New York • January 20, 2004 - Have you experienced Walter Trout? 

To compliment last summer's explosive CD release "Relentless," Ruf America has made available to fans the full multi-media Walter Trout experience with the home viewing DVD release of "Walter Trout and the Radicals – Relentless" as well as the 5.1- channel high definition Super Audio CD (SACD), one of a select few available today in this genre of music. "Relentless," is incendiary blues. Its driving rock 'n roll. It's stories behind the music. It's a band connected to its audience. It's like Walter Trout: relentless and best experienced live! 

The DVD (165 minutes running time) features footage filmed at the Paradiso in Amsterdam on May 14th, 2003. The viewer will see the band take the stage, hear the audience welcome them, but this concert is different than any other. It is a recording session. One where the band has never performed the songs live.

The pressure is monumental. This was their first and only opportunity to get these new songs right. Its also a storytelling session. Walter engages the audience with a candid story behind each song. And finally, with spectacular lights and 21st century sound, it becomes a mesmerizing show where the music becomes the common denominator. Added DVD features include exclusive, "behind the scenes" interviews with Walter, the bands' manager, and the Radicals up close and personal. 

The SACD music disc features a high definition 5.1 channel surround track that envelops the listener with the aural ambiance of the music hall. Combined with SACD's superior dynamic range, definition and clarity this disc perfectly captures the full dynamic impact of a live Trout performance. The SACD disc is a dual-layer "Hybrid" that allows it to be played in stereo with standard CD sound quality by any conventional CD player.

With his arresting technique, relentless tour schedule, (the band plays upwards of 200 dates/year) and exhilarating showmanship, Trout’s first American live album, Live Trout (released in 2000), hit #15 on the Billboard Blues charts followed by a Top 10 entry with "Go The Distance." Now Relentless propels the forward momentum. The 14 original tunes were performed for the first time as they were being recorded in front of a dynamic studio audience at the Paradiso Theater in Amsterdam - produced by Jim Gaines, (Blues Traveler, Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan). 

As cuts like the hard driving "Mercy" and soft acoustic "Lonely Tonight" can attest, Walter Trout & The Radicals keep the art of blues thriving both on record and on stage. From introspective to full blown rockin’ blues, Trout’s music is always marked by his adept song writing, sturdy vocals, searing guitar work and ability to enhance the boundaries of one of America's oldest musical forms.

Described by the The Los Angeles Times as “a torrential, gladiator guitar player - the kind the term ‘guitar hero’ was coined to describe," Trout has been a sought after sideman, playing along some of the greatest blues players of all time including legends like John Lee Hooker and Big Mama Thornton. But, it was Trout's stints with Canned Heat and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, each lasting 5 years, that gave him a decade to hone his impeccable fretwork into an immediately recognizable style. In 1989, Trout launched a solo career which spawned a Top 10 hit in Europe, and has led to performances with Elton John, Black Crowes, Lenny Kravitz, Led Zeppelin kingpins Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.

Fanfare overseas set the trend for audiences here at home which have applauded his releases, several of which have become top-selling blues albums in the States. Born and raised in New Jersey and now living in Southern California, Walter Trout, for 30 of his 50 years, has been rocking the strings on his trademark '73 Fender Strat, faithful to a promise he made to himself as a teenager to always play guitar for those will listen.

Current U.S. tour dates