Robin Trower – Come And Find Me (Provogue Records)
Sometimes it’s enough to be delighted to discover that little changes in the standard of a musician’s artistry. Such is the new and unexpected new offering from Robin Trower. “Who’d have thought” was my first reaction on hearing of the release. After all, Trower cancelled a tour last year due to serious ill-health. Then another “who’d have thought” moment as I realised I first saw this ace blues guitarist a whole 48 years ago.
That he was playing in such a large venue in 1977 speaks to Trower’s legacy as a deeply respected bearer of Hendrix-influenced sound. But maybe his 80 is the new 60. And maybe we shouldn’t be surprised when towering names like Trower send a new album into the world at an age many are lounging in recliners playing songs of yesteryear.
Opener A Little Bit of Freedom sets the tone. A thematic symmetry perhaps to Trower’s hit A Little Bit of Sympathy from the 1974 album Bridge of Sighs. This new offering feels like a bridge arrived. The Trower version of Elton’s I’m Still Standing perhaps. An octogenarian saying upfront Come and Find Me. Catch me while you can.
For those new to the name, Robin Trower was in English band Procol Harum 1967-71 and there’s a connection with New Zealand too: his parents migrated to Gisborne in the 1970s.
While it was the late Scottish bassist and vocalist James Dewar who added vocals to Trower’s earlier Sympathy song and across a significant legacy of albums, this time round its Richard Watts. A little less powerful, but no less soulful, Watts’ voice is a fitting accompaniment to Trower’s almost vocal guitar. On songs like Without a Trace, it’s a call and response almost. To that extent there are two vocalists in the band: voice and guitar. And all the while, the Trower-penned lyrics question and reflect on the often wayward ways of the world.
There’s only one slightly jarring aspect on this album to me: the introduction of a different vocalist for one track. On Tangled Love, Jess Hayes takes the mic. Interesting decision. Maybe this song suits a female voice, but to me the single-track cameo is a move that breaks the flow.
The last of the eleven tracks, Time Stood Still, winds down the intensity offering a look back with longing: “I was there with you in a special place”. Nostalgia meets premonitions of mortality perhaps with lines like “the future is always here”. Expressive percussion from Chris Taggart, Trower’s yearning guitar andWatts’ emotive vocals.
Should this be the last Robin Trower album, it would be a fittingly soulful closure to an expressive and lengthy series of releases. And Time Stood Still could be the perfect farewell. I hope not. But for me this last track does make time stand still. Trower’s performance in that crowded Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis in ’77 feels like yesterday. Perhaps that’s part of the potency of great musicians: they help us bring the past into the present and join the dots to see a bigger picture.
Robin Kearns
Robin Trower’s Come And Find Me is released Friday, April 25th on Provogue Records
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