Walter Trout Streaming 'Me, My Guitar And The Blues'

12-05-2018

Walter Trout has released a new track "Me, My Guitar And The Blues". The song comes from his forthcoming covers album "Survivor's Blues".

The new album is set to hit stores on January 25th and the new song can be streamed here. We were sent the following details about the record:

From the day he conceived the project to the moment he counted off the first song in the studio, he had a bolder plan for this release. Trout shares. "I'm riding in my car sometimes, and I've got a blues station on - and here's another band doing Got My Mojo Workin'. And there's a little voice in me that says, 'Does The World need another version of that song?' So I came up with an idea. I didn't want to do 'Stormy Monday' or 'Messin' With The Kid.' I didn't want to do the Blues greatest hits. I wanted to do old, obscure songs that have hardly been covered. And that's how Survivor Blues started..."

The roll-call of artists might be eclectic, but there's a cohesion to Survivor Blues. From the outset, Trout made it his mission to harness the power and spirit of the originals, while stamping his inimitable musical personality onto each new take. He offers, "My idea was to do these songs like me, to arrange them for my band and style - not to just copy the originals note-for-note."

Last September, as recording began at the Los Angeles studio of iconic Doors guitarist Robby Krieger, Trout and long-standing producer Eric Corne shared their vision with the only band who could measure up. The thunder and finesse of drummer Michael Leasure. The muscular groove of bassist Johnny Griparic. The spell-casting fingers of keyboards session god and regular Trout conspirator, Skip Edwards. "I'd play them the original," remembers Trout, "and then I'd say, 'Here's how the song goes, what have you got?' I'd give these guys a lot of freedom. The record was mostly done live, with us set up in a circle, just to get the feel of us going there together. And you can feel it, y'know?"

Walter Trout has a connection to each of these songs selected. He reflects on Chicago Bluesman Jimmy Dawkins never receiving the recognition deserved in covering "Survivor Blues." He reveals, "The last line - 'Since you left me, All I have left is Me, My Guitar and the Blues' - is one of the greatest lyrics I've heard in my life and I start crying just saying it. And my wife thinks it's the best thing I've ever done." Sunnyland Slim's "Be Careful How You Vote" stresses the importance of choosing carefully at the ballot box, without taking sides. Certainly relevant for all members of society. Universal themes are also explored on Otis Rush's defiant "It Takes Time" and the funk-flavoured groove of Luther Johnson's "Woman Don't Lie." With J.B. Lenoir's "Talk To Your Daughter," he recalls, "I found this song that Lenoir does all by himself with the guitar, very slowly, almost without even a rhythm. I played the original to the band and said: 'Now we're gonna turn it into Jimi Hendrix'. I wanted to use it as a vehicle for the band and for my guitar-playing and vocals. I wanted to belt it out."