CD REVIEW – WALTER TROUT – We’re All In This Together

Shane | 19 October 2017 | Reply

CD REVIEW – WALTER TROUT – We’re All In This Together
Mascot Label Group
1 September, 2017
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

Any afficianado of blues guitar will be familiar with Walter Trout. His five decades in the business has included stints with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, Joe Tex, John Lee Hooker, Canned Heat and a wealth of solo work.

More recently he’s been in the news after beating almost certain death from liver disease in 2014, and last year’s Battle Scars album was an intense, emotional summary of that fight.

In stark contrast, We’re All In This Together is a fun and far more light-hearted romp, with Trout calling in many of his industry friends to play and sing with him through these fourteen tracks. In his own words, it was “joyous for me.”

Pillaging his impressive address book yielded great rewards for this not-quite sequel to 2006’s similarly cameo-filled Full Circle: Kenny Wayne Shepherd, John Mayall, Randy Bachman, Mike Zito, Charlie Musselwhite, Robben Ford, Warren Haynes, Joe Louis Walker, Edgar Winter, John Nemeth, Jon Trout and Mascot labelmates Sonny Landreth, Joe Bonamassa and Eric Gales all appear.

At 66 Walter Trout is a survivor, and he’s sharing what is obviously a new lease on life after staring death full in the face. We’re All In This Together is the antithesis of morbid or moribund though – life-affirming, uplifting and, yes, joyous, it’s the sound of a master of his craft revelling in sharing his gift with his peers and his fans.