Robin Trower is definitely going through a late-career burst of creativity as, for a man of a certain age … okay, he’s 81 … he’s still touring and still releasing new albums. His latest, Shine, is his eighth studio album in the past decade, alongside a couple of ‘live’ albums as well as a career retrospective. As he puts it, to still have the energy to work is a real blessing, and this is what keeps me going.
His career now extends back more than 60 years, back to The Paramounts, who morphed into Procol Harum, and his work has always been riven with a deeply ingrained bluesy influence, meaning he’s passed Keith Richards‘ test of ‘if a man’s going to play rock guitar, he’s got to know his blues’, and Trower certainly knows his. Listening to his guitar work on the track ‘Faith‘ illustrates the point.
Robin Trower rarely gets a mention in the pantheon of guitar greats, being unfairly saddled with the ‘Hendrix derivative’ tag, but his playing down the years will stand comparison with most other guitar men of his age and genre even if, for many, he remains an undiscovered gem with musicianship which is always on the mark and which demonstrates the fullest extent of his talents. The album’s closing track, ‘It’s Not Time‘, is a case in point. It’s the longest track at over six minutes, and it’s a slow, bluesy, deeply emotional piece with a heartfelt solo, emotion wrung from every note. He plays with a ‘feel’ which is hard to fake; you either have it or you don’t.
Several tracks on the album are slow burners, such as ‘Without You‘ and title track ‘Shine‘, a delightful slow blues which has the same feel as the classic ‘Bridge Of Sighs‘, and concludes with a delicately understated guitar break. On pieces like ‘Driving On Through‘ and ‘The Race‘, he generates a solid groove which propels the song along, and a shout-out to the rhythm section, Richard Watts on bass and vocals and Chris Taggart on drums, for the solid platform they lay down, which allows Trower to soar.
Standout tracks, though, for this reviewer, are ‘Love By Any Other Name‘ and ‘Truth‘ … sung by a woman but no name listed … both of which are very fine pieces indeed, with his soloing contained and expressive, while never veering into self-indulgence, with every note played deserving of its place.
Throughout his lengthy career, Trower has set the bar high and Shine doesn’t fall short. It may not win him many new fans but, to his fanbase, it’s another reaffirmation of his stellar talent as a guitar man.
