Beth Hart to release inspiring and heartfelt new studio album, featuring Slash and Eric Gales

 Get news and hear new music from blues great Beth Hart...Robert Kinsler

Beth Hart To Release Inspiring and Heartfelt New Studio Album ‘You Still Got Me,' New Single “Wonderful World” now streaming on all platforms   ‘You Still Got Me’ will be released on 25 October Via Provogue / Mascot Label Group   Pre-order the album HERE    Beth Hart will be touring the US and Europe throughout 2024 and into 2025   Watch the videos for "You Still Got Me" | "Little Heartbreak Girl"

Grammy-nominated powerhouse singer-songwriter Beth Hart has announced her new studio album, ‘You Still Got Me’, which will be released on 25 October via Provogue / Mascot Label Group. The album features appearances by Eric Gales and Guns ‘n Roses’ Slash. She has also revealed her new song, “Wonderful World.” Listen to the new song here.   If you have ever seen Beth Hart live or immersed yourself in her music, you know she puts every ounce of her being into her songs. Firebrands inspire; it's what attracts people to them. However, part of those personalities' makeup is that they do not wear a harness. They thrive on the freedom and space around them. But, with that comes danger; you need an emotional crash mat, and those save lives. It is something we all need at times throughout our lives.

Watch the official lyric video for "Wonderful World" by Beth Hart

The album's video for the title track "You Still Got Me," poignantly features  her beloved husband, Scott.  Scott, along with the team around her, provide that surface to fall on when she needs it. Night after night on tour you can see the adulation she receives and that she also gives back. That connection has been forged over the last 28 years of releasing music in which she unapologetically wears her heart on her sleeve - like a warrior. Which is precisely what she is.   Today she reveals the beautiful piano ballad “Wonderful World,” which oozes optimism. "That song was written for and about my beautiful niece,” she says. “As time has gone by, I see that it’s really written for the lineage of the women in my family. All the way down the line; my great grandma, my grandma, my mom, my sisters, my niece and her daughter. So it's the lineage and how imperative it is for me to see that, and what a gift to finally see that."   Beth says about her writing process, "It's always for the joy of writing or for the challenge of writing, to seek what's going on. Sometimes, when I'm sad or scared, I check in on the piano. Sometimes a song comes, and sometimes one doesn't. Either way, there's comfort there."   The album erupts with soaring rocker 'Savior With A Razor' featuring Guns n' Roses' Slash. The epic Bond-like anthem thunders with nihilistic defiance as Beth's vocals take the listener through the shadows and smash through the ceiling as Slash's guitar wraps around the story in an electric fashion. "Beth Hart is one of my favorite artists to work with,” Slash says. “She is an incredible singer/lyricist on so many levels. But Beth is also as sincere and genuine a friend as they come. She's amazing."   Beth explains the messaging within the songs: "I leave that up to the listener to decide. Personally, I know what it is for right now. One of the beautiful things I love about songs and albums is that over time, that meaning changes. I like to keep that open because there's a lot I can learn from it."   "Little Heartbreak Girl" pierces through the clouds like spears of hope and power. "Little Heartbreak Girl, you're on your own," she yearns but follows with  "Little heartbreak girl, stronger than stone". Still, it's the lyric "You're gonna conquer the world" scattered throughout that stands atop the mountain, planting a flag into the ground.   The decadent groove-laden funk of "Suga N My Bowl" features the Southpaw wizard and longtime friend Eric Gales.  She offers up a cautionary tale on "Never Underestimate a Gal," while the Tom's Waits-esque "Drunk on Valentine" is a tender, Jazzy, smokey barroom ballad. Her "most personal and powerful song on the album" is the haunting socio-political opus "Don't Call The Police," an incredibly raw, upsetting, and observational insight on the George Floyd murder.   'You Still Got Me' is Hart's eleventh studio album, and it finds her riding a career trajectory that has been heading for the stars for several years and keeps soaring. Her most recent albums, 'A Tribute To Led Zeppelin' (2022) and 'War In My Mind' (2019), became her highest charting UK and US releases to date, along with crashing into the Top 10 in Germany, France. Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, Poland, Austria, and The Netherlands. Selling out shows worldwide, her recent travels have taken her across the US, Canada, Europe, and all the way to India, Morocco, and Australia.   We all have our "Me" when she sings "You still got me" - a loved one, a friend, a pet, a place, a memory, a song…even in her moments of fragility, Beth Hart continues to inspire. She buries her hand deep and tears her emotions open so we can all see a mirror into ourselves, reminding us that you can feel low, but your inner strength is so much more powerful.   Beth Hart is a powerhouse in every sense of the word, and ...she is a gargantuan BADASS! 1.    Savior With A Razor (feat. Slash) 2.    Suga N My Bowl (feat. Eric Gales) 3.    Never Underestimate A Gal 4.    Drunk On Valentine 5.    Wanna Be Big Bad Johnny Cash 6.    Wonderful World 7.    Little Heartbreak Girl 8.    Don't Call The Police 9.    You Still Got Me 10.    Pimp Like That 11.    Machine Gun Vibrato Beth Hart Online www.facebook.com/officialbethhart www.twitter.com/BethHart www.instagram.com/officialbethhart www.youtube.com/user/BethHartMusic https://www.tiktok.com/@bethhartmusic www.bethhart.com

