Robin Trower is certainly no stranger to live albums. Depending on which source you believe, this latest release is anywhere between his tenth and twelfth. But whichever, Trower is a performer whose music comes alive onstage, and his style of playing, which can justifiably be referred to as virtuosic, is very suitable to a live setting.
The fourteen songs on this album offer a guide to Trower’s fifty-year-plus solo career, which includes a song going back as far as 1973, several tracks from more recent albums, as well as tracks recorded with bass legend Jack Bruce and with BLT, plus four tracks from his classic 1975 album, Bridge Of Sighs, still regarded by many as a blues rock standard.
Still with his regular three-piece touring band of Richard Watts, bass and vocals, and Chris Taggart, drums, two of the opening three tracks are from 2021’s No More Worlds To Conquer: the almost funky ‘The Razor’s Edge’ and the slow blues of ‘Wither On The Vine’. The song slipped in between these two was the first classic of the evening, an eight-minute rendition of ‘Too Rolling Stoned’, from 1975’s Bridge Of Sighs, where Trower’s lengthy solo was surprisingly restrained when compared to previous live efforts, but was still good.
It’s become noticeable by this point that, while there’s no denying the quality of the playing (these three are as tight as it gets, and Trower tears off some gorgeously effortless licks), the vocal quality isn’t quite there. Watts’ vocals can’t compete with the late James Dewar, who sadly died in 2002 after a decade playing alongside Trower.
We then get a rare live outing for the slow, bluesy ‘Distant Places Of The Heart’, from the Seven Moons album he recorded with Jack Bruce in 2008. This is followed by the very slow blues of ‘It’s Too Late’, from 1981’s BLT (Bruce, Lordan and Trower) album. Trower is often likened to Hendrix, and the solo in ‘Day Of The Eagle’ perhaps suggests why. ‘One Go Round’ is a new one from 2025’s Come And Find Me, and could have been written any time in the past five decades, but Trower has the stage nous to carry it off.
The nine-minute classic, ‘Bridge Of Sighs’, from the eponymous album, is simply gorgeous, with some wonderful soulful playing from Trower, bending notes like few others can. The set then winds up with ‘No More Worlds To Conquer’, followed by a lengthy guitar workout in ‘Daydream’, from 1973’s Twice Removed From Yesterday, before the set closes with another classic from Sighs, ‘A Little Bit Of Sympathy’. They encore with the rock-like ‘Rise Up Like The Sun’ before winding up with ‘Birdsong’ from No More Worlds To Conquer.
Despite this reviewer’s slight reservations about the vocals (Trower is always at his best when he plays behind a singer who’s at least as good on vocals as he is on guitar), this is a fine live album from an artist who, despite approaching 81 years young, can still play the blues in a quietly sublime manner.
