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A night of blues at Callahan's with Walter Trout

Thursday night Callahan's Music Hall in Auburn Hills played host to a night of blues as Pazman and his Supersessions band and Walter Trout and the Radicals took to the stage.

Mark "Pazman" Pasman is host of the "Motor City Blues Project" show on WCSX 94.7 on Sunday evenings and has performed for years with a ever changing lineup in  his popular Supersessions performances.

On Thursday, that lineup included singer-songwriters Billy Brandt (guitar, mandolin) and Sarana Verlin (guitar, violin), along with longtime Pazman friend Jimmy “Pickles” Nicholls on vocals and harmonica.

Thursday night's acoustic set was full of bluesy songs that got the crowd warmed up for Walter Trout.

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Their heartfelt performance of "Mexico" was the set highlight with Verlin providing vocals.

Trout began his career with a five-year stint as guitarist for Canned Heat and later became a member of John Mayall's Bluesbreaker band where Mayall helped him launch his solo career.

Since then, Trout has had a 20-plus year career as a solo artist and is currently touring behind his twentieth album Common Ground.

On Tuesday Trout pulled out a number of songs off of the album including a emotional performance of the album's title track and "Her Other Man", which features some of the evening's most enthusiastic guitar solos.

Trout's touring band The Radicals is comprised of Michael Leasure on drums, Rick Knapp on bass and Sammy Avila on keyboards.

Avila also had a chance to showcase his own strong vocals on a couple of songs and his son Danny made a few appearances on guitar.

At one point Danny engaged in a impressive guitar battle with Trout who ended the battle by bowing to the talented younger man.

Trout also played a number of his most popular songs including "Life In the Jungle" and a enthusiastic closing performance of his cover of Freddie King's "Goin' Down".

However, it was his performance of "They Call Us The Working Class" that really got the crowd going as Trout aimed the song at the Michigan crowd who understood it's lyrics on a personal level.

By

Detroit Live Music Examiner

Tracy Heck studied Communications and English at the University of Michigan. After interning at the Dearborn Press N' Guide and WJR, Tracy began...

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