Walter Trout

Gee, it seems like just yesterday that I was at the Sacramento Blues Festival watching guitarists Walter Trout and Coco Montoya duking it out onstage with John Mayall. But here it is 20-something years later and now, after having started his own band in 1990 (and releasing 12 CDs) he’s come full circle by featuring a batch of musical friends on the 13 tracks here. Chief among them is Mayall, with whom Trout spent five years, on harmonica on one track and guitar on another—a choogling “Highway Song.” Montoya joins Trout on “Who’s Listenin’ In,” a timely phone surveillance number. Other guitarists are Jeff Healy, Junior Watson, Eric Sardinas in an acoustic (!!) duet, Bernard Allison (on his father Luther’s “When Will It Ever Change”) and Guitar Shorty (swapping hot licks and vocals). James Harman lends a calming influence on his own “A Busy Man” and Deacon Jones positively cools things down with his B-3 on “After Hours.”