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New Jersey born guitarist Walter Trout was inspired to become a musician by a 10th birthday encounter with the legendary Duke Ellington. The precocious trumpet student was brought backstage by his mother, who asked Ellington to say hello. Ellington invited the youngster to sit and chat, while his band showed the boy trumpet licks. "It was the turning point in my life," says Trout. By the early 60's the trumpet was left behind, however, when Trout first heard the guitar sounds of Michael Bloomfield (and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band). Trout recalls that he was "just floored" listening to Bloomfield and from that point on focused all his energies on the guitar. He began his professional career as a sideman to Big Mama Thornton, Joe Tex and John Lee Hooker. He went on to play with Canned Heart and then John Mayall's Bluesbreakers for five years each before striking out on his own. He has released seven European albums selling more than 400,000 copies and has been called "a blues master" by a London magazine, "a gladiator guitar player" by the Los Angeles Times and "the best guitarist in the world" by rock CD Magazine. He has two separate fan clubs in Europe and was ranked #6 among the top 20 all-time greatest guitarists in a 1993 poll taken by the BBC (just 2 votes behind Jimmy Page). But in the United States Trout has yet to reap the accolades heaped upon him overseas. With the release of his second major US album "Livin' Every Day" (June 1999), Trout, one of the unsung heroes of blues rock, hopes to change all of that and make a name for himself in his home country. Trout's incendiary guitar playing and powerful vocals will literally blast a hole through your soul.
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