his new album.
For Walter Trout, there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. Across his five-decade career, the great US bluesman’s music has always been a lifeline and call-to-arms, reminding listeners they are not alone. Now, as the world seeks solace from a tragedy that has touched us all, he comes armed with a boundary-exploring new studio album and eleven searingly honest songs that bring his fans even closer. “There’s a lot of extraordinary madness going on right now,” considers Trout, of the COVID-19 crisis. “This album started because I was dealing with the flaws and weakness inside me. But it ended up being about everyone.”
‘Ordinary Madness’ Tracklist: Ordinary Madness Wanna Dance My Foolish Pride Heartland All Out Of Tears Final Curtain Call Heaven In Your Eyes The Sun Is Going Down Make It Right Up Above My Sky OK Boomer
WALTER TROUT will release his new studio album ‘Ordinary Madness’ on August 28th, via Provogue Records.
Watch the new lyric video for ‘All Out Of Tears’ here:
Walter Trout:
“In January, I was walking around at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis and ran into my friend (blues singer), Teeny Tucker. I asked her how she’s doing and she told me of recently losing her son, Boston. She said ‘my heart is crying but my eyes are dry. I guess I’ve just run out of tears to cry.’ I felt so bad for her and asked her if she’d like to write a song with me to honor her son’s memory using those words – and my wife and I worked with her to turn it into a song about the loss and grief one feels when losing a loved one.”
For Walter Trout, there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. Across his five-decade career, the great US bluesman’s music has always been a lifeline and call-to-arms, reminding listeners they are not alone. Now, as the world seeks solace from a tragedy that has touched us all, he comes armed with a boundary-exploring new studio album and eleven searingly honest songs that bring his fans even closer. “There’s a lot of extraordinary madness going on right now,” considers Trout, of the COVID-19 crisis. “This album started because I was dealing with the flaws and weakness inside me. But it ended up being about everyone.”
Ordinary Madness was completed mere days before the US shutdown, its cathartic songcraft and themes of shared troubles couldn’t chime better with a period in which our souls and spirits are under fire from tumultuous global events.
‘Ordinary Madness’ Tracklist:
Ordinary Madness
Wanna Dance
My Foolish Pride
Heartland
All Out Of Tears
Final Curtain Call
Heaven In Your Eyes
The Sun Is Going Down
Make It Right
Up Above My Sky
OK Boomer
Ordinary Madness will be released on August 28th, via Provogue Records. Pre-order the album here: http://smarturl.it/walter-trout
For Walter Trout, there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. Across his five-decade career, the great US bluesman’s music has always been a lifeline and call-to-arms, reminding listeners they are not alone. Now, as the world seeks solace from a tragedy that has touched us all, he comes armed with a boundary-exploring new studio album and eleven searingly honest songs that bring his fans even closer. “There’s a lot of extraordinary madness going on right now,” considers Trout, of the COVID-19 crisis. “This album started because I was dealing with the flaws and weakness inside me. But it ended up being about everyone.”
Watch the new lyric video for Wanna Dance here:
Ordinary Madness was completed mere days before the US shutdown, its cathartic songcraft and themes of shared troubles couldn’t chime better with a period in which our souls and spirits are under fire from tumultuous global events.
Admirably open about his troubled youth, and his own ongoing struggles with mental health, the bluesman had spent recent tours soothing himself by scribbling down his thoughts and feelings. It was only later he realised he’d just written the most honest lyric-sheet of his career – and felt he had an opportunity to let fans share and identify with him.
“Everybody is dealing with something,” he says. “And I’m no different from anybody else. Ordinary Madness doesn’t mean you’re gonna end up in a mental institution. It’s just being human. It’s common humanity.”
Trout’s formative blues influences are well-documented, spanning from Paul Butterfield’s 1965 self-titled debut alongside Mike Bloomfield to John Mayall’s seminal 1966 ‘Beano’ LP with Eric Clapton. But as he cut his teeth in New Jersey, the young guitarist was also drawn to the maverick songwriters, taking in The Beatles, Dylan and Neil Young’s Crazy Horse. At every step of his career – moving to California in ’74 to back up giants like John Lee Hooker, joining Canned Heat and Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in the ’80s, then flying solo in 1989 – the stockpile of songs kept growing.