Blues-Rock’s Resilient Icon Walter Trout To Release New Studio Album

Walter Trout at The Coach House on Feb.
28, 2020. Photo: Bob Steshetz

Great news on as Friday! Celebrated blues great Walter Trout has just announced the release of "Broken"...Robert Kinsler

Blues-Rock’s Resilient Icon Walter Trout To Release New Studio Album His incredibly creative and prolific streak continues with 'Broken,' featuring guest appearances from Beth Hart, Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider, and Harmonica Virtuoso Will Wilde. Released March 1, 2024 Via Provogue / Mascot Label Group Pre-order here Watch the lyric video for the first new song, "Bleed" ft. Will Wilde here

Credit: Leland Hayward

For the last half-century, however rocky his path, hope and resilience has always lit the way. The beat of Walter Trout's unbelievable story are well-known: the traumatic childhood in Ocean City, New Jersey; the audacious move to the West Coast in '74; the auspicious but chaotic sideman shifts with John Lee Hooker and Big Mama Thornton; the raging addictions that somehow never stopped the boogie when he was with Canned Heat in the early-'80s. Even now, some will point to Trout's mid-'80s guitar pyrotechnics in the lineup of John Mayall's legendary Bluesbreakers as his career high point. But for a far greater majority of fans, the blood, heart and soul of his solo career since 1989 is the main event, the bluesman's songcraft always reaching for some greater truth, forever surging forward, never shrinking back.

Watch the official lyric video for "Bleed" by Walter Trout

It's a peerless creative streak underlined by the guitarist's regular triumphs at ceremonies, including the Blues Music Awards, SENA European Guitar Awards, British Blues Awards and Blues Blast Music Awards. The iconic British DJ 'Whispering' Bob Harris spoke for millions when he declared Trout "the world's greatest rock guitarist" in his 2001 autobiography, The Whispering Years. If he were a less questing artist, Trout could mark time and dine out on those past glories, leaving the polemics and calls-to-arms to a younger generation. But that's not enough, considers the still-hungry veteran. "I have to grow. I want to be a vital contributing artist. I feel young. I know I'm not. But in my head, I'm still 25, wanting to get better and do something I haven't done before. I have more to say." The album was recorded at Kingsize Soundlabs in LA with producer Eric Corne.  "This is our 15th album together," calculates the bluesman. "Eric and I just have a way of working, man. A friend who came into the studio and watched us and said, 'Man, you guys are like a machine'. It's unspoken." A few collaborators joined Trout for the first time. "I thought my friend Beth Hart could relate to the title track, Broken," he says of the warrior princess whose fiery vocals coil with his own. "Dee Snider from Twisted Sister put up a live cut of me on his Twitter and said: 'Listen to this fucking guitar hero'. We started talking and became friends. He came into the studio, and I knew I had to write him a song. Bleed came about when we were pretty much done. My drummer Michael Leasure said to me, 'Hey, Walter, you played with John Lee Hooker and Canned Heat, this is your 31st album and you've never played a boogie. What's the deal?' So I said, 'OK, fuck it, let's do a boogie'. I can kinda play harmonica, but I thought, 'Let's elevate this thing'. There's a young harmonica player in England who's the best I've ever heard, Will Wilde. He has the soul and the power of Paul Butterfield but couples that with blinding virtuoso technique."  Elsewhere, the wistful Talkin' To Myself, Trout took inspiration from the hits that crackled from AM radio in his youth, and no words were required for the tender instrumental "Love Of My Life" ("Of course, it's about Marie"). With gallows humour, Trout notes that his new album opens with a track called "Broken" and ends with one called "Falls Apart." He can't deny the link between the personal and the socio-political mood in the air, and as such, between those two bookends lie some of the most raw and bruised songs of his career. Still hope leads the way with the notion that music can help us overcome brokenness - one note at a time. 'Broken' by Walter Trout 1. Broken (feat. Beth Hart) 2. Turn And Walk Away 3. Courage In The Dark 4. Bleed (feat. Will Wilde on Harmonica) 5. Talkin' To Myself 6. No Magic ( in the street ) 7. I've Had Enough (feat. Dee Snider) 8. Love Of My Life 9. Breathe - written by Richard Gerstein 10. Heaven Or Hell 11. I Wanna Stay 12. Falls Apart http://www.waltertrout.com/   www.facebook.com/waltertroutband/  www.twitter.com/waltertrout www.instagram.com/walter_trout

