Labels... and 'labels'

Hardcore is a self-release (available from waltertrout.com recorded during a hiatus between labels. "I've just signed with Provogue, who I've been with before. They have some new angles for marketing that I'm very excited about. It's more of a guitar label than a blues label, so it's more about being a guitar player than being a 'bluesman'."
"I hate being labelled. I get a lot of flack from blues purists because I play some rock and roll or I play a ballad or I might want to play a country song. I want to be a musician - don't stick me in a pigeonhole.
"A thing I get a lot is people telling me I can't play the blues because I'm not black. We'll you'd better tell Yo-Yo Ma that he can't play classical music because that's the music of white Europeans and he's an oriental guy, so obviously he has no validity on his cello. And you'd better go tell Kathleen Battle or Leontyne Price they have no business singing opera because that's also white European music and they're black people. It's racist bullshit and I hate it."
And he also gets 'purists' telling him what's wrong with his playing - so he's had 'Too Many Notes and Too Loud' printed on the back of his tour T-shirts. That 'head up their asses' attitude, thankfully, is rare, especially in Europe, which is a huge power base for Walter Trout and The Radicals.
"You know it moves me that I've been coming here now for 18 years, and a lot of people have followed me from the beginning and now they're coming out with their kids. Some of the people I see year after year and they come to a lot of the gigs, you get to know them by name and how's it goin', how's your mom doin', and what's goin' on with your kids and look how big your kids are gettin'. A lot of them become friends." Sure enough, later that day the Mean Fiddler is packed, with friends and fans.
For all that it's his hands people want to see, Trout has a lot to say to the camera before he gets into playing - on influences (Mike Bloomfield and Roy Buchanan, along with Eric and Jimi), on vibrato ("you can imitate licks all day, but a vibrato is a guy's signature"), and on blues pioneers ("old Buddy Guy records, Jimmy Dawkins and Hubert Sumlin - the stuff he did on the old Howlin' Wolf records was just astounding"). And when he does get to playing during our interview, he keeps it fairly brief, out of painful necessity. "I've been on the road for just a week and my fingers are killing me. I was off for over a month and I lost my calluses and I'm in semi-pain. I'm going to save it for tonight." No harm done. His road manager, the excellent Andrew Elt, has arranged passes for our crew to film the gig.
As we leave Trout confides that, "The first three numbers will be agony. Then the endorphins will kick in." They do. Take a look at some of the live footage we got that night. There's no agony visible, though the fingerwork is blistering - metaphorically. Literally blistering, too? Who knows? The endorphins were evidently doing their thing. And as a member of the audience that stamped and whistled and cheered until he came back and gave us more, I can tell you the endorphin effect wasn't confined to the band.

http://waltertrout.com
http://mesaboogie.com
http://www.darestrap.com
http://www.provoguerecords.com

Watch the video interview: Walter Trout video interview
Lick the blues - tuition session with Stuart Bull

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