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Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs

Robin Trower

A while back I snagged a bunch of new albums in an auction. I didn't think I'd win them, I just thought it would be cool if I won, so I put in a low ball and forgot about it until I got a message telling me to come and get them. Among them was Robin Trower's Bridge of Sighs. I knew about Robin Trower but really hadn't heard anything. The closest I got was a cover version of "Bridge of Sighs" by Steve Lukather from his 2021 album I Found the Sun Again.

Robin Trower was essentially a power trio comprised of Robin on guitar, with Reg Isidore on drums and James Dewar on bass and lead vocals. The guys weren't messing around with pretty pop songs, they were a rocking blues combo. Robin's blistering and tasteful guitar work was right up front, as was James' powerful voice. He sounded to me at least like a wicked blend of Paul Rodgers and David Clayton Thomas ... more Paul than Dave to be honest. All of this was enveloped by Reg's drumming ... including, delightfully at times, COWBELL!

Now I'm not so much a blues guy as I am a riff rock guy and while the two are intertwined, Bridge of Sighs is full of big riffs and extended solos, but not at the expense of the songs or the groove. This is a collection of songs, and I wasn't expecting to be as engrossed as I was. It's tempting to go into a song by song breakdown, but I'm going to resist and keep this to the album.

If there's a complaint it's that this is too short. Four songs a side, and the whole thing runs under forty minutes. I know the goal is to leave people wanting more, but man this was unfair. Especially on those songs where the '70s penchant for fading songs was the flavour of the day. There were a couple of songs that just seemed to be getting a second wind when the fader started pulling the volume down. This is especially evident on "The Fool and Me" that should have gone on for another couple of minutes.

The re-pressing I have came from 2014 which was the 40th anniversary of the album which I thought was cool. It's a 180gram pressing and it sounds amazing. Sadly there were no liner notes just a few sparse credits on the back cover. Bridge of Sighs was produced by Matthew Fisher, who was the keyboard player and Robin Trower's former bandmate in Procol Harum. I wonder how hard it was to not throw some keys on a couple of these songs.

back cover

Here I am a decade later, and the album is now over 50 years old and it's still melting faces. Back in '74 the album would go gold, as would his next three albums. His gold run would come to an end in '77 but he'd chart into the top 40 in '78 and '80 which was around the time most of the '70s six string slingers fell out of favour.

This was a delightful surprise and one that spent about a week on the turntable off and on. It'll see more light too now and again. This was so good.

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