Walter Trout and Provogue Records announce release of 'Ordinary Madness' on Aug. 28, 2020

Very exciting news that blues singer-songwriter/guitar great Walter Trout will be returning with a new studio album this summer. One of the last concerts I caught before the COVID-19 shutdown was Trout tearing it up at The Coach House in February. (Read my review of that show here)...Robert Kinsler

WALTER TROUT AND PROVOGUE RECORDS ANNOUNCE RELEASE OF NEW STUDIO ALBUM 

ORDINARY MADNESS ON AUGUST 28, 2020

 

VIEW “Wanna Dance” Lyric Video Here: https://youtu.be/Pyz90L1kOUg

Pre-Order Here: http://smarturl.it/walter-trout

 

Los Angeles, CA --- Walter Trout and Provogue Records / Mascot Label Group have announced the global release of a new studio album titled Ordinary Madness on August 28.  The lyric video for a lead track titled “Wanna Dance” can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/Pyz90L1kOUg. The pre-order goes live today, featuring configurations that include 2LP+MP3, CD, Limited CD Box, and MFiT Digital, all of which are available here:  http://smarturl.it/walter-trout.

 

For Walter Trout, there is no ‘us’ and ‘them’. Across his five-decade career, the great U.S. bluesman’ s music has always been a lifeline and call-to-arms, reminding listeners they are not alone. Now, as the world seeks solace from a tragedy that has touched us all, he comes armed with a boundary-exploring new studio album and eleven searingly honest songs that bring his fans even closer. “There’s a lot of extraordinary madness going on right now,” considers Trout, of the COVID-19 crisis. “This album started because I was dealing with the flaws and weakness inside me. But it ended up being about everyone.” 

 

Ordinary Madness was completed mere days before the U.S. shutdown, its cathartic songcraft and themes of shared troubles couldn’t chime better with a period in which our souls and spirits are under fire from tumultuous global events. 

 

Walter Trout at The Coach House on Feb.
28, 2020. Photo: Bob Steshetz

Admirably open about his troubled youth, and his own ongoing struggles with mental health, the bluesman had spent recent tours soothing himself by scribbling down his thoughts and feelings. It was only later he realized he’d just written the most honest lyric-sheet of his career – and felt he had an opportunity to let fans share and identify with him. “Everybody is dealing with something,” he says. “And I’m no different from anybody else. Ordinary Madness doesn’t mean you’re gonna end up in a mental institution. It’s just being human. It’s common humanity.”

 

Trout’s formative blues influences are well-documented, spanning from Paul Butterfield’s 1965 self-titled debut alongside Mike Bloomfield to John Mayall’s seminal 1966 ‘Beano’ LP with Eric Clapton. But as he cut his teeth in New Jersey, the young guitarist was also drawn to the maverick songwriters, taking in The Beatles, Dylan and Neil Young’s Crazy Horse. At every step of his career – moving to California in ’74 to back up giants like John Lee Hooker, joining Canned Heat and Mayall’s Bluesbreakers in the ’80s, then flying solo in 1989 – the stockpile of songs kept growing. 

 

This time around, Trout is doing things a little differently. Led in by an electronic intro created by eldest son Jon Trout, the song sets off on a hypnotic groove with a gloriously languid guitar break that’s anything but autopilot blues. “I’ve broken the pinkie on my left hand three times in the past year,” remembers Trout, “so the guitar playing on this album took a little work, and there’s some anger and frustration in some of the solos. I really like that solo on the title track. It took two or three re-takes. But I think I nailed it.”

