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
3 1/2 stars
All The Boats Are Gonna Rise is truly a solo effort, just Troost alone on guitars, vocals, and harmonica. The lead-in title track is ironic and prescient after the carnage in Louisiana recently: “I don't know but I been told, no need to worry ‘cause the levee's gonna hold”; “don't need no government to tell ‘em who to trust”; “fat cats laughin' as they pulled out of town”; “we gathered up the bodies and we stacked them up high”. Lines like these have the makings of a documentary score, a New Orleans anthem, wouldn't you think? There's a lot of Delta country blues influence on this recording, and a lot of social commentary, as well. Imagine a bayou-bred John Steinbeck taking up a fret board instead of a pen and you've pretty much got the picture.
--Don Grant