Great artists take the pulse of their times. 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, where to stand politically, or what to scrawl on their protest placards. 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 the primal scream and pressure valve we all desperately need. “I wanted to convey the anger and angst 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…” Right now, it feels like the amps have barely cooled from 2024’s Broken (“That record debuted on Billboard at #1 – I was very, very pleased with that”). 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 Dr Marie Trout, Walter’s wife, manager and latterly co-writer, whose eloquent lyrics struck each subject on the head. “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 sessions at producer Thomas Ross Johansen’s Strawhorse Studios in Los Angeles. Immediately, the tinderbox subject matter sparked one of the toughest-sounding records in his catalogue. “Let me put it this way,” considers Trout, “after we finished recording the title track, my keys player Teddy said, ‘Well, you won’t be winning a blues award this year’. But I really felt like rocking on this album. We had heavy things to talk about, and we went for it musically too.”

Raised on a Range of Music Styles Raised in Kansas and Texas, Tricia’s earliest memories of music go back to her mother’s love of jazz and blues, flooding the house with the likes of Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and her favorite, Dinah Washington.  Her father loved it all, from the Latin American to classical. As she started developing her own taste in music, she began to lean more to the local country/bluegrass sound mixed with a rockin’ blues flavor that was prevalent in her college town of Lawrence, Kansas. Self-Taught Blues Dynamo She made the big move to California at the age of 19 and immediately bought a guitar and a “how to” chord book.  The rest just came naturally, from singing those country / blues songs at the local saloons, to performing in the stage production of “Godspell”, to performing at all sizes of venues, from  local taverns to major festivals up & down the coast. Tricia Lives the Songs She Sings She has toured Europe from Finland to Germany several times, with different line ups, performing songs from her own CDs and a blend of cover tunes that she makes completely her own with her bold original sound, that can only come from living the songs she sings. Movies, TV, and Janis Joplin Her studio work has brought her performance credits in 3 movies from Disney, Time Warner, and Indigo Films.  She also appeared on the television show, “Your Big Break”, paying tribute to Janis Joplin. From Backup Vocals to Santana Tricia traveled to Memphis several times to sing back up vocals on 2 CD’s of Walter Trout, the amazing blues guitarist from “Canned Heat”. While there, she worked with producer Jim Gains of Santana fame, as well as many other bands. Classic Rock and Blues on Stage Besides Walter Trout, Tricia has also shared the stage with the likes of Spencer Davis, The Little River Band, Olivia Newton John, Missing Persons, Eric Burdon and The Animals, Eddie Money and in 2007, she opened for Al Green & John Fogarty at the Doheny Blues Festival in Dana Point, California. The “Bette Midler Appeal” Ms. Freeman has a bold, humorous stage presence that will have you rolling with laughter between songs.  This is why being compared to Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstad, and Melissa Etheridge, among others, has been “trumped” with other fan’s and critic’s opinions that she is much more like the multi-talented Bette Midler.  Indeed, Ms. Freeman has that “Midler” appeal. Tricia is The Real Thing This singer/songwriter puts on a great show, no matter what size the venue or the audience.  You will always get the real thing with Tricia Freeman.