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We did a Jimmy Dewar this week as part of a longer trend to highlight some of rock’s ground troops who were a crucial part of our rock and roll landscape but rarely get celebrated. Obviously, I’ve used my giant rock brain to do this and my ability to know who played guitar for the Atlanta Rhythm Section and who was second guitar in the Pat Travers Band for a while.
But Jimmy Dewar seems to me to represent a strand in classic rock that is quite common. That is, being absolutely brilliant and being acclaimed in the rock world but ignored outside of it. Even though a few of Trower’s albums went top ten, it made no difference. Ask a regular person who he is and they won’t have a clue, yet he remains an exquisite singer, who could have had a career as a soul singer.
His voice is deep and resonant and achingly lovely. Listen to how he sings ‘Caledonia’ on Long Misty Days. It’s a masterclass of joyous celebration of Scotland. Likewise Bridge of Sighs, that guitar epic. His smokey, brooding vocals really put you on the bridge of sighs.
And that’s just two songs, every song on every album is enhanced by his singing. I daresay his bass playing was important too, but so stellar are his vocals that they dominate proceedings.
Going back to the early 70s, he did the same job for Stone The Crows, who, as I’m sure you know, were a bluesy rock band from Glasgow. But Maggie Bell, a wonderful blues shouter, was their primary vocalist, so Jimmy’s light was hidden somewhat. He left in 1971 for Trower’s band but played on the first two records. I highly recommend ‘I Saw America’ from the debut which at 17 minutes 20 seconds is the entire second side. If you’ve not heard it in a while, it’s an expansive dynamic number.
He stayed with Trower until the early 80s unfortunately he was ill with a rare condition but he was onboard for those huge tours and Day On The Green shows. I saw him on the Victims Of The Fury tour, an album of great riffs only marred by the current fashion at the time against guitar solos which, of course, was what we wanted to hear.
Jimmy is like many musicians of the era who were largely unacclaimed masters and deserve more retrospective praise.