 

From that jump-off, a career-best album spilled out, as Trout convened his band of Michael Leasure (drums), Johnny Griparic (bass) and Teddy ‘Zig Zag’ Andreadis (keys) – along with long-time producer Eric Corne, plus special guests Skip Edwards, Drake ‘Munkihaid’ Shining and Anthony Grisham. The backdrop, once again, was the private LA studio of Doors legend Robby Krieger.  “The whole place is full of vintage gear, and it’s all there for you, whatever you want. The keyboard that Ray Manzarek used in The Doors – it’s just fucking sitting there. I remember, on the rhythm track for OK Boomer, Michael Dumas, who runs the studio, comes walking in and says: ‘Here’s the SG that Robby used in The Doors – wanna try this?’ Then, for the rhythm guitar on Heartland, he says: ‘Here’s one of James Burton’s Paisley Telecasters...’”

 

Walter Trout at The Coach House on Feb. 28, 2020.
Photo: Bob Steshetz

Musically, Trout’s antennae are up, as he pushes the envelope on the psychedelic layered vocal harmonies of “The Sun Is Going Down,” a song about dealing with ageing. Trout shares, “Lyrically, it’s about running out of time. You gotta look at death, deal with it, accept it. That’s a condition of being alive.”  The blissed-out anthemics of “Up Above My Sky,” nods to peak-period Pink Floyd and Trout worked with the U.S. Blues singer Teeny Tucker on the bereft “All Out Of Tears” – a tribute to her late son. On the haunting “Heaven In Your Eyes,” Walter was stunned by Marie Trout’s lyrics about the desperation of trying to find ways to reach the person you love but being unable to find the words. 

 

“As the lyric says in ‘Up Above My Sky,’ he reflects, “sometimes you have to see through the darkness to find the light. I can’t wait get back out there again, meet the people at shows, hug them and pose for a photo. And I’m really looking forward to playing these songs live. Because I think this album speaks to these times…”

 

Touring plans will be announced in the coming weeks as The World returns to some level of normalcy enabling all artists to return to staging appearances.

 

 

ABOUT WALTER TROUT

Walter Trout has been nothing short of prolific over the course of his seven decades on this Earth.  He’s released 27 solo albums over a career that has spanned the globe, and delivered notoriety as one of the great purveyors of the Blues.  Trout's history is equal parts thriller, romance, suspense and horror. There are musical fireworks, critical acclaim and fists-aloft triumph, offset by wilderness years, brushes with the jaws of narcotic oblivion, and the survival of an organ transplant few come back from.  From 1973, when he left his New Jersey home headed to Los Angeles, he has followed a road that afforded him an opportunity to just play, sharing the stage as a sideman with Jesse Ed Davis, Big Mama Thornton, Lowell Fulson, Joe Tex, and of course the great John Mayall (following a three year tenure in Canned Heat).  

 

When Trout walked away from the Bluesbreakers, he embarked on a solo career that has yielded a catalogue that has established a deep legacy in the world of Blues, Americana, and the realm of revered singer-songwriters. While many would slow down as they approach their 70^th birthday, Trout continues to deliver inspired recordings, performances, and a voice that articulates relevant ideology and insights in to The World that inspires his deep perspective. There’s no autopilot emanating from Walter Trout, but a true a sense of growing momentum, elements of surprise, and repertoire that continues to be more compelling with each new creation. 

 

www.waltertrout.com

www.facebook.com/waltertroutband

www.twitter.com/waltertrout

www.mascotlabelgroup.com

Walter Trout: Blues Came Callin set for release as legendary singer-songwriter-guitarist fights for his life

Walter Trout, who I first saw play guitar in the 1980s and have subsequently interviewed several times and get to know over the past 20 years, is one of my favorite musicians and a fantastic person. He and his wonderful family are in my prayers...

