{"id":561,"date":"2026-08-22T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/22\/he-was-the-real-voice-of-rock-warm-rich-sonorous-resonant-deeply-soulful-james-dewar-was-the-greatest-rock-vocalist-youve-probably-never-heard-of\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T16:00:00","slug":"he-was-the-real-voice-of-rock-warm-rich-sonorous-resonant-deeply-soulful-james-dewar-was-the-greatest-rock-vocalist-youve-probably-never-heard-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/22\/he-was-the-real-voice-of-rock-warm-rich-sonorous-resonant-deeply-soulful-james-dewar-was-the-greatest-rock-vocalist-youve-probably-never-heard-of\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHe was the real Voice Of Rock. Warm, rich, sonorous, resonant, deeply soulful\u201d: James Dewar was the greatest rock vocalist you\u2019ve probably never heard of"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s often said (and probably true) that most people can become proficient on a musical instrument if they are prepared to put in the time, effort and sweat. But to become even a decent singer you first have to be born with at least a decent voice.<\/p>\n

James \u2018Jimmy\u2019 Dewar must have been come into this world with a truly extraordinary one, because he possessed one of the greatest rock voices of them all \u2013 arguably the greatest. Yet when was the last time you saw the slightly built Scot\u2019s name in a list of The Greatest Singers Ever<\/a>? Somehow, he has simply got lost \u2013 or, maybe it\u2019s better to think, simply mislaid. But Jimmy Dewar to many of his peers, and they\u2019ll tell you what a tremendous voice he had.<\/p>\n

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\"James<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

James Dewar (right) with the Robin Trower band in 1974 <\/span>(Image credit: Jorgen Angel\/Redferns)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dewar was the real Voice of Rock. Warm, rich, sonorous, resonant, deeply soulful\u2026 his was what many people would categorise as the classic rock voice. The closest that springs to mind is Paul Rodgers<\/a>, but Dewar\u2019s range, timbre and an achingly glorious deep vibrato put him in a class of his own.<\/p>\n

Like many musicians of his time, he travelled a long and meandering musical career path. It began in the early 60s in Glasgow band The Gleneagles. He was in Lulu And The Luvvers. Along the way he played bass and was one of the singers (alongside Maggie Bell) in highly rated British blues band Stone The <\/a>Crows (discovered as Power by Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant, who then renamed them) in the late 60s and early 70s, and released an album of his own, Stumbledown Romancer<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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But nowhere was Dewar\u2019s voice better, or better showcased, than on the albums he recorded as vocalist and bassist (he was no slouch at that, either) with guitarist Robin Trower<\/a> in the 70s. Listen in particular to his singing on choice tracks from Twice Removed From Yesterday<\/em> (Daydream<\/em>, Rock Me Baby<\/em>), Bridge Of Sighs<\/em> (Day Of The Eagle<\/em>, About To Begin<\/em>, Lady Love<\/em>) and For Earth Below<\/em> (Alethea, For Earth Below<\/em>). Close your eyes as you do it, and feel the neck hairs stand on end and your spine tingle. And if they don\u2019t, you\u2019d better check your pulse,<\/p>\n

Jimmy Dewar died of pneumonia in May 2002, aged 59. Like the loss of Hendrix, Paul Kossoff, Janis Joplin and so many more, it\u2019s a great tragedy that such a wonderful innate talent is no longer with us,. Thankfully, however, his voice will always be.<\/p>\n

Originally published in Classic Rock issue 90<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s often said (and probably true) that most people can become proficient on a musical instrument if they are prepared to put in the time, effort and sweat. But to become even a decent singer you first have to be born with at least a decent voice. James \u2018Jimmy\u2019 Dewar must have been come into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realrockrevival.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}