Robin Trower’s Creative Burst Continues With New Album ‘Shine’

Ask Robin Trower to explain his late-period creative burst and the legendary British guitarist can only shrug: “I think you’ve either got to keep pushing – or give up.”

Now 81, with a mythology that spans from the clubs of Swinging London, to Procol Harum,  through 1974’s gold-selling Bridge Of Sighs and onward into a vital post-millennial solo catalogue, the veteran bluesman’s place amongst the all-time greats is beyond doubt.

Yet while his ’60s peers have long softened into greatest-hits autopilot, this restless artist still starts each morning the same way: stood in his workroom with a battle-scarred signature Strat, hunting down the magic note that will spark his next song. “Then I’ll wake up in the middle of the night,” he smiles, “with a line for the lyric.”

Kicking off the sessions at his favoured Studio 91 in Newbury – then moving to engineer Sam Winfield’s new facility The Pines to fix the holes – Trower’s thumbprint is all over a powerful, intimate new album where molten guitar solos drive songs urging us to meet the modern world head-on. “I agree with people that it’s a very dark time. But I don’t want to make gloomy music. I think that most of these songs are positive.”

Shine is worthy of the name: an album that shimmers with possibility and crackles with vintage Trower power. “It’s great to get that energy back off an audience,” he considers, “but I just love recording too. It’s always fun, you know? Playing guitar: that’s what I do, and that’s what I love.”

Self-producing while handling guitar and bass, the veteran was confident enough to delegate key duties to his trusty studio band, with drummer Chris Taggart driving the new material and long-standing vocalist Richard Watts articulating each emotion. “The strength of his vocals, the beauty of his vocal tone – he’s so musical,” considers Trower. “I usually write with Richard in mind. I can hear it all in my head.”
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The first single Live Your Time’s soul-funk riffing heats the valves in Trower’s Marshall stack. “The opening riff of Live Your Time is one of the best things I’ve ever come up with,” he says. “ It’s always very loud in the studio, and that’s how you get the tone, by cranking the amp. That’s another song where I’m saying, ‘Calm down, it’s all going to work out. Just get the most out of your life.’”
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Trower’s back catalogue is fast closing in on 30 releases (not to count collaborations with Jack Bruce, Bryan Ferry, Maxi Priest and more). Nor that the past decade alone has yielded no less than eight studio albums. “Trower is to be treasured,” wrote Classic Rock of 2025’s Come And Find Me, while even the self-effacing bluesman allows himself a flash of satisfaction: “I think, over the past few years, I have set quite a high standard. Now I’m determined to keep that going. To still have the energy to work, that is a real blessing.”

Keep pushing or give up? It should be obvious which path Robin Trower has taken – and Shine is the latest thrilling evidence of a songwriter who chooses to forge ahead rather than rest on his laurels. “Really, if I have a gift,” he concludes, “it’s probably that I come up with ideas. Ideas for songs, ideas for lead work. Certainly, that’s what keeps me going. It’s just so exciting to see something blossoming into a new song.

Track listing

1. The Missing Piece
2. Shine
3. Love By Any Other Name
4. Live Your Time,
5. Faith
6. Driving Through
7. Truth
8. The Race
9. Without You
10. It’s Not Time