Walter Trout and Sloan in Saint John [Archive] - GuitarsCanada.com

washburned

07-16-2008, 11:24 AM

So, after a couple of days to let it sink in, my reflections on Walter Trout... SHEEEEITE! can that guy play........two and a half hours of straight up rock n roll mayhem!! Blues (of course), rockabilly and even a bit of country. Walter was playing a maple neck strat thru a Mesa MkIV with 4x12 cab, no pedals; bass was a Lakland 4 string into a SWR head and 4x10 cab, there was a REAL Hammond B3 and Leslie which just screamed and the drummer used Yamahas. ( he even played a drum solo I enjoyed: rythmic, funky and beautifully musical, not just a lot of tricks)

I spent most of the set near the mixing desk, because that was where things sounded best, but I went up and stood in front of Walter's amp for the last couple of tunes and it sounded pretty incredible: I noticed he uses the middle pickup a lot, which combined with the Mesa gives a pretty punchy middy sound ( not my favourite but, in this case, more than acceptable): I did notice his tonal range on his CDs is quite a bit more varied, so, again, more attributable to his straight ahead R&R attitude on stage, methinks.

The opening act was a 19 year old blues artist from Fredericton named keith Hallett, and I use the term artist with all it conveys: this guy is for real. Most "blues" players keep me interested for two or three songs....Keith kept me on my seat edge the whole set. he played a great sounding Es335 thru a Super Reverb (blackface reissue?) and (we think) a Peavey Delta Blues; he used a boost/distortion pedal sparingly. He shifted effortlessly from fingerstyle to slide thru a mix of traditional contemporary and original blues tunes. Walter liked him a bunch and got him up for a ten minute jam: they traded licks with keith giving as good as he got....I was standing right in front at the end and Walter shook Keith's hand and said, with a huge smile "you're awesome!" If this guy shows up at your local festival, go see him fur shur