Walter Trout, Deep Trout: The Early Years of Walter Trout

I love the blues. There is nothing more comforting to me than the sad cry of a guitar and a heavy throaty voice joining in with its own distinct wail. I don’t know about you, but whenever I have blues going on the stereo, I just can’t help but at the very least tap my foot in time. It’s uncontrollable, and it doesn’t matter where I am or what I’m doing — the blues grabs my focus and my attention immediately.

Here’s one reason why. With a sampling of songs spanning nine years and bonus tracks that date all the way back to ’72, I think the Deep Trout retrospective is a perfect introduction to bluesman Walter Trout. The songs picked for the album illustrate his ability to create music that pushes not only against being categorized but also against any sort of limitation. His music is all expression and emotion, with every riff speaking as loudly as his words.

Personally, I prefer the smokin’ guitar style on tracks like “How Much Do You Want,” “Put It Right Back,” or “Killing The Monkey” — the latter of which has a distinct 50’s style rock sound to me — but softer tracks like “Under My Skin” or “Running in Place” remind me of ’80s Clapton, which could hardly be considered a bad thing.

I’m not sure that anything I say could do proper justice to what a talent Walter Trout is, but I will say this: there is a reason he was voted sixth in the top 20 Guitar Greats of All Time by the BBC, and Deep Trout is a great way to discover that reason for yourself.