Walter Trout Cancels Bluesfest Dates & Sideshows

The ill health of blues guitar great Walter Trout has forced him to cancel his long-awaited appearance at the 2014 Bluesfest, as well as the sideshows he had planned with fellow guitar gun Robben Ford, it has been announced this morning.

Fans of Trout were worried this may be the case when his name did not appear on the Bluesfest schedule, which was released last week. Trout has suffered from some serious health issues relating to his liver for some time and is finally receiving treatment for his illness. Unfortunately this means he is unable to make it to Australia as this will risk a setback in the progress of his treatment.

Trout issued the following statement to explain the situation to his Australian fans.

“I was really looking forward to playing in Australia. However, our health insurance company took forever to approve the treatment for my liver problem and so it kept getting delayed.

Now finally approved, treatment is underway, and the specialists and doctors expect me to be ready to take the stage again when the treatment is complete. I certainly want to do so. I still love to play for people – and now more so than ever!

“However, due to the delay in treatment, I will still have part of the treatment left by the time I would have played in Australia, and me and my team of doctors didn't want to risk a set-back due to the extensive amount of travel included in getting to Australia, and also for me to be far away from my specialists at that time.

“I am truly sorry for letting my fans down. I looked very much forward to getting back to Australia, a land I learned to love all the way back in my Canned Heat days. It is my sincere hope that I will be able to get back to Oz next year.”

Bluesfest boss Peter Noble says he looks forward to continuing his working relationship with Trout in the future.

“I have a 30+ year touring relationship with Walter Trout dating back to when I introduced Walter to John Mayall for the Mayall 'n (Canned) Heat US Tour in the 80's. We have given Walter Trout every opportunity to tour and unfortunately he won't make it this time but we at Bluesfest wish Walter all the best and we look forwarding to presenting him in the future.”

Replacing Trout at the Sydney sideshow will be Matthew Curry, a very young American guitarist who has a very bright future – seriously, you oughta see this guy play. In Melbourne the spot will be taken by the excellent Devon Allman, an artist of great pedigree who offers something very exciting to the world of modern Southern rock.

The dates are below.