And the nominees for,,,,,Rock Blues Album of the Year at this year’s Blues Foundations Blues Music Awards are:
Mike Zito & the Wheel, Gone to Texas
Tedeschi Trucks Band, Made Up Mind
The Rides, Can’t Get Enough
Toronzo Cannon, John The Conquer Root
Walter Trout, Luther’s Blues
Ok so before I choose which album I think should win, I’ll have to listen to the first three albums a few more times, and the last two, I really hadn’t heard until recently….Toronzo Cannon’s album I give a quick listen last night and tonight I listen to Walter Trout’s Luther’s Blues for the second or third time. Now I am a fan of  Walter Trout’s music, but I just couldn’t find the album at any of the streaming sites I use and then I forgot about the album. I found it though the other night at Spotify and gave it a listen and it’s a great hard-driving blues album with some of the best guitar playing that Walter’s ever done! The album is of course an album of covers of the music of Luther Allison. Why an album of Luther’s cover? I read at one review Walter Trout: Luther’s Blues Review the following:
It is rare that there is a cover or tribute album that is really good, but, as Trout himself admits, the goal of this album is to lead the listener to Allison’s original recordings, and this album will most certainly do that. Allison’s stellar recordings set a very high bar for Trout to meet, perhaps an unfairly high bar, but a bar that Trout meets, and even exceeds it on a few songs. Trout does about as good of a job as possible on a tribute album, and should be recognized as having done so. Nevertheless, Luther Allison is Luther Allison and there is no substitute for the original recordings of these songs.Â
In another review Trout states that  the following was one of the reasons that he made a record of covers of Luther’s music
“It was just his personality. He was the warmest, most genuine person I’ve met. He had no façade and had no problem showing you who he was,” says Trout in a phone interview. “I really thought he deserved more recognition, he was such a talented musician. He never portrayed a character and had such an honest presentation to his music. Read more of each of the reviews …
Now after listening to the album I actually did what Walter wanted me to do! The song on the album that I know best is the song “Bad Love”. Â I know it from Luther himself and from his son Bernard, who does a great live version of the song on his album Kentucky Fried Blues! So after listening I came home and went to YouTube and watched first Walter’s version, posted below and then I watched some of Bernard’s cover. You can watch it here and finally I watched a life performance by Luther here. And you know what Walter I love your cover and the album it total, but it doesn’t come close to Luther’s performance! Your version is great but the original is greater!!What do to you guys think??