Robin Trower | Sonny Moorman Group  

April 1, 2008

Tuesday 8:00pm

Detail: Robin Trower came to prominence as a member of Procol Harum in the late ’60s/early ’70s, but his guitar presence in the band was usually experienced fleetingly. Trower’s thick, distorted, Blues-drenched tones seemed an odd counterpoint to Procol Harum’s grandly bombastic symphonic Rock, and in 1972 Trower embarked on what became his massively successful solo career.
Trower briefly flirted with a quartet called Jude, featuring vocalist Frankie Miller, bassist James Dewar and drummer Reg Isidore, but the band dissolved before recording. Trower, Dewar and Isidore remained together as a trio, in the same blazing Rock trinity-assemblage as Trower’s hero, Jimi Hendrix. The threesome’s 1973 debut, Twice Removed from Yesterday, was an eye-opener (even after the tip-off of his Procol Harum swan song, 1971’s Broken Barricades) but their follow-up, 1974’s Bridge of Sighs, was a certifiable Hard Rock/Blues classic. It quickly went gold and became a staple of FM radio.
Trower’s relentless touring schedule cemented his status as a bona fide guitar hero in the U.S., and his albums in the ’70s (For Earth Below, Live, In City Dreams, Caravan to Midnight) all reached high chart positions. While Trower experimented with arrangements and different guitar techniques in the late ’70s/early ’80s, he always returned to a pure Rock format on subsequent albums, often bucking whatever happened to be the prevailing trend at the moment.
Trower’s commercial stock dipped slightly in the ’80s and ’90s, but he continued to release albums (with shifting lineups, including a trio of albums with ex-Cream bassist Jack Bruce, including their latest, the just released Seven Moons) to a smaller but still fiercely loyal fanbase.
Through 20+ studio albums, a half dozen live and greatest hits packages and a handful of interesting collaborations (including playing on and co-producing Bryan Ferry’s Taxi and Mamouna albums), Robin Trower is one of the last truly monumental guitar talents. (Brian Baker)