It includes conversations held during the past two decades with B. King, Bobby Rush and more than a dozen other artists. The following is an excerpt from the chapter on singer, guitarist and songwriter Walter Trout. Interview by Vincent Abbate. Our second conversation was as emotional as it gets, as he was still processing the near-death experience that inspired the writing of his unforgettable Battle Scars album.
His fans love and respect him. And yet, Trout routinely gets pounded by critics for his explosive, sometimes frenetic style of electric guitar. Not to hear me rant about In the past five years, the man in the White House has pissed off a lot of people. Including a small army of blues musicians.
At least a third of the live shows I attend are fronted by female artists. It got me to thinking: Have women ever had a stronger presence in the blues than they do today? Roughly a century ago, when classic singers like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith were among the first to record, women were a dominant force in the blues world. But no one reading this was around back then, right?
Most of them perpetually singing about some baby who done them wrong. In that regard, women β those infamous evil women β have been there all along. The female performers who are leading the charge β people like Samantha Fish, Shemekia Copeland, Joanne Shaw Taylor and Georgia duo Larkin Poe, to name but a few β have a fresh take on the blues.
No deep philosophical analysis here. Women are simply different from us beer-swilling, emotionally stunted, tragically unfashionable men. In the interview we conducted a few weeks later, Jon provided deep insight into his songwriting. He also opened up about the personal challenges he was facing while making the record. But a bout of procrastination and the unforeseen circumstances of a tumultuous winter caused me to shelve the article. Colour In The Sky deserves better than that!
