Walter Trout To Release SIGN OF THE TIMES on September 5 - Official Music Video for "Artificial" Out Today

Walter Trout is back with a fantastic new song; love the vocals, blues harp and guitar work too...Robert Kinsler

 

BLUES ROCK RESILIENT ICON WALTER TROUT TO RELEASE HIS NEW STUDIO ALBUM TITLED "SIGN OF THE TIMES" ON SEPTEMBER 5, 2025

Watch The Video for “Artificial” HERE

 

Walter Trout at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, CA
on Feb. 28, 2020. / Photo: Bob Steshetz

Great artists take the pulse of their times and Walter Trout holds a mirror up to society’s anger and angst on Sign Of The Times, which will be released on September 5 via Provogue. He has also revealed his blistering new single “Artificial.” You can watch the video HERE.

 

In his half-century as a street-level social observer and scaldingly honest songwriter, blues-rock’s resilient icon Walter Trout has never told his fans what to think, how to feel, or where to stand politically. But in an era when his home nation – and the wider world – is ripping at the seams over the battlelines of modern life, the iconic U.S. bluesman’s hard-rocking new album, Sign Of The Times, is a primal scream and pressure valve for all of us. “I wanted to reflect upon what’s going on in the world,” explains the 74-year-old. “For me, writing these songs is therapy. They’re not just about what’s happening out there, but how it affects you in your head. Sign Of The Times just became the obvious title…”

 

The album explodes to life with the first single and opening song, “Artificial”: a scornful, satirical, harmonica-spiced rebuke of the fake world we risk creating. “We got artificial photos, artificial music, you could go on and on,” considers the bluesman. “I’m freaked out by AI. I read articles about how it’s gonna do all these wonderful things in the medical world. Then I hear Bill Gates say that eighty percent of jobs are gonna disappear. What happens then?”

 

It feels like the amps have barely cooled from 2024’s Broken, which debuted in Billboard at #1. But the era-chronicling songs from Sign Of The Times wouldn’t wait, these urgent riffs flying off the guitarist’s fingers, assisted once again by Marie, Walter’s wife, manager and co-writer, who penned the lyrics for some of the tracks. “This album flowed pretty easily,” he reflects of the writing process. “I had so many song ideas and pages of lyrics from Marie. We could have kept going and made a triple album.”

 

With ten new songs written and arranged, Trout was ready to call up his studio band – longtime drummer Michael Leasure, bassist John Avila and keys man Teddy ‘Zig Zag’ Andreadis – for the recording sessions at Strawhorse Studios in Los Angeles. Immediately, the tinderbox subject matter sparked one of the toughest-sounding records in his catalogue. Self-producing, and having the material mixed by sonic genius, J.J. Blair, added yet another bit of edge to the sound. “Let me put it this way, I really felt like rocking on this album. We had heavy things to talk about, and we went for it musically too.”  

 

The recent death of British blues godfather John Mayall has naturally brought Trout’s mid-’80s tenure with the Bluesbreakers into sharp focus. “His influence on my life, I can’t overstate,” reflects the guitarist. As a man who has always been open about his past agonies, pain is never far away. “’Hurt No More’ is my recovery song, with cutting yourself representing killing yourself with drugs and booze,” he says of the dust-blown rocker. 

 

With its dancing guitar lick and undeniable chorus, “I Remember” is also a moment of respite from the album’s stormier subject matter. “That song is a longing for when life was simpler,” he explains. “Like, when I was 20 and starting out. Or when Marie and I had just got together, and we had no money and were pawning guitars, but we were madly in love and the future was ahead of us.”

 

The combustible title track is one of the most experimental cuts in Trout’s half-century studio output, “I wanted it to be dissonant. Dissonance is a sign of the times. Marie came to me with a set of lyrics, and I realized it fit the song perfectly,” he says. Whilst “No Strings Attached” skewers hypocrisy, bigotry, and hatred, the album is no one-note diatribe. 

