Second youth.
Ernest Troost has at least two personalites: after studying both jazz guitar and classical music at the Berklee School of Music, he has written music for films and tv series for some 35 years, getting an Emmy and several nominations in the process.
However, on 7 January 2011 he played fourteen self-penned songs live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Los Angeles. Eight came from All the boats are gonna rise (2004) and Resurrection blues (2009), two CD’s on which he combined folk and acoustic blues. The other seven are new songs about love that he wrote recently.
During a visit to McCabe’s some ten years before that recording he had felt the urge to perform again, something that he had not done anymore since his days as a student, just like songwriting.
Since then Troost has becomea songwriter that is just as intimate as inspired. Whether he performs his songs solo or with minimal accompaniment by musical friends like bass player Mark Goldberg, singer Nicole Gordon, harmonica player Dave Fraser or percussionist Debra Dobkin, it is striking all the time how beautiful his melodies are and what an expressive tone the Kerrville Folk Festival 2009 New Folk Winner’s voice has.
Nevertheless, in his songs Troost sings for instance about mobsters or a drug loving friend of his with unemotional distance, something that gives his lyrics all the more eloquence.
Troost proves to be a very strong, bluesy singer-songwriter of songs which are brought back to their essence, but very rich.
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