This time around, Trout is doing things a little differently. Led in by an electronic intro created by eldest son Jon Trout, the song sets off on a hypnotic groove with a gloriously languid guitar break that’s anything but autopilot blues. “I’ve broken the pinkie on my left hand three times in the past year,” remembers Trout, “so the guitar playing on this album took a little work, and there’s some anger and frustration in some of the solos. I really like that solo on the title track. It took two or three re-takes. But I think I nailed it.”
From that jump-off, a career-best album spilled out, as Trout convened his band of Michael Leasure (drums), Johnny Griparic (bass) and Teddy ‘Zig Zag’ Andreadis (keys) – along with long-time producer Eric Corne, plus special guests Skip Edwards, Drake ‘Munkihaid’ Shining and Anthony Grisham. The backdrop, once again, was the private LA studio of Doors legend Robby Krieger. “The whole place is full of vintage gear, and it’s all there for you, whatever you want. The keyboard that Ray Manzarek used in The Doors – it’s just fucking sitting there. I remember, on the rhythm track for OK Boomer, Michael Dumas, who runs the studio, comes walking in and says: ‘Here’s the SG that Robby used in The Doors – wanna try this?’ Then, for the rhythm guitar on Heartland, he says: ‘Here’s one of James Burton’s Paisley Telecasters…’”
Musically, Trout’s antennae are up, as he pushes the envelope on the psychedelic layered vocal harmonies of The Sun Is Going Down, a song about dealing with ageing. Lyrically, he says, “it’s about running out of time. You gotta look at death, deal with it, accept it. That’s a condition of being alive.” The blissed-out anthemics of Up Above My Sky, nods to peak-period Pink Floyd and Trout worked with the US blues singer Teeny Tucker on the bereft All Out Of Tears – a tribute to her late son. On the haunting Heaven In Your Eyes, Walter was stunned by Marie Trout’s lyrics about the desperation of trying to find ways to reach the person you love but being unable to find the words.
“As the lyric says in Up Above My Sky,” he reflects, “sometimes you have to see through the darkness to find the light. I can’t wait get back out there again, meet the people at shows, hug them and pose for a photo. And I’m really looking forward to playing these songs live. Because I think this album speaks to these times…”
‘Ordinary Madness’ Tracklist:
Ordinary Madness
Wanna Dance
My Foolish Pride
Heartland
All Out Of Tears
Final Curtain Call
Heaven In Your Eyes
The Sun Is Going Down
Make It Right
Up Above My Sky
OK Boomer
Ordinary Madness will be released on August 28th, via Provogue Records. Pre-order the album here: http://smarturl.it/walter-trout
WALTER TROUT and Provogue Records / Mascot Label Group have presented a new music video for his song “We’re All In This Together” that compiles imagery of fans across the globe as they navigate a world of social distancing amidst the pandemic.
Several weeks ago, Walter posted a message to fans which read, “Around the globe, we are currently going through unprecedented times with millions of us asked to stay at home. Doctors, nurses, hospital employees, and other essential workers are putting their lives on the line to treat those who are ill. It’s a time where we all need to come out together to wipe out this virus once and for all. I want to show that people all over the world are doing their part to fight the virus in a music video for my song, ‘We’re All In This Together. It would mean a lot if you would take a moment to take a picture or video of yourself, whether it be at home, at your job as a health care worker, or at any other place where you are doing your part, and in this picture, please hold up a sign showing where you are from!”
The end result of this endeavor truly captures a glimpse of our global population as we all navigate these challenging times. A moment where the ability for musicians to bring their art to the stage has been momentatily halted for the sake of The World’s inevitable return to normalcy. Please join Walter and all whom have contributed in sharing or simply viewing this video that captures a moment in time none of us ever envisioned being our collective reality.
Additionally, Walter’s wife and manager Marie Trout offers an insightful editorial on the power of live music, which can be read here.
