Rory Gallagher

http://www.rorygallagher.com/


One of my favorite guitarists, and one of my biggest influences on the instrument, is Rory Gallagher. A bluesman from Ireland, he's not very well known in the US, but he was a big star in Europe.





I first heard Rory back in the mid-seventies. I had a friend named Barry Sutton who turned me on to a lot of great music. I was just starting to get serious about playing the guitar, and Barry changed my point of view forever by playing me "Irish Tour '74." At that time Jimi Hendrix was the center of the guitar universe. You were either trying to sound like him (Robin Trower, Frank Marino) or you were going in completely the opposite direction (Steve Howe, John McLaughlin). You have to remember, this was a pre-Van Halen/Stevie Ray world.





Rory was the anti-Hendrix. I was, and am, a big Hendrix fan, but Rory's approach was so breathtakingly fresh that I couldn't resist. Like a lot of other players at the time, I was busy filling the floor with effects pedals. My biggest mistake was to get a pretty good guitar and a pretty good amp, and then try and make them sound better with stomp boxes. Fuzz, flange, phase, compression, you name it and I had it parked a toe-tap away.





In contrast, Rory's rig at the time was dirt-simple; a Stratocaster, a Fender Twin Reverb amp, and a cable. That's it. And man, he could make that thing talk! Lately I've been digging through my collection and his albums hold up well over the passage of time. They don't sound the least bit dated. On the contrary, they prove the staying power of good ol' straightforward blues-rock.





Recommended titles? Just about anything is going to be a treat, but the older stuff has questionable production values, and some of the later stuff is a little over-the-top. I'd recommend starting with Irish Tour '74, the best of his three live albums. Live In Europe from '71 is a little more blues-centric, and his 1980 Stagestruck shows him in an almost heavy metal mood.





My favorite album of his is the studio effort from 1975, Against the Grain. I'd also point out Top Priority from '79, and Tattoo circa '73. These are the best-sounding recordings, and the quality of the songs is among his best. There are also some very good live DVDs out there, including a video record of the aforementioned Irish tour, and a new 2-disc set taken from his five appearances at the Montreaux Jazz Festival.





For a longtime Rory fan, Live At Montreaux is a little disturbing. News of Rory had always been a little spotty, and you get to see how his life progressed as well as his music. Sadly, he died in 1995 of complications from a liver transplant. That tells a lot of the story right there. His life apparently revolved around three things; playing the guitar, chasing the skirts, and drinking. From what I've heard he actually had the liver transplant around 1990. For a couple of years he took a little better care of himself, but eventually settled back into his old ways.





The Rory Gallagher we see from his 1994 set is a heavier, sadder man than the one who jammed with jazz great Larry Coryell in 1975. He used to have either two or three pieces behind him, but here he had at least five, and brought on Bela Fleck for a couple of tunes. He smiled, but still looked sad. He and the band took a leisurly stroll through the tunes, playing with convuluted endings and aimless solos. And still, every now and then, the brilliant strat-master would occasionally peek through, showing flashes of not just the old brilliance, but actual growth as an artist. At 47, the only thing he'd lost was his reason to live. He'd done it all, and simply didn't know what to do next.





His brother and manager, Donal, keeps the flame alive. There's an excellent website, the link for which is above. Interest in his music keeps most of his catalogue in print, so while it might take some detective work to actually find his CD's, it's certainly not impossible. If you like good rock guitar playing and feel like some get-down kick-ass rock and roll, you owe it to yourself to give Rory a listen.

A couple more songs

5 - The Painter's Song

My brother, Rett, is a painter. We've always had sort of a mutual admiration society between us, because I wish I could paint, and he wishes he could play music. I am also a huge fan of his painting, and have many examples of his work hanging in my house.

Every fall Plymouth, NH has an art show on its town common. I've managed to get to several of these events over the years, and I get a big kick out of it. The one problem I have with it is that it's kind of landscape overkill. Nothing wrong with a good landscape, but when you've got fifty or seventy-five painters showing their work, and the vast majority of them are showing New England landscapes, it gets to be a bit much. I don't blame them, because that's what sells, but after a while they all sort of run together.

