Walter Trout is the consummate bluesman, a singer, songwriter and blazing guitarist whose career has seen him performing and recording all around the world with a litany of the genre’s very best artists. His new album, “We’re All In This Together,” released today on the Provogue label, is both a testament to his stature and the affection for which he is held in the music community. It is also a stunning achievement, for Trout gathered 14 of his best musical colleagues and the

In early May, a group of Blues music industry professionals including music critics, journalists, festival promoters, music venue managers, producers, musicians and other Blues music industry professionals nominated the best in Blues music in twelve categories. Blues Blast Magazine subscribers began voting to determine the winners on July 1 with only one vote per person allowed. Congratulations to the winners and all the nominees! The Blues Blast Music Awards are presented by

The next time you hear a debate on who should be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, be sure to bring up the name of Hubert Sumlin. As pointed out in the new documentary “Sidemen: Long Road to Glory” (which opens Friday), the Delta blues guitarist isn’t a household name. But his dynamic playing is so revered that more than a dozen previous HOF inductees, including Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello, Keith Richards and Steve Winwood of Traffic, have petitioned the institut

Singer Teresa James imbues every note with searing honesty and emotion. For her, blues is the genre that feeds that soulful sensation. “In pop music, half the time they’re not really singing,” James says, laughing. “Along with that, there’s the big extravaganza — dancers, lights, smoke, action. But for me, it’s always about the connection between the singer and the song. When the singer connects with the emotion of the song — the music and the lyrics — then the audience will

While still a toddler, guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd had a formative experience that would inspire him to pursue the electric guitar. Now considered a blues phenom, Shepherd started simple. He initially learned to play on plastic acoustic guitars his grandmother used to buy with stamps. “I had several of those things, and I would wear them out,” says Shepherd in a recent TransAtlantic phone call from a UK tour stop. “The strings would break. [The plastic guitars] had si