Trower Jones Dryden

In his mid-sixties when this 2010 disc was released, Robin Trower seems to be getting more productive as he ages. This is the guitarist's fourth album in three years, including a studio and live project on which he shared top billing with Jack Bruce. Somewhat surprisingly, there is no drop-off in quality. In fact, this hour-long, 11-cut platter contains some of his finest material of the past decade. Everything down to the artwork and packaging is up to the high standards Trower set for himself in his productive and commercially successful '70s run and truth be told, many of these songs, such as the hooky title track, could easily slot into those classics…

Jack Bruce must have enjoyed his 2005 get-together with Cream so much that, when Clapton and Baker were unwilling to continue the collaboration, he rang up Robin Trower to renew the brief power trio fling they had in the mid-'80s. The Trower-Bruce pairing had released only two albums, B.L.T. and Truce, and was dormant since 1982, so this 2007 reunion was somewhat of a continuation of the project, albeit one separated by a quarter century. The results impressively continue where Truce left off, as Bruce brings his distinctive croon/moan to bluesy, riff-oriented tunes dominated by Trower's silvery guitar runs. Gary Husband fills the drum slot adequately if inconspicuously, but his contributions are mixed so far under Bruce's vocals and Trower's guitar that they are secondary. The previous two releases called in Trower's old Procol Harum lyricist Keith Reid and Bruce collaborator Peter Brown to write the words, but Bruce and Trower pen these 11 songs without outside assistance.

2009 two CD live set from the Classic Rock guitar great, recorded in 2008. Following on from the successful Seven Moons (a collaboration with Cream's Jack Bruce) Trower presents this double disc dose of live recordings capturing Robin in action last year in America…