After playing with Procol Harum for four years, Robin Trower left in 1971, soon forming his power trio and playing the songs he had started writing. He often seemed to be channelling his shock over the death of his beloved Hendrix through his array of effects pedals as he unleashed his trademark liquid squall, breaking through with 1974’s landmark Bridge Of Sighs.
Trower’s been touring and recording prolifically ever since, releasing over 20 studio albums, plus three with Jack Bruce, alongside a string of live documents. His latest – solo apart from drummer Chris Taggart – finds him in concerned fettle.
Picking up where last year’s Something’s About To Change left off, he lashes Hooker blues to James Brown funk on The Fruits Of Your Desire, ponders the Paris tragedy on a rocking When Will The Next Blow Fall and reflects about his life on the title track, which reworks Hendrix’s 1983 with sub-aquatic swells and Stratocaster skyrockets. Only In Too Deep coasts into less impressive Dire Straits wallpaper territory.
While Trower’s subtly deployed virtuosity comes from decades of relentless playing, he’s always cherished Hendrix’s tender blues side too, and nowhere sounds more heartfelt than on We Will Be Together Someday and I’m Holding On To You, two aching ballads dedicated to his wife, who died in 2014.
