Since Walter Trout last released an album, he has battled liver failure and received a new organ, bringing him back from the brink of death.
Battle Scars, out on October 23 via Provogue Records, chronicles his battle with the disease and, even though it’s a dark subject matter, Trout has done his best the infuse the songs with the joy of his new life.
“I’m thrilled about this album, about my life and about my music. I feel that I’m reborn as a songwriter, a singer, a guitarist and a human being. I have a new chance at being the best musician and the best man that I can be. And I’m incredibly happy and grateful.”
Contrast that to early 2014, when Trout was lying in a hospital bed without the strength to move or speak, unable to recognize his own children, as he watched his body waste away. He had lost 13 pints of blood and was in a coma for three days. But on Memorial Day, May 26, 2014, Trout underwent liver transplant surgery and the slow process of healing began. “At first I wasn’t strong enough to play a single note on the guitar, but as I regained my strength, the music came back to me. Now when I pick up the guitar, it is liberating, joyful, and limitless. I feel like I’m 17 again.”
One of the reasons Walter is still here and is now fit and healthy is through the overwhelming generosity of his fans and supporters which included a fan-organised YouCaring campaign which was set up by Kirby Bryant, the wife of British blues guitarist and Trout protégée Danny Bryant and this alongside various concert tributes raised $245,000 towards his healthcare.
Initially, Trout hoped to capture his renewal and positivity in the songs, “but,” says Trout, “they were coming out cliché and I wanted to write something deeper.” After Marie, Trout’s wife and manager, suggested that he revisit the difficult experiences of his illness, the songs began pouring out. The first was Omaha which resonates with smashing chords and vibrating low strings: a solo packed with peeling midnight howls. The lyrics tell a tale of a man haunted by death.
“I was in UCLA for a month, and later at the Nebraska Medical Center for five months in the liver ward — first waiting for the transplant, and then recovering from the surgery,” Trout recounts. “There were days when somebody in the ward died while waiting. I’d hear families out in the hall crying and doctors trying to comfort them. And I knew there was a good chance that I’d be the next one to go. For Omaha. I wanted to capture how that felt and sounded.”
The opening song Almost Gone is equally potent. As the fingerpicked introduction intones, Trout lays his cards on the table: “Now I get the feeling/Something’s going wrong/Can’t help but feelin’/I won’t last too long.” The fatalism is balanced by the music — from the exquisite roar of Trout’s harmonica that follows those words to the ebullient, soaring six-string that gives the tune a tsunami of uplift.
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