 

For Trout – who survived an eleventh-hour liver transplant in 2014 – his second chance at life still holds joy, beauty and pain. “’Mona Lisa Smile’ came to me in a dream,” he says of the gorgeous, bucolic acoustic strum decorated by accordion, mandolin and violin from famed string arranger Stevie Blacke (Snoop Dog, Joe Cocker, Alice in Chains). “Y’know, Marie is strong and potent – but there’s another side to her which makes me love her even more. That song is about when I see her vulnerability, or her moments of self-doubt and sadness.”

 

Even by Trout’s standards, Sign Of The Times is a record that puts you through the emotional wringer. But as long as there’s poignant and relevant music, we have a fighting chance. The complete track listing features “Artificial,” “Blood On My Pillow,” “Sign Of The Times,” “Mona Lisa Smile,” “Hurt No More,” “No Strings Attached,” “I Remember,” “Hightech Woman,” “Too Bad,” “Struggle To Believe.”

 

As a lifelong road warrior, Trout will be taking the Sign Of The Times material to global audiences throughout 2025. And for those glorious two hours of playing to audiences, political divides and culture wars will crumble as a crowd with little else in common melts into a communion of souls. “I could be on social media, writing very explicit posts,” he considers. “But I don’t want to contribute to the division. When I’m up onstage playing a minor-key blues, and I look down at the front row and there’s a burly biker – and he’s crying – at that moment, I’m hitting him in our common humanity, and it doesn’t matter who he voted for. At that moment, we are all in this together…”

 

Confirmed appearances include:

NORTH AMERICAN ACTIVITY:

6/12     San Luis Obispo, CA                                                  Fremont Theatre

6/13     Monterey, CA                                                             Golden State Theatre

6/14     Napa, CA                                                                    Uptown Theatre

6/15     San Jose, CA                                                               Fountain Blues and Brews Festival

 

EUROPEAN APPEARANCES:

7/17     Tuttlingen, DE                                                                        Honberg Sommer

7/18     München, DE                                                              Backstage

7/19     Hanover, DE                                                               Bluesgarage

7/20     Leer (Ostfriesland), DE                                              Zollhaus Gastro

7/22     Aakirkeby, DK                                                           Ekkodalshuset & Café Genlyd

7/25     Narcao, IT                                                                   Narcao Blues Festival 2025

7/27     Piacenza, IT                                                                Dal Mississippi Al Po

8/01     Notodden, NO                                                             Notodden Bluesfestival 2025

8/15     Leipzig, DE                                                                Parkbühne (Clara Zetkin Park)

8/17     Struer, DK                                                                  Gimsinghoved Festival 2025

 

NORTH AMERICAN ACTIVITY:

9/03     Phoenix, AZ                                                                MIM

9/05     Las Vegas, NV                                                            Big Blues Bender

9/06     Salt Lake City, UT                                                      The State Room

9/07     Boise, ID                                                                     Treefort Music Hall

9/09     Seattle, WA                                                                Jazz Alley

9/10     Seattle, WA                                                                Jazz Alley

9/11     Portland, OR                                                               Aladdin Theater

9/12     Victoria, CAN                                                            Wicket Hall

9/18     Evanston, IL                                                               SPACE

9/20     Cleveland, OH                                                                        Beachland Ballroom & Tavern

9/21     Cincinnati, OH                                                            The Ludlow Garage

9/24     New Orleans, LA                                                        The Jazz Market

9/25     New Orleans, LA                                                        The Jazz Market

 

EUROPEAN APPEARANCES:

10/25   Svalbard, NO                                                              Dark Season Blues Festival

10/28   Odense, DK                                                                Musikhuset

10/29   Aarhus, DK                                                                 Train

10/30   Fredericia, DK                                                                        Eksercerhuset

10/31   Viborg, DK                                                                 Vesterbrogade 10

11/01   Copenhagen, DK                                                        Amager Bio

11/04   Gothenburg, SE                                                          Pustervik

11/06   Uppsala, SE                                                                Katalin And All That Jazz

11/09   Helsinki, FI                                                                 House of Culture

11/12   Hamburg, DE                                                              Markthalle

11/13   Dresden, DE                                                               Tante Ju

11/14   Berlin, DE                                                                   Kesselhaus

11/18   Zurich, CH                                                                  Kaufleuten

11/19   Stuttgart, DE                                                               Im Wizemann

11/20   Heidelberg, DE                                                           Halle02

