full circle 3

Walter Trout Comes Full Circle with New Release
by Jeb Wright

Walter Trout Comes Full Circle with New Release

by Jeb Wright

Walter Trout has quietly amassed a catalog of fifteen solo albums. He has also recorded with Canned Heat and been a member of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Trout has built a solid reputation as one of the best blues soloists on the scene. All of this and he is still not a household name. That is not to say he couldn’t have been one. He has turned down major stars in order to stay true to his musical vision. He is content to do what he loves and grateful to be able to earn a living playing guitar. He is humble about the scope of his talent yet he realizes that he is good.

Trout has gathered together a bunch of his blues loving buddies and released an incredible album titled Full Circle. In this day and age any album featuring a guest appearance is usually done via the computer but Trout wanted no part of this. If you were not available to drop by the studio then you were not allowed to be on the record. There was one exception and that was in the case of Jeff Healey. Still, Trout flew to Toronto and played with Jeff there rather than break his own rule.

The result is a wonderful album that explores the many faces of the blues. The age span runs from artists in their seventies to artists in their twenties. The playing comes alive from the first song and runs strong and deep throughout the entire album.

Read on as Trout discusses the album in-depth as well as how he handles criticism and keeps his musical soul pure.

Jeb: When I saw Full Circle come out I thought it was going to be a full career retrospective of your music but after listening to it I realize that this is not all about Walter at all.

Walter: No, I didn’t want it to be that. What I wanted it to be was something completely different. I wanted to get with my friends – some of whom I have worked with and some of whom I have not – and try to make some music. I wanted them to go in and do their own thing and let me be part of it. I didn’t want them to come in and get into what I was doing. I wanted to explore their genre and have them let me be a part of it.

Jeb: You could say it is a buffet of the blues.

Walter: Exactly. I wanted to explore these different styles and take a little trip through them. I started out by just putting the call out to all these great players. I got a lot more responses than actually made it onto the album. It really all boiled down to who could make it into the studio. It was very important to me that we play together. I didn’t want to play a guitar part today and then next week have a guy throw a harmonica on top of that and another week later another guy puts a solo on top of that. I wanted it done with us in the studio looking at each other. There was a bunch of other people who said yes but I only had the studio for about five days. They were either on tour or they could not get to LA. The album is really just who showed up. I am thinking of doing a Volume II with those who wanted to be there but couldn’t.

Jeb: Did you approach the album that way because you think technology hurts the blues?

Walter: I have got to be honest, when I am driving along and I am listening to a blues station I can kind of tell when I hear a record where some guy came in a month later and put a solo on top of a prerecorded track. I can hear that and I think a lot of people can tell as well. I think a lot of the feeling and a lot of the spontaneity is lost. Even if the guy is blazing away on a great solo I get a little bored and I feel that there is a disconnect between the soloist and the band. I can tell when it is done by patchwork. I hear a lot of records that are done like that. I have been on a couple of tribute records that were done that way. I have been sent a track that has been done by a bass player and a drummer and I sit in my house and play a track and sing to it and send it back. I didn’t want to do that. One of the things you go to see when you go see a band play live is the interaction between the players at the same time. Great players play off of each others.

Jeb: I understand you also didn’t really have any rehearsal time.

Walter: Nothing was rehearsed. It was discussed but that is about it. For example, on the opening track John Mayall asked me what I wanted to do. I told him that I had some lyrics and that I wanted to do a minor blues out of C. I told him I would sing a verse and then play a solo and then he could sing a verse and play a harp solo. We just counted to four and away we went. The whole album was done that way.

Jeb: Does that separate the men from the boys?

Walter: It sure does. I knew these guys who were coming in were experienced at this kind of stuff. When you are in Mayall’s band you never know what is going to happen. I remember being at Royal Festival Hall in England, which is where the London Philharmonic plays. I was there with Mayall at a big music festival. There were four thousand people all seated and it was very formal and uptight. John turns to us and says, "Key of C" and away we go. When you get to that certain level of experience in this music then you automatically know how to do that. I knew that I had not invited any slouches. I knew they could all do it.

Jeb: Tell me the story about Bernard Allison.

