Interview
Performing at the Tower Theatre in Philadelphia, July 16, ?
'Rockin' the Tower......Robin Trower
"I think I've always been a bit of an outsider in the music business," says Robin Trower, founding member of Procol Harum and one of the most widely-acclaimed solo artists of the '70s and '80s. An outsider? Only if you're referring to the guitarist's new album - 20th Century Blues" - a stunning return to form that signals both the birth of Trower's brand new band and his entirely new approach to the business of making albums.
Recorded and released on his own V-12 Records label, "20th Century Blues" is unadulterated Robin Trower - without the interference of record company executives anxious to compromise musical integrity for the sake of short-term hit making. It is the sound of Trower playing in the same trio context that took his classic albums "Bridge of Sighs", "For Earth Below". and "Robin Trower Live" to the top 10 in the '70s. This new band takes the guitarist's stripped-down, honest and raw sound full speed into the '90s. And it is the sound of a major player discovering that what he does best is, purely and simply, play guitar like Robin Trower.
"I didn't want to make another record for a record company," Trower explains, "because I've tried that for the last several years and have been unhappy. A record made that way tends to end up sounding like a committee job: everybody putting their oar in. At the end of the day, the artist's ideas get diluted. The whole concept of this record really, was that it would be a recording of songs that worked live. I wanted to just go in and play the songs and record them, rather than making a record out of them. This is a recording of something happening, if you know what I mean."
At the heart of "20th Century Blues" is the scorching power-trio sound exhibited by Trower and his new band mates; bassist/singer Livingstone Brown and drummer Mayuyu. Trower met this superb rhythm section when he toured with Europe's memorable "Night of the Guitar" tour of 1991. "Eight different guitar players working with the same backing group," he recalls, "and they were the bass player and drummer." Livvy and Mayuyu offered Trower the backing band of his dreams. "What I've been searching for years is a rhythm section that could lay it in deep. It's just very hard to find great players that have any sort of empathy with rock and blues, and can really lay it in deep."
The powerful "Extermination Blues" and the title track make abundantly clear that Trower's album is rooted very much in the blues. "I originally wanted to do a blues album," he says, "but when I started to put the material together, I found that there wasn't enough old blues that I wanted to do that hadn't been done to death. So I started writing - and these songs cam out. That's why there is a very strong blues thread throughout the whole album. But what it grew into - I suppose you'd call it rock 'n' roll really. But it's very bluesy rock 'n' roll."
The searing intensity to be heard on "20th Century Blues" is no accident. Prior to recording the album, Trower and his band took the material out on the road. They wanted to work out the kinks in front of, ultimately, the best judge of all: a live paying audience. "I'm at my best in live performance," he says. "It is what I do - everything else is an offshoot of that. For a guitar player, it's about putting it all together for the moment; it's not really about something that's built up in over-dubs. I know who I am when I'm playing live, because so much of my life has gone into it."
Once the songs were polished to perfection, Trower found the ideal place to capture them on tape. Sun Studios in Palm Springs. Sun functions not only as a TV and recording studio, but also as a concert venue. "I loved the guitar sound we got at Sun," he says. "Being able to capture the atmosphere of a live gig in a recording studio is very difficult. It's got to be something like a show for me to create like I do on-stage.
Recording Robin Trower live off the floor is such a hard thing to do because of the volume I play at. We get so much spill on the drums in a normal room that the drum textures are lost. But in this room it all worked."
"I think over the years I've stripped away stuff that has inspired me and been an influence, and now I find the only thing that I listen to anymore - in terms of blues, rock 'n' roll or rhythm and blues is early Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Water and the stuff I grew up on. I'm right back to that role model again - where it's laid in so deep. That music isn't really about technique, it's about where it's put. That's really been my crusade as a player - to try to get somewhere near to that feeling. I know I haven't got there yet, that's the Holy Grail."
Trower's reaffirmed faith in his roots - not to mention in his own muse - signifies a new beginning for him, a break from the "sausage factory" treatment product-hungry major labels have traditionally accorded their artists. Looking back, he notes with irony, "I became a musician because I loved playing the guitar. I don't think anybody believed, when Chrysalis first signed me, that I could be commercially successful. They didn't believe it and I certainly didn't believe it, but I was enjoying what I was doing."
An outsider in the music business? Maybe. But an outsider whose talents are recognized by no less a pop music figure than Bryan Ferry - who invited the guitarist to sit in on a recording session, then upped the ante by asking him to co-produce both last years "Taxi" and his upcoming (and long awaited) "Horoscope" album. And an outsider with his share of gold albums who is not resting on his laurels, who is not willing to endlessly regurgitate his past and play the game of finding the lowest common musical denominator. Robin Trower is doing precisely what he wants.
You can see Robin Trower, as he is special guest performer, at Sheds Across the Country with Peter Frampton. Look for this concert at the Tower Theatre on July 16.
