After 35 years of sweating the blues out on the road and making more than a dozen records, where else can blues rock guitar god and living legend Walter Trout go, but full circle.
As a young man, Walter absorbed the guitar licks from those great Bluesbreaker records, that include Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor. These guys of course were hired by bandleader, John Mayall. Who would have thought, that a certain young guitarist named Walter Trout would spend 5 years himself playing with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. So what a way to lead off Walter’s first CD in nearly 5 years, titled ‘Full Circle’ than with Walter and John pouring it on with the opening track, “She Takes More Than She Gives”. A minor blues song done in the key of “C”, a song that Walter had written in his car on the way to the studio. After that, he and John also wrote the track “Highway Song” together. The connection goes even deeper. There’s the song “Who’s Listening In” where Walter dukes it out with his partner from the Bluesbreakers, his left handed cohort, Coco Montoya. Not only is ‘Full Circle’ a work of art, filled with 25 talented musicians, but it’s Walter, a band leader himself, working literally side by side with guys he’s admired for years. Nobody’s showing anybody up and the admiration is mutual. Just like with John Mayall, Walter had another song that was written ahead of time, for a certain artist. He wrote the song ‘Working Overtime” for the unconventional guitar master, Jeff Healey. When Walter got up to Canada, he only had 3 hours to record with Jeff and his band. You would never know it by listening to the song. All of the other songs were created in the studio and recorded very loosely without rehearsals. I don’t think Pro Tools can endorse this CD. The cover songs that are on this CD are really brought to life here. For instance, when Bernard Allison uses his father Luther’s guitar on “When Will It Ever Change” or the soaring instrumental “Slap Happy” from guitar great Junior Watson, its very touching. There’s even the James Harman song “A Busy Man”, complete with harmonica.
But for something completely different, Walter sat down with his neighbor Eric Sardinas in the studio with 2 acoustic Resonator guitars. These two obviously had fun writing and playing “Firehouse Mama”. Now if you want to hear 2 guys having a conversation with electric guitars, then check out Walter and Guitar Shorty on “Wrapped Around Your Finger”. People, this is definitely a blues CD. If you consider yourself a blues “purist”, than I hope you really hate the blazing frets from Walter and Joe Bonamassa, because they set the disc on fire with “Clouds On The Horizon”. From slow blues to fast rockers, Walter Trout has come Full Circle. Now let’s hope he goes around a couple of more times.