WALTER TROUT and Provogue Records / Mascot Label Group will release “Survivor Blues” globally on January 25. The album presents a collection of songs that have resonated with Walter Trout personally over the course of his lifetime. Many of the tracks selected are long forgotten by the mass public, and this release simply presents the singer, guitarist and songwriter paying tribute to these forgotten Blues treasures. Trout shares, “I’m riding in my car sometimes, and I’ve got a blues station on – and here’s another band doing Got My Mojo Workin’. And there’s a little voice in me that says, ‘Does The World need another version of that song?’ So I came up with an idea. I didn’t want to do ‘Stormy Monday’ or ‘Messin’ With The Kid.’ I didn’t want to do the Blues greatest hits. I wanted to do old, obscure songs that have hardly been covered. And that’s how Survivor Blues started…”
Over the course of the last several decades, Walter Trout has been a prolific artist. He’s regularly released offerings from the studio, so this moment of offering a covers album is somewhat of a curveball. Long-standing fans have given up trying to second-guess Trout’s next move. The track listing of Survivor Blues is a window into the 67-year-old’s fast-moving backstory, chronicling a five-decade career whose one constant is his deep love of the Blues. Opener “Me, My Guitar And The Blues” tips a hat to cult hero Jimmy Dawkins, whose records Trout devoured while cutting his teeth as a ’60s axeslinger in New Jersey. “Nature’s Disappearing” nods to his celebrated ’80s tenure in John Mayall’s near-mythical Bluesbreakers. In-between, you’ll find cherished favourites from a lifetime’s listening, with songs that caught Trout’s ear at key junctures in his journey, from backing up John Lee Hooker in the ’70s, to bringing the groove to Canned Heat in the ’80s or breaking through as a solo artist in the ’90s.
The roll-call of artists might be eclectic, but there’s a cohesion to Survivor Blues. From the outset, Trout made it his mission to harness the power and spirit of the originals, while stamping his inimitable musical personality onto each new take. He offers, “My idea was to do these songs like me, to arrange them for my band and style – not to just copy the originals note-for-note.”
Last September, as recording began at the Los Angeles studio of iconic Doors guitarist Robby Krieger, Trout and long-standing producer Eric Corne shared their vision with the only band who could measure up. The thunder and finesse of drummer Michael Leasure. The muscular groove of bassist Johnny Griparic. The spell-casting fingers of keyboards session god and regular Trout conspirator, Skip Edwards. “I’d play them the original,” remembers Trout, “and then I’d say, ‘Here’s how the song goes, what have you got?’ I’d give these guys a lot of freedom. The record was mostly done live, with us set up in a circle, just to get the feel of us going there together. And you can feel it, y’know?”
Walter Trout has a connection to each of these songs selected. He reflects on Chicago Bluesman Jimmy Dawkins never receiving the recognition deserved in covering “Survivor Blues.” He reveals, “The last line – ‘Since you left me, All I have left is Me, My Guitar and the Blues’ – is one of the greatest lyrics I’ve heard in my life and I start crying just saying it. And my wife thinks it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”
Sunnyland Slim’s “Be Careful How You Vote” stresses the importance of choosing carefully at the ballot box, without taking sides. Certainly relevant for all members of society. Universal themes are also explored on Otis Rush’s defiant “It Takes Time” and the funk-flavoured groove of Luther Johnson’s “Woman Don’t Lie.” With J.B. Lenoir’s “Talk To Your Daughter,” he recalls, “I found this song that Lenoir does all by himself with the guitar, very slowly, almost without even a rhythm. I played the original to the band and said: ‘Now we’re gonna turn it into Jimi Hendrix’. I wanted to use it as a vehicle for the band and for my guitar-playing and vocals. I wanted to belt it out.”
There’s rarely been a Trout record without a tip of the hat to Mayall, and here the Brit-blues godfather is represented by “Nature’s Disappearing.” He reveals, “I was nervous about doing it because it’s by my mentor and surrogate father. John told me he’d read an article about ecology and pollution – he put the magazine down at the end and wrote that song in five minutes. It’s even more relevant today, with all the environmental regulations being thrown out and national parks being sold off to oil companies.
You don’t hear a track like “Goin’ Down To The River” every day either, with Mississippi Fred McDowell’s ancient gem decorated with slide guitar from a very special guest. “There was something about the lyric,” muses Trout. “Y’know, ‘I’m going down to the river, I’m gonna let the waves and the water wash my trouble down’. It tore me up, but the original is very different. I decided to take the verses that spoke to me, and then rearranged the song almost Muddy Waters-esque with that slide lick. Robby Krieger was coming in every day, listening and hanging out, so I said, ‘I’d love it if you played on this song’. So when I say ‘Play it, Robby’ – that’s Robby Krieger from The Doors. We just did that in the studio – boom, there you go.”
All they needed was a title. And as Trout surveyed his bloodied-but-unbowed cohorts – and reflected on a collection of blues songs whose raw power remained undimmed – he knew the suggestion of his wife and manager, Marie, couldn’t be topped. “We started thinking about these enduring songs and the guys playing on the album,” he reflects. “Mike is in recovery. Johnny almost didn’t make it. Skip has had a triple bypass. And I almost didn’t make it after my liver disease in 2014. So Marie said to me, ‘You’re a group of survivors. You’ve all been through hell and you’ve come back. These songs are survivors. This album needs to be called Survivor Blues’. I just looked at her and said: ‘You got it’.”
