Monday, September 10, 2012

Walter Trout "Blues For The Modern Daze"

 
 
First heard of him when he was part of John Mayall's reformed Bluesbreakers in the '80's, but he was no match for the other guitarist in the band, Coco Montoya.  Trout went solo the same year I came back to Florida to open the original Music 4 Less location in the tourist corridor.  Kept having all these Europeans ask for him by name so I added his band's CD's to the blues section.  They sold quite well, especially "Life In The Jungle" and "Tellin' Stories."  They didn't move me as much as I believed they should so I gave away all the promos, never retaining the first copy of anything.  Got a comp for a live show and all that changed.  This guy was smoke and fire in concert and to this day live performances are all I own by this man.
 
Which brings me to this new album.  Post spin one, I had noted that it started with some healthy promise...but that it would likely end up the same way, good in studio yet outstanding in concert.  By the time "...Daze" had wrapped up its 77 minutes for the third time, I had changed my mind.  Three spins, trust me, is a reasonable number to allow for the art to grab you.  Anything less is truly unfair.  Some of the lyrics were the first to raise an eyebrow, an infrequent occurrence these days.  The opening track from earlier, "Turn Off Your TV," "Lifestyle Of The Rich & Famous," and some of the lines in this new classic...
 
 
 
If that doesn't make the hair stand up on the back of your neck you are reading the wrong column...

The beauty to WT live is he doesn't play a song the same way twice.  There are several different videos of this same track online if you'd like to compare and hear for yourself.  I caught an interview with him explaining that this album was the most "live" thing he's ever done in the studio, so maybe that's the reason it finally rang the bell for me.  But it also begs the question, "Why wait twenty records to do one that way?"  One of the other major differences of this disc from all those preceding is there are actually a couple of tracks that would fit the definition of "radio friendly," and I don't mean "Rock" radio.    Never imagined saying that about a WT record. 

Then again, I never dreamed that "...Daze" would become the first complete Walter Trout album in my collection, either...


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