“People ask me if they should call my music blues or rock, I tell them they can call it ‘Fred’ if they must have a label.”

That remark, along with the exclamation that “the blues shouldn’t be a museum… the music ought to constantly expand and be alive,” have been expressed again and again by Walter Trout during his 35+ year career. With the release of FULL CIRCLE, the statements hold true as Trout and his musical friends demonstrate their appreciation of all shades of the blues genre. The album reflects Walter Trout’s remarkable story, from his humble beginnings as a sideman in many a blues legends’ band through his rising solo star, arriving as one of blues music’s beloved interpreters.

Born in 1951 and raised in a music-loving home in Ocean City, New Jersey, Walter Trout felt the calling to music at a young age. His first instrument was trumpet, playing in the school band. A chance meeting with the mighty Duke Ellington catapulted Trout’s pursuit of a professional music career – what Walter terms “a turning point” in his life – when the Walter’s mother orchestrated a meeting with jazz legends Ellington, Cat Anderson, Johnny Hodges and Paul Gonsalves for the youngster’s tenth birthday. The seed was planted about a career playing music.

In the mid-1960’s Trout’s instrument of choice switched to electric guitar after hearing an album which was to change his whole appreciation of music. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band featuring Mike Bloomfield cemented Walter’s musical ambitions towards the blues genre and the electric guitar. In those vinyl grooves, Walter heard the guitar speaking to his soul, expressing what words could not. Walter Trout promised himself to learn this musical language and dedicate his life to the guitar. For hours, days, weeks, months he was locked in his bedroom practicing until his fingers bled - the obsession unfortunately turning the A-student into a high school dropout. As a shy teenager growing up in a turbulent household, his singular solace became his rapidly developing ability to express his feelings playing the guitar and his vision of becoming a professional musician.