Guitar Player
September, 1994
PROFILE
"Digging deep into the pocket"
By Mike Mettler
"It's been difficult for me to drop into the background, since my whole life has been about being in the foreground," observes Robin Trower about his participation in a failed Procol Harum reunion album and his role as co-producer on Brian Ferry's TAXI and upcoming HOROSCOPE. On his new release 20TH CENTURY BLUES (V-12 Records), the veteran rocker steps out of the shadows and back to his bluesy roots.
Trower, 49, will be forever linked to Hendrix' legacy, owing to his guitar pyrotechnics on 1974's BRIDGE OF SIGHS and his explosive '76 follow-up, LIVE. But times have changed, Trower insists, and he's modified his playing accordingly. "In the past, I'd work off of the flatted seventh in my solos, but when I got the idea to do a blues-oriented album, I thought a lot about B.B. King's style. Now I'm working off the sixth on tracks like 'Rise Up Like The Sun' and Lowell Fulson's 'Reconsider Baby.' This approach has totally changed the way I phrase things, mostly because the sixth has such different emotional weight. I still use the seventh, of course, but much more selectively."
Robin's beloved workhorse is a white Fender Reissue '62 Strat, tuned down a whole step. "It's got an American standard neck, which is slightly fatter with wider frets. I've also been using locking tuning keys to help keep my whammy bar in tune," he details. Trower's two backup Strats have rosewood fingerboards, but he prefers the "sweeter, cleaner" sound of his maple-board Fender. "I use it on songs like 'Precious Gift' and "Secret Place.' " For more meat, Robin slings Ernie Ball strings gauged .012, .015, .017, .026, .038 and .048. His amps of choice are a pair of Marshall JCM 800 heads, each powering a single Marshall 4x12 cab. He's replaced his classic Univibe with a Roger Mayer Super-vibe, and also uses an Ibanez Tube Screamer and a Dunlop CryBaby.
Touring Europe in '91 on the "Night Of The Guitar" bill, Robin recruited bassist/vocalist Livingston Brown and drummer Mayuyu to record 20TH CENTURY BLUES. (Mayuyu has since been replaced by Trevor Murrell for this year's U.S. club tour.) "The power-trio format allows me to do exactly what I want," Robin reasons, "I've been trying for a long time to achieve a dense sound without using a lot of notes. I need a very deep pocket - deeper than any I've had before - and I've finally gotten to it because of these guys."
Some of that special groove came from dipping back into the blues. "I've always said I wanted to do a blues album, but I couldn't find enough songs that hadn't been done to death. So I figured, why not write my own? I know it's a well-trodden path, but it's new for me, and I'm trying to do it fresh. This record is the closest I've ever come to all that early, very EARTHY, '50s blood-and-guts music. Something definitely got lost in the transition from the '50s to the '60s. The guys writing the best blues material - Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, even Muddy Waters - basically ran out of steam. They all said what they had to say after about ten great years, and there really wasn't anybody around to replace them."
And what about the specter of Hendrix - was Trower approached to contribute to last year's STONE FREE tribute album? "Yes, Warner Bros. asked me and Brian Ferry to do a song, but I told them I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole! I've suffered throughout my career from the comparisons, and besides, I don't think you can TOUCH Jimi's versions, so why bother? Unless you come up with an exceptional arrangement for a classic song, you'll just sound like a bar band."