Walter: I love Bernard. We decided that we would do one of his Dad’s tunes. The day he showed up he had one of his Dad’s guitars. It was really emotional. Emotion in the blues is what it is about. This is an example of what I am talking about. If I had just had a track laid down by a bass player and a drummer and sent it over to him and told him that I wanted to do a tribute to his Father then it would have still come out nice and it would have sounded good but it would be missing something. On that track there are five musicians. We are starting in a semi circle and nobody is overdubbing shit. We did it all in one take at one time.

Jeb: Do you think if you don’t do it that way that music can lose its soul?

Walter: It can have soul. I think it is important to keep the soul and this was one way of making sure that the soul was going to remain. I listen to the radio and I hear a lot of records that are full of soulful musicians but the way they record it they lose something. I hear some of these same people live and I think they are great but then I get their CDs and they are just sterile.

Jeb: Have you had that happen to you? Is this part of a learning process?

Walter: I have done a lot of records. I have been recording with bands for almost thirty years. I have done 15 records of my own and have also been on records by Mayall and Canned Heat and done a lot of other records as a sideman. I thought that in order to do this project this was the best way to do it. I had a lot of very well known people who wanted me to record a track and then send it to their house where they would finish it and I had to tell them that I was sorry but I could not do that. I told them they had to come out to the studio or they could not be on the record.

Jeff Healey understood that immediately when I talked to him on the phone. He told me that he could not get to LA but he really wanted to be on the record. He understood that we needed to be together when we recorded so he invited me to come to Toronto and play with his band so that is what I did. It was worth it for me to fly to Toronto instead of recording a track and sending it. It would have been the easier way for sure as I didn’t really feel like flying across the continent but you can hear how well it came out. He sat in a chair and I was standing next to him and we were blazing.

Jeb: You have gotten a bad rap in the past for not being a blues purist. Does that still bother you?

Walter: I will still get that rap from this album from some people. I have read reviews that say I still am playing tasteless solos. You know what? I just play like I play. If you don’t like it then, to be honest, I don’t give a flying fuck. I am who I am and I play like I play. I am 55 years old and at this point I really don’t give a shit. If somebody likes it then that is great and if they don’t then that is fine. I am not going to hold it against them. There is room for everything and you have the right to enjoy whatever it is you enjoy. There is a lot of stuff that the blues purists do that just bores me to tears. If I have to see another 80 year-old guy playing a 12-bar shuffle — he can barely play but they think he is authentic because he comes from the Mississippi Delta. I have got to be honest with you, no matter how hard I try – I could give it my best shot and I could put in 100% of my energy into it for the rest of my life but I can never ever be an old black guy from Mississippi. I am a middle class white kid from New Jersey who is playing the music as honestly as I can.

Jeb: They say the same thing about the young kid Joe Bonamassa. I was glad to see you had him on the record. That kid can flat play.

Walter: I think he is the future and that is why I invited him to be on there. I wanted to end the CD with what I think the future is.

Jeb: I like the players on your album because everyone on there is a real player. I could watch Healey play all day long.

Walter: I have known him for years and I have played with him on occasion but when I was in the studio and I was standing next to him and he was sitting in that chair playing there were times I forgot to play. I was so involved in watching him do what he does that I would forget where I was. I was playing rhythm behind him and I would not quite make the chord change on time. I was a foot away from him when he was playing and I was in awe of him.

Jeb: Did you consider doing a DVD?

Walter: My wife filmed all of the sessions. I set up a video camera and filmed Jeff and I playing in the studio. We were going to do a companion DVD but we would have to get permissions from 25 musicians on this and it would be a pain to get all the legalities straightened out.

Jeb: I have to ask, do you even regret taking the path you did? You could have gone more commercial and been a bigger name than you are?

Walter: I never wanted to be a whore. If I don’t like the music then I don’t play it. Once I turned down John Waite. He wanted me to play lead in his band. I was playing in a club band in California and was not even established. He had just left his band The Babys at the time and had come in the club and asked me to play for him. He had this Rod Stewart hairdo and these platform shoes on and I told him that I could not dress like that and turned him down. I had other chances but I said no. There are some people who will do anything to make it big and I was never one of those. I never wanted to be a pop star. When I was growing up the people I admired were great musicians and artists. From the beginning that is what I wanted to be thought of as and what I want to be thought of after I pass away. I want to be remembered as somebody who was good at his instrument and not somebody who wore spandex and danced around.

