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Walter Trout announces new release, `ALIVE in Amsterdam', recorded live in Amsterdam on the blues legend's comeback tour & released June 17th on Mascot/Provogue. Battle Scars World Tour to hit the US and Europe this year.
To be released June 17th on Mascot/Provogue, `ALIVE in Amsterdam' is the sound of a man announcing his resurrection after a period on the ropes. As Trout's army of international fans are painfully aware, recent times have taken the bandleader to the brink, following a bleak diagnosis of life-threatening liver failure and hepatitis C in 2013. Trout's rebirth began with a successful transplant in May 2014, and gathered pace with 2015's `Battle Scars': the acclaimed studio album that channeled his near-death experience into raw autobiographical songs.
It's true: listen to `ALIVE in Amsterdam' and you'll experience the same white-knuckle ride as the fans who filled the Royal Theatre Carr�. It's fitting that the Amsterdam show starts with an introduction by Trout's wife and manager, Marie, who gave the bluesman the courage to fight on during his lowest points. "Having Marie on the album is very meaningful for me," he says, "because she's the one who kept me alive. She kept me fighting and wouldn't let me give up."
Trout himself hits the stage like a wrecking-ball, opening with an scorching burst of solo guitar ("Sometimes, when I get up there, I have so much energy that I'm bursting out of my skin"). When he launches into the set, meanwhile, all bets are off. "We never have a setlist," explains the frontman of his seat-of-the-pants interplay with drummer Michael Leasure, keyboards ace Sammy Avila and bassist Johnny Griparic. "We play very spontaneously, and I gauge it by the crowd and how the show is going."
