Bob Dylan, The Band, Blind Blake, Bernard Herrmann, Django Reinhardt, Ry Cooder, Igor Stravinsky, Elizabeth Cotton, Tom Waits, Woody Guthrie, Jerry Goldsmith, small guitars, Albert Roussel, Geoff Muldaur, early jazz and ragtime, William Gay, Larry Brown, Wallace Stegner, Paul Auster
Sounds Like
If the Carter family, the Band and Alfred Hitchcock wrote songs together it might sound like this.
All the Boats Are Gonna Rise shows the keen storytelling skill of Ernest Troost.
Pointedly less impressionistic and lyrical than most blues, Troost’s songs are rooted
instead in character, situation, and narrative. Adeptly fingerpicked guitar backs his
clear, expressive singing. Troost’s style and subject matter recall Dylan, Dave Alvin,
and (especially for his concentration on life’s darker side) Richard Thompson--
enviable company indeed. Such comparisons are not lightly made: Every song here
is a keeper. Favorites include the murder ballad "Evangeline," with its haunted
protagonist; the simple, John Hurt-like "This Field"; "Train to Kokomo," a series of
sharply etched vignettes; and the appropriately named "Disturbing Blues," about
a mother who methodically dismembers her child as he learns to make
and respond to music.
—Tom Hyslop, Blues Revue Magazine
Good luck @ Kerrville! I always went in the "early" years but it's gotten so crowded now that I haven't been in the last five years. Plus simply eating all the dust clogs up everything. Have fun!
Hi Ernest, Was really nice to see you and Louise Saturday night. I hear you're ripping it up at Ed's!! (small town). James Cruce called me to say how much he liked your music. Can't wait to hear your new album!! Lisa
