FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - October, 2007

Contact: Karen Leipziger, Publicist
P.O. Box 150603, Nashville, TN 37215
Ph: (615) 297-4452
klpzgr@earthlink.net

GUITAR GREAT WALTER TROUT SIGNS WITH PROVOGUE RECORDS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 2007
CONTACT: Ed van Zijl, Provogue Records
mail@provoguerecords.com
marie@waltertrout.com

Guitar great Walter Trout has signed a new deal with Provogue Records, an independent label based in The Netherlands specializing in guitar heavy blues rock. Other artists on the Provogue label (Europe only) include Joe Bonamassa , Rick Derringer, Leslie West, Pat Travers, Scott McKeon, Julian Sas and Eric Gales. Walter Trout's first release for the label (Provogue's first release for the U.S. market) is scheduled for late spring/early summer '08.

Walter Trout first signed with Provogue in 1989 where he released 5 albums: 1989's live CD "Face the Music", "Life In The Jungle" (1990) "Prisoner Of A Dream" (1990), "Transition" (1992), and "No More Fish Jokes" (1992). He left the label briefly to go with Silvertone in 1994. After one release, Trout returned to Provogue in '95 and released 3 more albums: "Breaking The Rules" (1995), "Positively Beale Street" (1997) and "Face The Music" (2000). Trout signed with German-based Ruf Records in 1999, releasing a half dozen albums for the label. The Provogue label has established itself as one of the strongest brands in blues rock in Europe with it's latest success story being Joe Bonamassa.

The Provogue Records label, debuting in the United States in 2008, will be distributed by Megaforce/Sony RED Distribution. They plan approximately 4 releases a year.

"After 9 years with Ruf Records world wide, I feel the time had come to try a different label. I have had a great run with Ruf Records, who has been instrumental in establishing my career in the USA. I will always feel a debt of gratitude towards Thomas Ruf and Ira Leslie who had the vision of bringing my music to my homeland and who worked tirelessly to end the 'Walter who?' era in the United States. My history with Provogue Records goes back to the very beginning of my European career in the early 1990s, and I have watched them grow and get better and better in recent years. Their focus is on guitar based blues rock, and I am proud to be part of their roster." (Walter Trout)

Born in 1951 and raised in a music-loving home in Ocean City, New Jersey, WALTER TROUT felt the calling to music at a young age. His first instrument was trumpet, playing in the school band. A chance meeting with the mighty Duke Ellington catapulted Trout's pursuit of a professional music career - what Walter terms "a turning point" in his life - when Walter's mother orchestrated a meeting with jazz legends Ellington, Cat Anderson, Johnny Hodges and Paul Gonsalves for Walter's tenth birthday. The seed was planted about a career playing music.

In the mid-'60s Trout switched to electric guitar after hearing an album that changed his whole appreciation of music. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band featuring Mike Bloomfield cemented Walter's musical ambitions towards the blues and the electric guitar. In those vinyl grooves, Walter heard the guitar speaking to his soul, expressing what words could not. In his late teens and early 20s, Trout played in numerous New Jersey bands, competing at the time for rank with "Steel Mill" featuring a young Bruce Springsteen. In 1973, he packed up his belongings and drove to Los Angeles.

In L.A. Trout developed into an ace sideman playing with Finis Tasby, Pee Wee Crayton, Lowell Fulsom, and Percy Mayfield. Trout often teamed with Hammond B3 wizard Deacon Jones and the apprenticeship continued in the bands of John Lee Hooker, Big Mama Thorton and Joe Tex.

By 1981, Trout's reputation led to the invitation to join venerable blues rock band Canned Heat, where he remained through 1984. When the call came to join the legendary John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Trout jumped and found himself sharing the spotlight with fellow guitarist Coco Montoya. Trout and Montoya lifted the band to a new level, as Mayall's Bluesbreakers enjoyed unprecedented album sales and high profile tours in the US and abroad. Trout felt that playing with Mayall was as close to his childhood dream as he could get.

The Danish record label Elektra was interested in Walter Trout's solo potential after witnessing an inspired performance when Trout led the Bluesbreakers band while Mayall was out with an illness. Walter Trout decided it was time to go solo. He gathered musicians he knew from Los Angeles and formed The Walter Trout Band. After Elektra went out of business in 1990, Provogue Records bought the rights to Trout's first two studio recordings: 1990's "Life In The Jungle" and "Prisoner Of A Dream". The 1989 break with Mayall quickly segued into immediate extensive touring of Europe, playing large venues and music festivals, and Trout's music was heard on mainstream radio. In the early '90s Walter Trout had several radio hits in Europe and charted with his unique style of blues rock. Throughout the decade, he continued a non-stop touring pace, releasing 8 recordings and developing an incredible following in Europe, but coming home to little fanfare.

The self-titled WALTER TROUT, released by Ruf Records in 1998 was Trout's first "official" domestic U.S. release. Shortly after, the band renamed as Walter Trout and The Free Radicals began an extensive touring pace state side, steadily building his U.S. fan base and bringing their high energy, impassioned live performances back home. Since that time Trout released half a dozen CDs in the U.S. on Ruf Records and continued his frequent touring, splitting time more evenly between continents.

"Walter Trout isn't just a great guitar player...he works from the heart with a flawless and fiery edge. When Walter Trout plays, he owns you." David Wilson/The ToneQuest Report

RECORD CO: PROVOGUE RECORDS, P. O. Box 231, 2650 AE Berkel, The Netherlands www.provoguerecords.com

For additional information please contact:

Personal Management:
Fish-Net Productions, Inc.
(714) 235-7749 phone
(714) 960-6482 fax
management@waltertrout.com

Booking: Intrepid Artists
www.intrepidartists.com
(704) 358-4777 phone (704) 358-3171 fax
staff@intrepidartists.com

Publicity: USA Publicity Ruf Records
www.rufrecords.de
352-527-1680 phone/fax
rufpublicity@tampabay.rr.com