Watch Walter dig for blues treasures with his son Dylan in the new album trailer:
Tracklist:
1. Me, My Guitar And The Blues
2. Be Careful How You Vote
3. Woman Don’t Lie (feat. Sugaray Rayford)
4. Sadie
5. Please Love Me
6. Nature’s Disappearing
7. Red Sun
8. Something Inside Of Me
9. It Takes Time
10. Out Of Bad Luck
11. Goin’ Down To The River (feat. Robby Krieger)
12. God’s Word
From May in to June, Walter Trout will join Provogue / Mascot Records label mates Jonny Lang and Kris Barras on the Rockin’ The Blues 2019 tour in Europe. Walter and his band will appear at these confirmed venues:
5/23 Berlin, DE – Huxley’s Neue Welt
5/25 Cologne, DE – Carlswerk Viktoria
5/26 Paris, FR – La Cigale
5/28 Milan, IT – Fabrique
5/29 Munich, DE – Backstage Werk
5/30 Frankfurt, DE – Batschkapp
6/01 Tilburg, NL – 013
6/02 Hamburg, DE – Markthalle
6/04 London, UK – 02 Forum Kentisch Town
SUPERSONIC BLUES MACHINE have released a new track “L.O.V.E.” from their upcoming album “Californisoul”, featuring Billy Gibbons, Steve Lukather, Eric Gales, Robben Ford and Walter Trout. Out on CD, double vinyl, download and streaming October 20, 2017, via Mascot Label Group.
“CALIFORNISOUL! That’s exactly what it is. It’s the missing soundtrack to a summertime drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 1971!” ~ Fabrizio Grossi
It’s the sound that SUPERSONIC BLUES MACHINE has spent much of 2017 sharing with audiences from Texas, Holland, India, St. Petersburg, Russia, starting with their headlining slot in front of thousands at the Notodden Blues Festival (Europe’s premier blues festival) in Norway, and they are back with an exciting new studio release that picks up right where the band left off on their well-received debut record, West of Flushing, South of Frisco.
Recorded at Fab’s Lab in North Hollywood, California, Californisoul is all about the songs, and while Grossi wrote most of the lyrics, the music was created and fleshed out in the studio by the band, and they have conjured up a modern day soulful, blues rock classic.
Californisoul is all about great songs. This album shines in the depth and soul of the songs and songwriting – no cookie cutter filler to be found. “Cry” is a soul searching, simmering piece of poetry and Lance Lopez preaches it in the most righteous way. “I Am Done Missing You” is another number that reaches down deep with a message that will resonate with both spurned lovers and those who have left their bad habits and ways in the past.
Californisoul is a study and celebration of the human condition, and “This Is Love” could be the lovechild of Bob Marley and War with some stinging guitar action spread on top. We’re living in times in which it’s hard to keep on keeping on, and it’s easy to fall prey to habits, vices, and distractions – “Elevate” takes a close look at the “high” life, and how one must raise above the temptations and tribulations if the music is to be made. Elevate your soul, ineed. Blues, rock, reggae, soul, it’s all here in a joyous abundance and a celebration of life. That’s the nature of Californisoul.
SUPERSONIC BLUES MACHINE is Lance Lopez (guitars/vocals/songwriter), Fabrizio Grossi (bass, producer, songwriter), and Kenny Aronoff (drums). As they’ve proven on their first album and round of shows, it’s not a party unless you invite some friends, and for Californisoul, they’ve brought along some heavy hitters.
Fabrizio Grossi talks about a soundtrack for an imaginary road trip up the California coastline in the heady, halcyon days of the early 70s, and that really captures the vibe and mojo that is Californisoul. The songs Grossi has written for this album are as top notch as they are diverse. This machine covers a lot of ground. As the ever tighter core of Lopez, Grossi, and Aronoff comes together with the elite of the modern day blues rock community, this is much closer to Woodstock and Watkins Glen than it is to a cut and paste A-list vanity session. This is about friendship, the brotherhood of the blues, and bringing the blues up to this moment in time.
