Robin Trower: Prince of the Power Wah

"Robin Trower? He's very moody," I was warned before embarking on the road with the 31-year-old English axe ace. "And whatever you do, don't ask him any of that Jimi Hendrix shit."

"I have to drag him to interviews," sighed one of his Chrysalis PR men. "He doesn't understand why he has to do them."

This unsolicited advice left me unprepared for the self-mocking person with melancholy eyes and a grin that periodically threatened to split his face that I ended up talking to. This is the guitarist who manages to wrest such overwhelmingly sad noises out of his Stratocaster, I thought, as I watched him gleefully try to shove bassist/vocalist Jimmy Dewar onto his Scottish crock as they vaulted up the stage steps at Madison Square garden. Who maneuvered up hotel escalators swinging on his arms well enough to put a tenyear-old to shame. Trower admits to a more or less melancholy nature, but his supposed aloofness is more English reserve than anything.