PAT TRAVERS- “MAKES GUITAR MAGIC”

PAT TRAVERS MAKING ROCK & ROLL MAGIC IN SEATTLE, WA. ON 2-23-78. PHOTO BY BEN UPHAM.

PAT TRAVERS
“MAKES GUITAR MAGIC”
BY ROB PATTERSON
THE INDIANA GAZETTE
INDIANA, PENNSYLVANIA
APRIL 22, 1978

“You can’t deny them their rock and roll. It’s like something really sacred, which is great to see.” His black, shoulder-length hair drenched with the sweat of a rousing show. Canadian guitarist Pat Travers explains what it’s like to play for the great insatiable audiences of the American South.
Travers knows what they want, which is why this boyishly handsome 23 year old is being hailed as “the next guitar superstar”. Unlike much of the leaden-lick Buffalo-belch boogie which passes for music these days, Travers’ style is melodic hard rock — loping, yet wired with more red hot lines than Bell Tel. His playing possesses a fury arid finesse that rivals the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Robin Trower. And while Travers says he’s been playing since the age of 12 after one listen you’d swear he entered the world with a six-string in his hands.

It was Travers’ riffing reputation as a teenager in Toronto that earned him an invitation to play with the legendary Ronnie Hawkins. But it was a romantic vision of London as a rock and roll city that attracted Pat. Sensing this, a friend gave him plane fare and an encouraging boot on the butt, and in 1975 Pat Travers made his move. Though he found London rather dreary, Pat’s inspiration was still intact. With the aid of yet another “angel ” he assembled a band and cut the demo tapes which secured him a contract. His first album on Polydor — Pat Travers— had immediate chart and press success.

Pat was off and running. With the help of bassist Peter Cowling {more commonly called “Mars”) Pat’s power trio gained a following for combining grit and grandeur despite rotating membership. But as a song from his third album — “Putting it Straight” — declares: “Life in London was bittersweet.” Finally afraid of stagnating on the British scene, Pat has coincidentally followed the Hendrix footsteps from England back to North America to find his fans.

Like his friend Ronnie Hawkins, Pat’s power center lies in the South with the descendants of the roadhouse rockers who cheered on Hawkins and his Hawks (today known as the Band). With the addition to his group of ex-Black Oak Arkansas drummer Tommy Aldridge, whom Pat declares to be “the best drummer in rock,” and a star in his own right judging by the audience response to his introduction, Pat’s got the band to back him as he puts America Straight. It’s a job that keeps him busy. Travers is planning to settle in Florida, but for now he says with a smile. “I’m nowhere. On the road and I have no place to live. I don’t have a house, or an apartment . . . a home; anything.

My girlfriend came in to New York last week from London, and she sold the car, packed up everything and let the apartment go. I keep leaving a trail of stuff wherever I go! I’ve got three stereos in various places, so — I want to buy a house this Summer. I don’t mind it so much because It’s gonna be over soon.”
The reasons for ending his wandering are simple. With an album that has a good shot at going gold, growing concert audiences and a talent that’s as natural as his easygoing manner, Pat Travers is as committed to his music as are his fans. You just can’t deny him his rock and roll.

PAT TRAVERS BAND DISCOGRAPHY:
1976 Pat Travers
1977 Makin’ Magic
1977 Putting It Straight
1978 Heat In The Street
1978 The Pat Travers You Missed Mini-Album (EP)
1979 Live! Go for What You Know (live 1978)
1980 Crash and Burn
1981 Radio Active
1982 Black Pearl
1984 Hot Shot
1990 School Of Hard Knocks
1991 Boom Boom (live 1990)
1992 BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert (live 1977 & 1980)
1992 Blues Tracks
1993 Just A Touch
1994 Blues Magnet
1995 Halfway To Somewhere
1996 Lookin’ Up
1997 King Biscuit Flower Hour (live 1984)
1998 Blues Tracks 2
2000 Don’t Feed The Alligators
2000 Boom Boom – Live At The Diamond Club 1990 (CD & DVD)
2003 Etched In Stone (2-CD live 2002)
2003 P.T. Power Trio
2003 From The Front…Live! (DVD-Audio live 1984)
2005 PT=MC2
2006 P.T. Power Trio 2
2007 Boom Boom (Out Go The Lights) (live)
2008 Stick With What You Know – Live In Europe (live 2007)
2009 Travelin’ Blues
2010 Fidelis
2012 Blues on Fire
2013 Can Do
2015 Retro Rocket
2015 Feelin’ Right (The Polydor Albums 1975-1984 Remastered)

CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO SEE PAT TRAVERS PHOTOS & ARTWORK:
SEATTLE 2-23-78
and
PAT TRAVERS ARTWORK by BEN UPHAM III