Nine Pat Travers albums to listen to and one to ignore. “A powerful, soulful vocalist, a sterling songwriter and a guitar magus”
The article assesses Pat Travers’s back catalogue, highlighting nine albums it considers worth hearing and identifying one to avoid. It presents Travers as an underrated but influential Canadian guitarist, vocalist and songwriter whose genre-shifting career has been championed by musicians including Alex Lifeson and Nuno Bettencourt.
Travers moved to London in 1975, signed with Polydor and developed the Pat Travers Band with bassist Peter ‘Mars’ Cowling. The article notes his collaborations with musicians such as Pat Thrall, Glenn Hughes and Brian Robertson, as well as the contributions of drummers Nicko McBrain and Tommy Aldridge; it particularly praises the platinum-selling live album Live! Go For What You Know (1979), the studio record Heat In The Street (1978) and the later cult favourite Black Pearl (1982).
- Pat Travers’s prolific catalogue receives a selective critical assessment.
- His 1979 live album is presented as a career highlight.
- Collaborations and inventive guitar work underpin his enduring reputation.