Trower Power

Is Still Lighting Up Audiences

By John Voket

RIDGEFIELD — Musicians and fans still flock to sold out shows by guitarist Robin Trower for the same reasons they might have gone to see performers like Marcel Marcieu. You’re pretty sure most of the show will be a relatively limited range of familiar material, but the guy is just so good at, you just keep shouting out for encore after encore.

This was the case March 21, which brought a whole new meaning to the words Good Friday for the sold out Ridgefield Playhouse audience – a multi generational pilgrimage that pretty much stood in awe of the British guitar hero as he moved deftly through a nearly two-hour set.

Switching from choppy power chords, to sweeping slow grooves couched in a wall of sound, it was easy to hear influences of Trower contemporaries like Jimi Hendrix, and to imagine players like Stevie Ray Vaughn sequestered in a room listening to Bridge of Sighs until the grooves just gave out.

Another contrast that makes the guitarist who first found fame in the classic British progressive band Procol Harum, is his understated demeanor. Unless you were a true fan, this guy could be standing beside you at the market, and you might assume he was just another working stiff heading home from the shop.

Trower’s working class appearance faded away in just a few seconds after taking the stage at Ridgefield, as he opened with “Twice Removed from Yesterday,” bringing the crowd to its feet for the first of many standing tributes he received that evening.

He mixed things up throughout the set, peppering the crowd with his own brand of blues including “No Time,” from his more recent Living Out of Time collection. Trower switched gears launching into a chunky, funky “The Fool and Me,” from the aforementioned Bridge album, arguably his biggest seller and most accessible mainstream offering.

He brought on the articulate lead work in “Roads to Freedom,” sounding as close to Hendrix as he would get during the Ridgefield set, transitioning to the instrumental “Islands.”

Back to back classic FM staples “Day of the Eagle” and “Bridge of Sighs” whipped the crowd into a renewed frenzy with many heads nodding and moving to the beat as singer Davie Pattison delivered the vocals with precision. This segment provided a rare chance for musicians to see a genius talent recreate a couple of his masterpieces, and Trower did not disappoint.

Moving to the end of the set, the axe wielding artist saved some of his most furious lead work, blistering the Fender Stratocaster and frying the tubes of his trademark Marshall stack with “Daydream,” and treating his most veteran fans with a bow to his very first solo album with “Hanna.”

The double-barreled encore saw the space in front of the stage fill with appreciative concertgoers who got close enough to see Trower’s every gesture as he closed the evening’s set with “Too Rolling Stoned.”

Although this artist’s material may sound painfully repetitive to the uneducated ear, it was clear during his Ridgefield Playhouse set that many highly educated listeners came out to revel in the vintage rock sound that is all but absent from acts that burst on the scene today. And many departed that show with plans to return the next time Robin Trower crosses over to the States for his next round of touring.