Walter Trout painting: Theo Reijnders 

PROVOGUE / MASCOT LABEL GROUP ANNOUNCES JUNE 10 RELEASE DATE

FOR WALTER TROUT'S THE BLUES CAME CALLIN' ON ARTIST'S REQUEST

AS HE FIGHTS FOR HIS LIFE AWAITING LIVER TRANSPLANT AT

UCLA MEDICAL CENTER IN LOS ANGELES

http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/walter-trout-needs-a-new-liver-you-can-help-/151911

 

EPK: http://youtu.be/btiS6ijncMk

 

Los Angeles, CA --- Last year, Walter Trout was struck with a life-threatening liver disease, and as a result lost 100lbs. Marie Trout shares, "For five years, Walter, Provogue Records, and I have worked towards making Walter's 25th year as a solo artist a special celebratory event.  But the festivities will have to wait.  Walter is urgently in need of a liver transplant.  It has been heart-breaking for me to watch Walter struggle through these past many months, as we tried various treatment options provided by Walter's doctors and liver specialists.  One by one the treatments failed.  Yet through it all, Walter's courage and determination continually amazed me.  Even as he has become a shadow of his former self, after losing 100 pounds and much of his strength, he continued touring, writing, playing, singing and recording.  Music and playing for people offered Walter what it always has: It is therapy and a life-line for him when the Blues comes callin'.  Thus the theme of this album is colored by his confrontation with mortality combined with a deep, all-abiding desire to persevere, and a good dose of typical Walter'esque life-affirming defiance!" Provogue and Mascot Label Group's Ed van Zijl offers, "When Walter re-joined Provogue in 2008 we talked about a plan leading up to the 25th Anniversary of his career as a solo artist which is this year, 2014.  besides a brand new album we also made a book and a documentary.  Not only to make people aware of the 25th anniversary, but also to have people realize just how good and how important an artist Walter is for the blues rock genre Worldwide.  A phenomenal guitar player and an even greater person.  Always speaking from the heart and always in for a good joke.  The touring set up for 2014 was fantastic with shows at the prestigious North Sea Jazz Festival and the Carre Theater in Amsterdam amongst many other great ones.  Instead of being out there on the road giving his usual all to his many fans night after night, Walter is fighting for his life and there is nothing to celebrate at the moment.  This is so very, very sad and we are all praying for Walter to come out on top.  The album will be released as planned, and Walter definitely wants this one to be heard.  In the meantime our hearts are with Walter and his family."

 

Provogue / Mascot Label Group will release Walter Trout's THE BLUES CAME CALLIN' on June 10 in North America, as Walter Trout looks back at an almost 50-year commitment to playing and singing the blues.  The album was recorded throughout 2013.  The songs reflect Walter's thoughts about mortality and his renewed appreciation for being alive.  An EPK can be screened here (with an embedded link provided below): http://youtu.be/btiS6ijncMk

 

As he became physically weaker, he fought to continue touring, and found that playing for people was powerful medicine.  Like the title of the new studio album, the Blues definitely came callin' for Walter.  It kept him fighting, and in the process, it made him more determined than ever.  Walter is currently awaiting a liver transplant at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles.  A fund raising initiative began last week to support Walter and his family which can be viewed here: http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/walter-trout-needs-a-new-liver-you-can-help-/151911

 

Trout offers, "To play my music for people has become even more important to me.  When I think about looking out into the crowds of people and connecting with everyone on a soul level, and sharing the experience of music with them, this is what keeps me fighting to get back: My family and my music is my lifeline.  These days, it means more to me than ever before."

 

Recorded throughout 2013, THE BLUES CAME CALLIN' features 12 new songs, ten of which are originals.  One is written by John Mayall for the occasion, and the other is a J.B. Lenoir cover. Trout searches his soul on this album and lays it bare allowing the celebration of his career to be infused with new appreciation for life.  The upcoming official biography is co-written with British music journalist, Henry Yates.  The manuscript will be released simultaneously with the new album. Titled Rescued From Reality - The Life and Times of Walter Trout, the book features previously untold stories, and is packed with rare photographs from the musician's personal archive. The book documents an initially blissful childhood, shattered by divorce, abuse, and violence.  As the story unfolds, it leads us through Walter’s life of heartache, poverty, living on the street and being “the only white guy” struggling in famous blues bands in LA in the late 1970’s.  Walter reflects on his time in the 1980’s when nobody cared to hear the blues, to being “discovered” and having long-time gigs as a hard-playing and hard-drinking and drugging globetrotting sideman with Canned Heat and John Mayall.  The book chronicles how Walter eventually became drug-free, broke out on his own and embarked on a solo career in 1989.

 

Currently in production and scheduled to be shown in the summer, the exclusive documentary features Walter talking in depth about his life and music.  Also featured in the documentary are many of the people who influenced Trout personally and professionally.