MUSIC SCENE
Injury helps musician rediscover joy of blues
By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| A shoulder injury almost forced blues guitarist Walter Trout into retirement in July, but the rocker resisted and began an intensive rehabilitation process that has healed him and given him a new appreciation for his profession. Trout got his first big break as sideman for Big Mama Thornton in 1977, followed by jobs with Canned Heat and John Mayall's Blues Breakers in the 1980s.
Ruf Records Hawaiian Islands Winter Rhythm & Blues Mele 2002 8:30 p.m. today South Seas Village at The Hawaiian Hut $28 general, $25 advance 941-5205 8:30 p.m. Debbie Davies 9:30 p.m. E.C. Scott 10:30 p.m. Walter Trout Also: 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Kona Brewing Co. Brewhouse Oasis; $30 general, $28 advance. The schedule: 5:30 p.m., Cindy Combs; 6:30 p.m., Debbie Davies; 8 p.m., E.C. Scott; 9:30 p.m., Walter Trout. (808) 334-1133 or (808) 334-2739. |
At age 15, Jonny Lang could sling an axe that left old-school blues guys with their mouths agape. But really, what was the worst that could have happened to the kid by that age? No PlayStation for a week?
Then you talk story with Walter Trout, a 35-year world-class blues rocker who's performing in the Hawaiian Islands Winter Rhythm & Blues Mele 2002 this weekend. Still plying stages nationwide almost every night. Still writing and recording new music. A wickedly revered guitarist in Europe, virtually unknown in his home country. And you wonder if the adage might just be true.
You listen to Trout tell you about six months ago, when there was a chance that he would never play the guitar again.
"I injured my left shoulder on stage last July and just couldn't play," says Trout, from his Huntington Beach, Calif., home. "It just wouldn't heal at all for a while, and I wasn't sure if it was ever going to heal."
The injury affected Trout's entire arm, leaving him unable to move his fingers and forcing him to cancel engagements indefinitely.
"Honestly, I was out trying to get a job at Starbucks and bookstores, because I had never done anything else but play the guitar since I was 15," Trout says. "To have 35 years of constant playing all of a sudden just taken away was like, 'Oh, man, what am I gonna do?' It wasn't like I could go in and use that as a resume to get a job somewhere. I was scared."
Turned down for every minimum-wage job he applied for, Trout decided to forgo the new career search and force his healing.
"I had to sit down and practice eight hours a day, every day," Trout says. "I had to retrain all of the muscles in my hand and relearn how to play from scratch. I have to say, it had been years since I had practiced with that intensity."
Two months later, Trout was back on stage at "50 percent" of his capabilities. Now, seven months later, he says he's fully healed physically and mentally.
"What happened gave me a new appreciation of being able to work at something that I still love doing," Trout says. "When I get on stage now I don't at all take being able to play for granted."
Not that Trout was taking his playing entirely for granted before the accident. He had, after all, built his resume the old-fashioned way, as a journeyman bluesman with the scars of the road to prove it.
Winning his first big break as a sideman for blues diva Big Mama Thornton in 1977, Trout moved on to regular gigs with the likes of John Lee Hooker, Joe Tex and Percy Mayfield. In 1981, Trout was asked to replace late vocalist Bob Hite in Canned Heat.
Of his four years with the hard-living, hard-partying hippie blues group, Trout says he was "in as bad shape as it gets," graduating from a three-year heroin addiction with Canned Heat to four years of alcoholism as lead guitarist in John Mayall's Blues Breakers.
"Then one night in 1987 when I was with Mayall in East Berlin, Carlos Santana came to the show," Trout says. Afterward Santana gave Trout a dressing down in the dressing room.
"He goes, 'God has given you a gift of music and playing. You're in a famous blues act. And you're so drunk on stage that you're giving the finger to God who gave you this gift,' " Trout says. "He ended up spending three days with me basically slapping me around verbally, convincing me that I needed to change my life. I went to John and said, 'You'll never see me drunk on the stage again.' That was 1987."
Trout has been clean and sober ever since.
The leader of his own band since exiting the Blues Breakers in 1989 (he remains "the best of friends" with Mayall), Trout has spent the last decade touring internationally, writing and recording nonstop. A 1993 BBC ranking of the world's Top 20 guitarists placed Trout at No. 6, just behind Dire Straits' Mark Knopfler and tied with Queen's Brian May. His appeal in Europe — where Trout still plays 2,000-seat halls — has hardly ebbed since.
On stage, Trout is said to be a gritty improvisationalist, fond of chunky solo guitar adventures and fiery vocals.
"I still like to hear myself play," Trout says. "I enjoy the sound that comes out of my amp and I still enjoy exploring the guitar. I try to hit new levels and new heights every night. I think I'm at my peak right now."