Lance Lopez is once again at the front and centre on every song, and with every year finds him digging deeper into his tool kit – his guitar work is as hot and gritty as anything ever cooked up down in Texas, and his singing evokes memories of the great soul, blues, and rock vocalists. You’ll hear the influence and heritage of Bobby “Blue” Bland, the funk of Sly Stone, and the world weary rumination of the late, great Gregg Allman, but Lopez never really sounds like anything but himself. That he’s equally accommodating, gracious, and energizing when he’s tossing verses and solos back and forth with his guests is icing on the cake!
Kenny Aronoff is truly one of the most in-demand drummers on the planet, and his stick work on Californisoul is one of the ingredients that make the record so special. Aronoff has also brought along his substantial arranging and compositional skills to great effect. He sounds more like a Charlie or Ringo than your run-of-the-mill session cat, and his sheer musicality is a huge force on this record. Whether he’s playing with Supersonic Blues Machine, John Fogerty, BoDeans, Sir Paul McCartney, John Mellencamp, The Smashing Pumpkins or any of the other remarkable acts that have chosen to employ Aronoff, he brings the same world class performance every time he gets behind the kit.
Guests on the album include Billy Gibbons, who returns with pen and guitar (“Broken Heart”), Steve Lukather (Toto) throws down some stunning licks (“Hard Times”), Eric Gales is back in the fold (“Elevate”), Robben Ford brings his bag of soulfully sophisticated chops (“Somebody’s Fool”), Walter Trout brings some silky slow blues (“What’s Wrong”), and the party is rounded out with Alessandro Alessandroni Jr. on keyboards, Serge Simic (co-writer and background vocals on “Love” and “Hard Times”), and Andrea and Francis Benitez Grossi (background vocals). You may come for the stars, but you’ll stay for the whole show.
Fabrizio Grossi adds, “Lots of people have been saying to me ‘why does Supersonic Blues Machine always bring guests around? You guys can stand your own ground’, and there are three answers to that : 1) we’re all super friends and we’re having a blast, 2) most of them don’t give lessons and for us it’s only way to learn their secret “ways”, and three because the inspiration and the challenge they bring to the table!”
Supersonic Blues Machine is truly a family as well as a band, and these guests don’t mail it in, they stay for dinner. The community aspect is very real, and one of the band’s great treasures.
SUPERSONIC BLUES MACHINE soundly beats the sophomore jinx to hit a grand slam with CALIFORNISOUL.
Praise for West of Flushing, South of Frisco:
“Modern blues doesn’t get much better than this” 9/10 The Blues
“Formidable…a modern day super-session which manages to hang on to the heart and soul” Classic Rock
“Guitar’s hottest supergroup” Guitarist
“A sleek, stretched Cadillac of a Blues band” Fireworks
“Fantastic” Powerplay
“West of Flushing, South of Frisco is a total treat for the those of us who crave great hard driving blues based rock and ear frying guitar playing. The core of Supersonic Blues Machine of Lopez, Grossi, and Aronoff have nothing to prove. They could easily have carried the entire project themselves. The guest stars are just icing on an already very tasty cake.” – Blues Rock Review
“…the band’s debut album West of Flushing, South of Frisco, offers the sound of joyous, unbridled music-making that falls a bit heavier on the rock side of the blues-rock equation. Unlike a lot of these kinds of affairs, Grossi wrote or co-wrote most of the songs, and he produced the album with a steady hand, providing West of Flushing, South of Frisco with a dynamic sound that accents the band’s bad-ass instrumental prowess.” – That Devil Music
“Throw together three long established musicians with a passion for blues along with a parade of extremely talented guest musicians; what do you get? A nasty, down and dirty blues album that reminds you of every fantastic dive bar you’ve ever visited to cry in your whiskey about that long lost girlfriend. That’s what!” – Classic Rock Revisited
“Supersonic Blues Machine’s West of Flushing, South of Frisco is that rarest of beasts, a cameo packed blues rock album on which the core band and the tunes actually supersede the weight of the heavies who stop by to lend their support. And now, let me raise the stakes even higher – every cameo is worthy of being on the guests’s own albums, nobody here brought anything except their A-game.This just might be the blues rock album to beat in 2016.” – Rock Guitar Daily
Tracklisting:
1 I Am Done Missing You
2 Somebody’s Fool (featuring Robben Ford)
3 Love
4 Broken Heart (featuring Billy Gibbons)
5 Bad Boys
6 Elevate (featuring Eric Gales)
7 The One
8 Hard Times (featuring Steve Lukather)
9 Cry
10 The Stranger
11 What’s Wrong (featuring Walter Trout)
12 Thank You
13 This Is Love
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
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Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
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