All the Boats Are Gonna Rise (Travelin' Shoes 1001) 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 fing [+]All the Boats Are Gonna Rise (Travelin' Shoes 1001) 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
Ernest Troost's new album of songs, "All the Boats Are Gonna Rise," is a departure from his more well known work of composing soundtrack music for independent films and television projects and an exciting new direction.
"I had been writing a lot of instrumental music over the past few years in many different styles," says Troost, "everything from big band jazz to classical pieces for full orchestra. That is great fun, but I wanted to get back to some of the simpler music that first fired me up. When I was younger I had started out playing guitar and performing jug band, folk and blues tunes with a band in New England, and I really wanted to return to writing in that style again. Before I knew it, I had collected enough material for an album--and here it is."
"Stories are what fascinate me," says Troost, when asked what inspires his songwriting. "I sometimes think of myself more as a filmmaker than a songwriter--maybe it's because of all the films I've worked on, but it's also because I love to weave words and music together and create cinematic images in the mind of the listener." By mixing the traditional country blues and ragtime influences of Blind Blake, Tampa Red, and Mississippi Fred McDowell with the literate lyrics of contemporary songwriters such as Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, and John Hiatt, Troost has created an album that captures a colorful world
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