WALTER TROUT Unspoiled By Progress 20 Years of Hardcore Blues

Provogue Records

Yes, yes and thrice yes! Perhaps I should add two more yes to that triplet as I am giving the album five stars. Following on from last years "Outsider" Walter has gone back to the archives for most of these fourteen cuts. However 'They Call Us The Working Class' a brand new studio recording gets things underway with a commentary on what is currently going on across the globe. 'Goin' Down' and 'She's Out There Somewhere' come from 1991 BBC sessions recorded for Bob Harris. The remaining numbers are all live in-concert tracks and they are blinding examples of just how good the man is. If I were to select one word to sum up Walter live it would be energy. That simple little word is writ large over this whole album. The quality of the various musicians surrounding him, including the wonderful Jimmy Trapp and Bernard Pershey, are testimony to the high standards set by Walter. It goes way back to the earliest live cut here 1989's 'Somebody's Acting Like A Child' and I wonder if at every show is the tape running. Tight, hard and heavy for sure but always melodic and a band just playing out of their skins. 'Life In The Jungle' and the absolutely blistering 'Long Tall Sally', an encore from 1991, are prime examples. The centrepiece is the extended slow Blues 'Finally Gotten Over You' including a couple of Christmas motifs in the solo and that segues into 'Going Back Home'. Fabulous playing, excellent sound throughout and all summed up by that word energy.

Graeme Scott