Fish jokes aside, Trout is a well established blues-rock guitarist who’s found some success in Europe and should be a whole lot more successful here. His modern sound moves from hard rock to smooth AOR and acoustic slide. All with a heavy blues leaning and thoroughly enjoyable it all is too. If you like Muddy Waters and Jimi Hendrix there’ll something here for you.

This compilation is of his early material, with a couple of previously unreleased numbers tagged on for good measure. From blues grooves to blistering solos, there’s a lot of good work that’s worth checking out. The tracks are largely self penned, but we do get a great take on Robert Johnson’s “Love In Vain”, and the tribute to Muddy Waters is trad blues rock at its best.

A well annotated and worthwhile set.

****

Review by Joe Geesin

***** Out of this world | **** Pretty damn fine |
*** OK, approach with caution unless you are a fan |
** Instant bargain bin fodder | * Ugly. Just ugly

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