Robin Trower: Godfather of Goth?

Been listening to a couple of late-'70s Trower albums lately--In City Dreams and Caravan to Midnight. They're quite good. Dreams still has traces of Bridge of Sighs in it but some of the songs have more of a Santana vibe, and some point towards a cool Hendrix/disco vibe.

Caravan is even better; I've been playing "I'm Out to Get to You" in outloud and people have been going nuts for it. It's not entirely clunker-free and there's no trace of the "goth" sensibility anymore, but its got lots of slow burner jams.

Plus, Jimmy Dewar is the shit.

WHY SO UNFORGIVING
AND WHY SO COLD
LONG TIME CROSSING
THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS

I got curious about what he might have done beyond Bridge of Sighs and it turns out he has a new album and it's really good - he really does love an ominous vibe!

All of Trower's recent albums (he's released 7 in the last decade, including one that comes out tomorrow) have been shockingly strong. He's aged into this autumnal blues vibe that I'm not hearing from anyone else except maybe Buddy Guy (check "Done Got Old" from Sweet Tea, way back in 2001, or "A Few Good Years" from last year's The Blues is Alive and Well, or "Crying Out of One Eye" from 2015's Born to Play Guitar).

yeah he's on a roll. then again I love all his 70s albums and a fair number of his 80s ones

I love the old stuff too, but I really feel like Trower is really interesting for having aged gracefully in a way I don't see anybody else doing (though I admit I'm not following Bob Dylan or Van Morrison or whichever old country guys are still alive, maybe they're in some kind of similar mode).

Check this one out, an unexpected new collaboration with Maxi Priest. Unexpected and pretty good. It's got that mix of strings and blues restaint like some of those classic early 70s tracks by BB King or Bobby Womack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBpd_3kIW-Q&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD15RrE9v54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y8XVuRG0Gc

In my mind, I'm kinda loving the idea of a 75 year old Robin Trower calling up his pals to 'check out my new band dudes'. That "Are We Just People" track is good too. Production is really lush.

Cool.

Trower's got a new album out this week, with a female singer, Sari Schorr, on the whole thing. It's called Joyful Sky, which is weirdly optimistic for him: his last two were called Coming Closer to the Day and No More Worlds to Conquer. Anyway, I'm listening to it now and it's really good if you like what he does. Schorr's voice suits the material.

I saw Robin Trower played his first gigs in like 4 years last week or so ago.

It's been almost 20 years since I saw him play with Davey Pattinson, but he was great. At least as a few years ago, he could play as well as ever.

I was listening to the records Trower did with Jack Bruce quite a few times this past winter. That was a good pairing.