Trace formulae for d-regular graphs are derived and used to express the
spectral density in terms of the periodic walks on the graphs under
consideration. The trace formulae depend on a parameter w which can be tuned
continuously to assign different weights to different periodic orbit
contributions. At the special value w=1, the only periodic orbits which
contribute are the non back- scattering orbits, and the smooth part in the
trace formula coincides with the Kesten-McKay expression.