Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Walter Trout Returns With Blues For The Modern Daze On April 24th - US Tour Announced


TROUT EXTENDS TOUR WITH 43 U.S. APPEARANCES NOW SCHEDULED 
Tour Kicks Off On April 25th at Belly Up Tavern In Solana Beach, CA, Features
4-Night Stand At NYC's Iridium in May, and Sees Trout Appear at 14 Festivals

The Mascot Label Group will release Walter Trout's 21st album Blues For The Modern Daze on April 24.  The offering displays the contemporary guitar legend returning to his hard-core blues roots, with songwriting at a creative and personal zenith. Blues For The Modern Daze is Trout’s sixth recording for Provogue Records, a division of the Mascot Label Group, and his first pure blues album in 23 years as a bandleader. 

Trout’s practical schooling in blues started when he arrived in Los Angeles in 1973 and got gigs behind Hooker, Big Mama Thornton, Finis Tasby, Pee Wee Crayton, Lowell Fulsom, Percy Mayfield and Joe Tex. In 1981 he joined the remaining original members of Canned Heat. But the real turning point was his tenure with British blues giant John Mayall. Trout became part of the Bluesbreakers’ lineage of great guitarists along with Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor. Beginning in 1984 he shared six-string duties with Coco Montoya in Mayall’s band, creating a flexible guitar dynamic that helped provide the Bluesbreakers a renaissance that returned the group to the apex of the international blues touring circuit.  Trout began leading his own group in 1989 and cut his debut album Life In the Jungle, rapidly becoming a star in Europe. His first Stateside release, 1998's critically heralded Walter Trout, made him start down the road towards becoming the fixture of the American blues-rock scene that he is today.

Trout's travels over the past 39 years, and his wide appreciation of his predecessors, yield a significant influence to Blues For The Modern Daze.  Trout shares, "My main inspiration for this album was the country bluesman Blind Willie Johnson, an early blues innovator who recorded such timeless gospel informed blues numbers as 'Soul of a Man' and 'Nobody’s Fault But Mine.' His music is so beautiful, primal, direct and deeply spiritual that I wanted to feel it at my back when we were cutting these songs.”  He continues, "This album captures my interest in exploring a side of my music that’s rooted in my first musical love, and it reveals something about me too.  It sums up the thoughts and attitudes of somebody who is getting a little older and is feeling a little like he’s a part of another era, with different values and a different perspective on life than often seem to be prevalent today. And I stand behind those values, like compassion, authenticity and honesty, as strongly as I stand behind my music.”

Blues for the Modern Daze was recorded at Entourage Studios in North Hollywood, California, with Trout and engineer Eric Corne producing. It’s the fifth time Trout has collaborated with Corne, who contributed to the arrangements and sonic palette of the songs that Trout wrote and demoed on acoustic guitar during the year before the sessions.  The EPK for Blues for the Modern Daze can be streamed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK4k3rPGd1A

Trout returns to the road in the U.S. on April 25th in Solana Beach, CA.  Confirmed appearances include:
4/25     Solana Beach, CA                                 Belly Up Tavern
4/26     Las Vegas, NV                                      Boulder Station Casino
4/27     Santa Ana, CA                                     The Observatory
4/28     Simi Valley, CA                                    Simi Valley Blues Festival
5/05     Bixby, OK                                            Bixby Blues Festival
5/06     Kansas City, MO                                  Knucklehead's Saloon
5/09     Collinsville, CT                                     Bridge Street Live
5/10     Bethlehem, PA                                      River Jazz Festival @ Musikfest Café
5/11     Shirley, MA                                          Bull Run
5/12     Stanhope, NJ                                        Stanhope House
5/14     Buffalo, NY                                         The Tralf
5/16     Fall River, MA                                     Narrows Center for the Arts
5/18     New York, NY                                     Iridium Jazz Club
5/19     New York, NY                                     Iridium Jazz Club
5/20     New York, NY                                     Iridium Jazz Club
5/21     New York, NY                                     Iridium Jazz Club
5/23     Charlotte, NC                                       Double Door Inn
5/24     Asheville, NC                                       Orange Peel
5/25     Atlanta, GA                                          Smith’s Olde Bar
5/26     Biloxi, MS                                            MS Gulf Coast Music, Art, Craft & Seafood Festival
5/27     Biloxi, MS                                            MS Gulf Coast Music, Art, Craft & Seafood Festival
5/30     Dayton, OH                                          Gilly's
5/31     Auburn Hills, MI                                  Callahan's
6/01     Blawnox, PA                                        Moondog's
6/02     Hagerstown, MD                                  Western Maryland Blues Festival
6/05     Rockford, IL                                        The Adriatic Cafe
6/06     Davenport, IA                                      Redstone Room
6/07     Milwaukee, WI                                     Shank Hall
6/08     Canton, OH                                          Canton Blues Festival
6/09     Minneapolis, MN                                 Famous Dave’s Blues Festival
6/10     Des Moines, IA                                    House of Bricks
6/12     Lincoln, NE                                          Zoo Bar
6/14     St. Louis, MO                                       Old Rock House
6/15     Chicago, IL                                          House of Blues
6/16     Henderson, KY                                    WC Handy Blues Festival
6/30     Silverado, CA                                       Irvine Lake Blues Festival
8/10     N. Sioux City, SD                                 Skyline Bar & Casino
8/11     Minneapolis, MN                                 Famous Dave's
8/12     Duluth, MN                                          Bayfront Blues Festival
8/18     Thornton, NH                                      White Mountain Boogie & Blues Festival
8/26     Marshfield, MA                                    North River Blues Festival
8/31     Peoria, IL                                            Illinois Blues Festival
9/02     Laramie, WY                                       Snowy Range Music Festival


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