Robin Trower, Living Out Of Time: Live

Robin Trower might be the best guitar player of the blues that I’ve heard since I last watched my Stevie Ray Vaughan Live At Austin City Limits DVD. Without pop pretense or political messages, Living Out Of Time: Live will transport you to the furthest, funkiest regions of electrified transcendence possible via mere guitar work.

Stratocaster in tow, Trower has been doing his Fender funkiest since1973 (nope, he’s not exactly a newcomer), and on this album, he and band members, Davey Pattison (vocals), Dave Bronze (bass), and Pete Thomson (drums) measure out the experience and sounds of the deepest legends of electric blues. With creamily distorted guitar, Trower’s psychedelic solos incorporate genuine and innovative blues riffs, marking him as a gifted guitarist brimming with originality in the Jimi Hendrix vein of blues rock.

The spirit and energy of his live performance on Living Out Of Time is uncanny, and Trower’s technique enhances the album’s pace with smooth precision. The album’s title still rings true, in spite of his brilliant timing, as the album eases the listener into an extrasensory dimension outside of time and space. I don’t smoke pot, and Robin Trower’s one of the reasons why.