Robin Trower

Back in the mid-seventies, when Prog was seeing its power wane, when Punk was rearing its spotty head and when people had forgotten what a great guitarist sounded like, Robin Trower was laying down music that crossed boundaries and stuck two languid fingers up at the trendies.
He was often derided as being a Hendrix copyist – totally untrue as just about everybody was influenced in one way or another by James Marshall – but the people who loved his music were many and during the time he was signed to Chrysalis he created some exceptional and enduring music.

This three CD set gives the listener six of the albums he produced then and they range from the sublime – ‘Bluebird’ is one of the most beautiful songs imaginable – to the classic and some that haven’t dated so well – there aren’t too many of those.

His playing and THAT guitar sound, psychedelic Blues heavy on wah wah and phasing but deliciously picked out, set him aside from almost anyone else and it really is in evidence on albums like ‘In City Dreams’. Jimmy Dewar’s vocals are as individual as Trower’s playing and thee were massively successful in the States with ‘In City Dreams’.
The other two essential albums of the six are the two he made with Jack Bruce. ‘B.L.T’ and ‘Truce’ are harder rock and less spacey/funky but the combination of Jack Bruce’s vocals and basslines with Trower rocking out was stunning then and holds up today. The songs, written mainly by Terry Reid and with some by Trower and Bruce with Pete Brown are amongst the best material that Jack Bruce made and it is easy to hear why they still work together.

Trower is almost one of the ‘forgotten’ stars of British Blues and rock, he is still working today and producing some superb music, but reissues like this can only serve to put him back where he deserved to be - thank heavens he dropped the mullet though.