11/22   Herenthout, BE                                                           Lux Herenthout

11/25   Utrecht, NL                                                                 TivoliVredenburg

11/26   Köln, DE                                                                     Kantine

11/27   Alkmaar, NL                                                               Victoriepark

11/28   Zoetermeer, NL                                                          Poppodium Boerderij

11/29   Hengelo, NL                                                               Metropool Hengelo

11/30   Bochum, DE                                                               Zeche Bochum

 

 

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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 brings high-powered legacy to The Coach House

Who: Walter Trout, Freeman-Hale

Where: The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano, CA

When: Saturday, Dec. 17, 2022

Next: Walter Trout will be touring throughout California and the West Coast of the U.S. in March 2023 before heading to Europe in May 2023

Information: WalterTrout.com

Review by Robert Kinsler

Photography by Bob Steshetz

Walter Trout brought his groundbreaking brand of hard hitting blues to The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on Saturday night for the first of two shows at the concert venue. A homecoming stop for the 71-year-old Trout — a long-time resident of nearby Huntington Beach — area fans filled The Coach House to catch a two-hour set that highlighted the singer-songwriter/guitar great's original material.

From left, Teddy "Zig Zag" Andreadis, Walter Trout, Michael Leasure and John Avila.

Backed by his incredible three-man band (long-time drummer Michael Leasure, keyboardist Teddy "Zig Zag" Andreadis and bassist John Avila of Oingo Boingo fame), Trout featured material off his 2022 album Ride. His first album since 2020, Ride is notable for its moving material looking at the artist's life — a mix of intoxicating highs and challenging lows. 

Walter Trout at The Coach House.

Bassist John Avila and Walter Trout

A survivor of life-threatening liver disease who spent months in a hospital bed while losing 120 pounds and even the ability to walk, Trout's long recovery began when he had a successful liver transplant in May 2014. Trout's miraculous return to the stage (he had to regain his ability to speak, walk and play guitar following the transplant eight years ago) adds a palpable power every time he performs and that was definitely the case on Saturday night.

Drummer Michael Leasure behind the drum kit.

After an introduction by his wife Marie Trout just after 9 p.m., Trout opened with "I Can Tell," a forceful blues-rocker that played out over eight minutes — the first three minutes or so a blistering display of Trout's masterful fretwork on his electric guitar.

"This is a homecoming for us and it's so great to be back," Trout said after that opener. 

After performing an explosive "Wanna Dance" from his 2020 album Ordinary Madness, Trout noted that Ride is his 30th solo album and "We're going to do a lot of songs from that record."

Keyboardist Teddy "Zig Zag" Andreadis

As part of his performance of the new selections, Trout would often provide details into the genesis of each song. In his introduction of "Waiting for the Dawn," he noted he wrote it in a hotel home at 4 a.m. while unable to sleep, he noted: "I was missing my beautiful wife." A beautiful blues ballad, Trout's signature vocals were positioned amidst artful licks with the exception of a powerful guitar solo that elevated the middle of the track.

Bob Landgraff

The driving "Ride" (a song rooted in Trout's desire to escape a troubled home life when he was a boy growing up in New Jersey), searing "Ghosts" (the latter bolstered by appropriately eerie guitar lines), luxurious "Follow You Back Home" and high octane blues rocker "I Worry Too Much" were other shining songs from Ride. "High Is Low" featured a guest turn from blues harmonica great Bob Landgraff and a blistering solo from Trout. "Destiny" was a gentle ballad, featuring some of Trout's most emotive vocals of the night.

Another standout moment was a performance of "Red Sun," a hard melodic rocker where Trout used cascading waves of feedback to introduce his memorable guitar solo.

This was definitely a homecoming show to remember. 

Freeman-Hale opened the night with a 45-minute set of Chicago blues.

Opening the night was the local quintet Freeman-Hale, featuring singer-harmonica player Tricia Freeman and guitarist Kenny Hale. The troupe delivered a set of Chicago blues-minded material honoring the spirit and stylings of the originals, notably Muddy Waters' "Got My Mojo Workin'," the blues standard "Sweet Home Chicago," the Big Mama Thornton classic "Hound Dog" and B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby."  

Walter Trout, left, with bassist John Avila.