Robin Trower - Earth Below Blues (1974)

After Robin Trower finished up the UK dates in mid-August 1974 tour in support his 'Bridge Of Sighs' album, fired drummer Reg Isidore, and he and bassist/vocalist James Dewar flew to Los Angeles to audition new drummers. Trower had decided he wanted an American drummer with a distinctively American feel, and after auditioning several applicants, Trower got a call from Bill Lordan, formerly of Sly Stone's band. Trower later told an interviewer that Lordan phoned him up and boasted that he was the best man for the job and to look no further, and he more than backed up this bold claim during his audition, and immediately clinched the gig. In September 1974, Trower, Dewar, Lordan, and producer Matthew Fisher (keyboardist in Trower's old band Procol Harum) assembled in London and rented a church to rehearse in and jam. The London rehearsals were designed to work out a new sound for the band, to help the new line-up gel, and to firm up ideas for their third album, 'For Earth Below', which Fisher was producing. The church wasn't abandoned, but it wasn't being used for services, and it had a great acoustical sound, so after rehearsing for a few weeks they returned to Los Angeles to start recording the album at The Record Plant in Hollywood, with Matthew Fisher producing. The record was laid down very quickly, and Trower was out on tour by early November, with the album being released in February 1975. A lot of the rehearsals were taped for later analysis, and three of the jams feature Fisher on keyboards, so as they are all excellent recordings I've compiled them into a 50-minute instrumental album from Trower and the band, enjoying themselves and getting to know each other in 1974. 

Track listing

01 Earth Below Blues
02 Substrata Jam
03 The Realm Beneath

Robin Trower - Harum Scarum (1980)

Following his departure from Procol Harum in 1972, Robin Trower put together a blues trio with singer/bassist James Dewar and Reg Isidore (later replaced by Bill Lordan) on drums. His first album, 'Twice Removed From Yesterday' established him as a guitarist of note, and although comparisons to Hendrix were inevitable he rode them out and started to produce music that was distincltly his own. His first few albums were produced by Procol Harum band-mate Matthew Fisher, but by 1976's 'Long Misty Days' he was co-producng himself with Geoff Emerick. By the same year's 'Robin Trower Live!' album he was at the height of his powers, and could only go down from there. Subsequent albums sold fewer copies, and by 'In City Dreams' I'd stopped buying them. He soldiered on through the 80's, forming B.L.T with Jack Bruce and Bill Lordan in 1981, and then going back to a solo career during the mid-80's. While he carried on releasing albums over the next 20 years to a reasonable reception, he suddenly had a resurgence in his career a few years ago when the releases started to get really favourable reviews, and his 2017 album 'Time And Emotion' crashed into the Billboard chart at number 2. One thing that has been conspicuous by its absence is any sort of out-takes collection, as there didn't seem to be anything that was ever put away in the vaults, so I was quite surprised to see an album appear the other month which purported to be just such a disc, and on listening to it it does contain some great songs that I'd never heard before. There were a couple of lesser quality and the odd duplication, and I wasn't keen on the cover, so with a bit of tidying up and editing, and rehoused in my own sleeve, here is an album that I never thought would see the light of day - a Robin Trower out-takes collection of unheard songs recorded between 1975 and 1980.  

Track listing

01 Take A Fast Train
02 With This Song
03 Hold Back The Sands Of Time
04 Start All Over Again
05 Let Me Be The One
06 No Man Is An Island
07 Lady Seldom Seen
08 Bless The Boy
09 One In A Million
10 Father Of The Dance
11 To Know You Is To Love You
12 Hold Me
13 Feel Thing