Posted August 2020

Boomerocity considers Walter Trout a friend. Over the years, he’s been kind enough to chat with us on three occasions. Each time was a fun and insightful experience for us as well as his fans who have read the articles.

Suffice it to say, we are thrilled and proud to present our fourth interview with Walter. As in times past, Walter was open, funny, insightful, and full of stories. But mostly what we focused our conversation on is his new album, Ordinary Madness (a great album that you’ll definitely want as part of your personal listening library!).

On the right side of this page is the audio of that conversation. With the exception of an off the record comment or two, what you’ll hear is pretty much our conversation as if you were sitting there with us as we talked.

Completed shortly before our country shutdown because of the pandemic, the album was cathartic and the themes of shared troubles dovetailed perfectly with the times we currently find ourselves in.

Musically, Trout’s antennae are up, as he pushes the envelope on the psychedelic layered vocal harmonies of The Sun Is Going Down, a song about dealing with ageing. Lyrically, he says, “it’s about running out of time. You gotta look at death, deal with it, accept it. That’s a condition of being alive.” The blissed-out anthemics of Up Above My Sky, nods to peak-period Pink Floyd and Trout worked with the US blues singer Teeny Tucker on the bereft All Out Of Tears – a tribute to her late son. On the haunting Heaven In Your Eyes, Walter was stunned by Marie Trout’s lyrics about the desperation of trying to find ways to reach the person you love but being unable to find the words.

“As the lyric says in Up Above My Sky,” he reflects, “sometimes you have to see through the darkness to find the light. I can’t wait get back out there again, meet the people at shows, hug them and pose for a photo. And I’m really looking forward to playing these songs live. Because I think this album speaks to these times…”

Guitar gear heads will want to listen in as Trout describes the guitars (a couple of them quite historic), amps and peddles he went through in order to get the precise sound and tone he was hearing in his head.

We hope you enjoy this chat with Walter Trout as much as we enjoyed having it. After you’ve finished listening to the interview, tell your friends about and then please order your copy of “Ordinary Madness’!