Walter Trout pays tribute to blues icon
Luther Allison on his 23rd solo release
Luther's Blues. 12 of the 13 tracks on the CD are associated with
Allison except for the
Trout original, "When Luther Played the Blues."
Trout first met Luther in Switzerland at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1986, which provided the location shot for the CD cover.
Trout maintains he had the idea for this album since that first meeting. The songs
Trout chose to cover are taken from
Allison's albums Songs from the Road, Bad Love,
Blue Streak,
Reckless, and
Soul Fixin' Man. As usual,
Trout's guitar dexterity is undisputed, but his top-notch vocal work deserves equal attention, especially on the heart-wrenching tracks "Freedom," and "Pain in the Streets." In an era where blues tribute albums are abundant, and in some cases the tribute is anything but,
Luther's Blues rises to the top with the best of them. ~ Al Campbell