Critic's Pick: Robin Trower

Procol Harum’s 1969 album A Salty Dog is a landmark of early prog rock that sounds like a great soundtrack for a movie about a rock band that decides to cross the ocean by boat. Apart from keyboardist Matthew Fisher’s superb tune “Pilgrims Progress,” which rewrites the band’s famous 1967 hit “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” A Salty Dog works because of Robin Trower’s guitar. Whereas many English guitarists inspired by Jimi Hendrix rocked out, Trower played droll, understated lines throughout A Salty Dog. Both Fisher and Trower had left Procol Harum by 1971, and Fisher went on to produce Trower’s 1974 full-length Bridge of Sighs, a definitive slice of post-Hendrix blues-space-rock that turned Trower into a star. In a time of endless boogie, Bridge of Sighs epitomized one aspect of the early ’70s, when fans yearned for the return of The Beatles and mourned the passing of Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. In other words, Bridge of Sighs and 1976’s Robin Trower Live sound better to me today than, say, similar efforts by fellow guitar rockers Mahogany Rush and Wishbone Ash. Trower, who’s 81, is a titan of the Stratocaster, and he has a new album, Shine, set for release on Sept. 25.

7:30 p.m. at The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts

2020 Belmont Blvd.