| Walter Trout is on a hot-streak and he is channeling dissonance on his latest single, Sign Of The Times. This is the second single to be released from the album of the same name – out 5 September via Provogue. You can watch the video HERE. One of the most experimental cuts in Trout’s half-century studio output, it finds a monstrous guitar tone paired with massed chants and an out- there solo that few blues gods would dare put down on tape. “I’ve played it for blues fans who were outraged,” he admits. “But I wanted to outrage people. I wanted it to be dissonant. Dissonance is a sign of the times. The chant is supposed to be the repressed people of the world crying. I actually wrote it on an acoustic, but the final track is massive and John Avila had this nasty, growling bass sound. Marie had been inspired by watching Bob Dylan documentaries with me and every line of that is hers.” “I had this song idea for a while. A part of it was a repeating melodic chant or moaning of people who are suffering. Almost like the crying of many people all at once. But even though I really wanted to do the song, I couldn’t quite get the words for it. One night Marie handed me a sheet of paper with lyrics that just fit the song perfectly. She didn’t even know about my song idea, but for some reason our minds collaborated on the song subconsciously. I put her lyrics to music, and ‘Sign of the Times’ was born. I feel that music and words make quite a statement about the world we live in, and therefore chose it as the title track.” The new single follows Artificial, which dropped on the day he announced the new album. A scornful, satirical, harmonica-spiced rebuke of the fake world we risk creating. “We got artificial photos, artificial music, you could go on and on,” considers the bluesman. “I’m freaked out by AI. I read articles about how it’s gonna do all these wonderful things in the medical world. Then I hear Bill Gates say that eighty percent of jobs are gonna disappear. What happens then?” In his half-century as a street-level social observer and scaldingly honest songwriter, blues-rock’s resilient icon Walter Trout has never told his fans what to think, how to feel, or where to stand politically. But in an era when his home nation – and the wider world – is ripping at the seams over the battlelines of modern life, the iconic US bluesman’s hard-rocking new album, Sign Of The Times, is a primal scream and pressure valve for all of us. “I wanted to reflect upon what’s going on in the world,” explains the 74-year-old. “For me, writing these songs is therapy. They’re not just about what’s happening out there, but how it affects you in your head. Sign Of The Times just became the obvious title…” It feels like the amps have barely cooled from 2024’s Broken, which debuted on Billboard at #1. But the era-chronicling songs from Sign Of The Times wouldn’t wait, these urgent riffs flying off the guitarist’s fingers, assisted once again by Marie, Walter’s wife, manager and co-writer, who penned the lyrics for some of the tracks. “This album flowed pretty easily,” he reflects of the writing process. “I had so many song ideas and pages of lyrics from Marie. We could have kept going and made a triple album.” With ten new songs written and arranged, Trout was ready to call up his studio band – longtime drummer Michael Leasure, bassist John Avila and keys man Teddy ‘Zig Zag’ Andreadis – for the recording sessions at Strawhorse Studios in Los Angeles Even by Trout’s standards, Sign Of The Times is a record that puts you through the emotional wringer. But as long as there’s poignant and relevant music, we have a fighting chance. As a lifelong road warrior, Trout will be taking the Sign Of The Times material to global audiences throughout 2025. And for those glorious two hours of playing to audiences, political divides and culture wars will crumble as a crowd with little else common melts into a communion of souls |
| Tour Dates Tickets are available HERE Thu, July 17, 2025 – Honberg Sommer, Tuttlingen, Germany Fri, July 18, 2025 – München, Backstage, Germany Sat, July 19, 2025 – Hannover Bluesgarage, Germany Sun, July 20, 2025 – Leer, Zollhaus, Germany Tue, July 22, 2025 – Ekkodalshuset & Cafe Genlyd, Aakirkeby, Denmark Thu, July 25, 2025 – Narcao Blues Festival, Italy Sat, July 27, 2025 – Dal Misssisipi al Po Festival 2025, Italy Fri, August 1, 2025, Notodden Bluesfestival, Norway Fri, August 15, 2025 – Leipzig, Parkbühne, Germany Sun, August 17, Gimsinghoved Festival 2025, Denmark Wed, September 3, MIM Music Theater, Phoenix, AZ, United States Fri, September 5, Big Blues Bender, Las Vegas, NV, United States Sat, September 6, The State Room, Salt Lake City, United States Sun, September 7, 2025 – Treefort Music Hall, Boise, Idaho, United States Tue, September 9, 2025 – Jazz Alley, Seattle, Washington, United States Wed, September 10, 2025 – Jazz Alley, Seattle, Washington, United States Thu, September 11, 2025 – Aladdin Theater, Portland, Oregon, United States Fri, September 12, 2025 – Wicket Hall, Victoria, Canada, Thu, September 18, 2025 – SPACE, Evanston, Chicago, United States Sat, September 20, 2025 – Beachland Ballroom & Tavern, Cleveland, Ohio, United States Sun, September 21, 2025 – The Ludlow Garage, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States Wed, September 24, 2025 – The Jazz Market, New Orleans, United States Thu, September 25, 2025 – The Jazz Market, New Orleans, United States Sat, October 25, 2025 – Dark Season Blues Festival, Svalbard, Norway Tue, October 28, 2025 – Musikhuset, Posten, Odense, Denmark Wed, October 29, 2025 – Train, Aarhus, Denmark Thu, October 30, 2025 – Eksercerhuset, Fredericia, Denmark Fri, October 31, 2025 – Vesterbrogade 10, Viborg, Denmark Sat, November 1, 2025 – Amager Bio, Copenhagen, Denmark Tue, November 4, 2025 – Pustervik, Gothenburg, Sweden Thu, November 6, 2025 – Katalin And All That Jazz, Uppsala, Sweden Sun, November 9, 2025 – House of Culture, Helsinki, Finland Wed, November 12, 2025 – Markthalle, Hamburg, Germany Thu, November 13, 2025 – Tante Ju, Dresden, Germany Fri, November 14, 2025 – Kesselhaus, Berlin, Germany Tue, November 18, 2025 – Kaufleuten, Zurich, Switzerland Wed, November 19, 2025 – Im Wizemann (Halle), Stuttgart, Germany Thu, November 20, 2025 – Halle02 – Heidelberg, Germany Sat, November 22, 2025 – Lux, Herenthout, Belgium Tue, November 25, 2025 – TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands Wed, November 26, 2025 – Die Kantine, Köln, Germany Thu, November 27, 2025 – Podium Victorie, Alkmaar, Netherlands Fri, November 28, 2025 – Poppodium De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands Sat, November 29, 2025 – Metropool, Hengelo, Netherlands Sun, November 30, 2025 – Zeche Bochum, Bochum, Germany |