Jeb: You show great dedication to your craft. I am wondering where you go from this point?

Walter: That record just came out a month ago. Where I go from here is that I tour for the next year and promote the record and then I will do another record and tour some more. I will just keep being a working musician. The thing could take off and I could get up on a higher level but it might not. I really don’t give a shit. I am supporting my children by playing guitar and that is all I am worried about. I am too old to start wondering why I am not in the Rolling Stones or any of that shit. I just want to have a few more good years of doing this.

Jeb: A professional musician has to be a musician and a business man.

Walter: I have been touring with somebody since 1969 and recording with people nearly that long. If you really let yourself get into the business aspects then you will quit the music business. It is full of leaches who want to steal from you and steal every last ounce of energy out of you and then throw you away. Flavor of the Month pop stars have this happen to them all the time. My wife and I handle my business now. Nobody can steal from us. We have the final say on things. I don’t have some guy sitting up in LA chomping on a cigar mapping out my life. I have been through that. I used to have a big time manager sixteen year ago. I also had a big time booking agent and they both fucked me. You would not believe how much that happens in this business. You have to love the music so much that you are willing to put up with the business side of it.

Jeb: It sounds to me that you have really come full circle in your life.

Walter: I am doing good. I am married and have three kids and I love my life. I am happy and very content. I am not desperate to climb up to the next wrung on the ladder. I am doing fine.

Jeb: Ritchie Hayward is on your album. I understand that you guys go way back to a band you played in when you lived in Huntington Beach.

Walter: The story goes that when Lowell George died, Little Feat broke up. Ritchie went off and played with Robert Plant and some other people. I was with John Mayall at the time. Whenever I was not touring with Mayall I had my own band. We were the house band at a little bar right down in Huntington Beach and we would play six nights a week there. Ritchie joined my band. He did two years with me in that little bar. It was a hell of a band. There is a picture of the band in the liner notes from 1987 in my new album. We were a good band. We played down there and the place would be packed and everyone was having fun. For the last twenty years Ritchie and I have talked about recording together and now we finally got to do it.

Jeb: I would love to hear you play with Little Feat.

Walter: I played with them at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa last year. That is the same venue where Buddy Holly played his last gig. I got up and played with them and it was a blast.

Jeb: Full Circle closes with you playing behind an old school disc jockey. What is the story behind that track?

Walter: The story behind that is that Larry Keene was one of the original rock n’ roll deejays of the 50's. He was the contemporary of Wolfman Jack and people like that. I lived back on the Jersey shore and I used to listen to him. He would play the latest releases from Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. Forty-five years ago, he happened to marry my step-sister Carol. The last time I saw either of them was 1962. I was playing in a blues festival in California and this little old couple comes walking up and the woman says, "I am your step-sister." She had Larry with her. Larry had been a close friend of my father as he was married to his step-daughter. I told him I really remembered him and how much I enjoyed listening to him. Larry is the head of a union for broadcasters and he travels the country and gives broadcasting seminars to radio people. He is still in radio but he is not behind a microphone anymore. He actually got out of it when the British Invasion happened because he didn’t like that music.

We became friends again and I told him that I was doing the CD and I asked if he would just stop by and say something. He showed up at the studio with my step-sister and he said, "What do you want me to say?" I told him to just come up with something and we could use it as a hidden track. He told my that in the fifties they always had music playing behind the talking. I played him a cut and thought it was perfect. He said, "Turn the microphone on and turn that song on and I will talk." Right off the top of his head he said what is on the record. He finished it perfectly right as the song ended. It was one take. He didn’t know what he was going to do but it was perfect. It is really unbelievable. It sounds just like radio in the fifties. He wife was sitting there crying and I was crying and he came out and told us that he hadn’t done that in 45 years. My wife told me that it couldn’t be a hidden track. She said he needed to have his own track so people could know who he was. It was meant to be.

Jeb: Last one: What is left for you to do that you have not done?

Walter: There are a lot of things that I have done that I wish I hadn’t done. I want to just keep going.