So, I usually end up finding that one painter that is doing something radically different. This song was inspired by a fellow whose name I'm afraid I've forgotten, but I'll never forget his art. I could go on and on about it, but suffice to say it was very striking. This song was inspired by a trilogy of paintings he'd done, two of which he still had. All together I think it referred to the twilight of the gods. One was of a small group of Norse gods looking like the morning end of an all-night drunk. The other appeared at first to be little more than swirls of brown and beige color, but on closer examination was a mass of nude bodies all mingled together. Very striking.

6 - Heroes

This one was written as I was reading "Taliesin" by Stephen Lawhead. He spent a couple of years in the British Isles researching the Arthur legends, and in the end got four books written. Personally, they're my favorite telling of the tales.

One of the core ideas that's always in the back of my mind is that everyone has greatness within them. I believe that with all of my heart. Too few people in this world are willing to truly make the effort to try and live up to their own ideals. It's like Albert King used to say; everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.

As a Christian, the example I try and follow is that of Christ, but of course I have much more than his example to follow. That's the advantage the Christian has. Whatever it is that you are into or believe in, you owe it to yourself to set yourself aside and follow that which you believe is the core of true faith. Find out if it works, dammit. Use yourself and your life as a laboratory. Then, you can speak about it with authority.

For myself, I have put Christ, His spirit and His word to the test for 23 years and counting, and my life has progressed. I have tried to follow the hero's path. Not very well, I'll grant you; lots of mistakes and failures, but then again I don't feel like I've missed anything. There are things I know I've needed to do, and by God they've gotten done, or at least attempted. Who could ask for more?

More Rough Edges notes

7 - Prophet Sharing

This is a two-parter, written around 1989-1990. I spent the better part of a month parked on my couch with a back injury so I took the time to do some bible study. I headed for the minor prophets and got particularly interested in the book of Joel. The first half of this song is a rough paraphrase of Joel. I've noted that the old testament prophets were particularly fond of proclaiming woe; oh, woe unto thee, though stiff-necked and badly-dressed people. And so, the first half of this song is called "Woe, Nellie."

The second half is an extrapolation of the first half's warnings into the modern day. If you read Joel, he has a lot to say to us. About that time I learned that the word "secular" does not mean simply "without God" as I once thought, but instead "in the world." There's a lot of talk in Evangelical circles, and the contemporary Christian music community, about secularism. If this world truly belongs to Satan, then I am a spy for the other side.

This was one of the recordings that was hardest to include, and hardest to leave off. I'm particularly proud of this song (I suppose I should say, grateful) but am definitely not satisfied with the recording. I've been known to do it as a solo acoustic piece, but there's been a couple of opportunities to play it live with a band, and it comes off much better. Someday I'd like to record it that way.

8 - The Promise

This was written for a young man I knew who was having a very serious crisis of faith. I guess I offer it up as a prayer on his behalf. I'm pleased to report that, the last I knew, he was walking the walk.

As for the musical construction, this one's written on a guitar tuned to DADGAD. It's a tuning that Martin Carthy developed to help him better interperet Irish music for the guitar. The fingerstyle master Pierre Bensusan uses it a lot, as did the late Michael Hedges. With endorsements like that, how could I resist?

9 - A Voice

Pretty self-explanatory, lyrically. Musically, it's an acoustic guitar capoed on the fifth fret. I like the sound of it up there.

10 - Up

This was more or less an experiment to see what I could do with the sequencer and some tape speed adjustments. It's also some serious thought on the state of the world today.

11 - Wheels

This is one of my wife, Lynn's favorites. She especially likes the two overlapping synth patterns. This one's a tough one to do live, but we always have a lot of fun with it. Without the sequencer, I instead do a slapback-echo thing on the guitar, a la Edge of U2. Oftimes, the end of the song turns into an extended jam. Still, I think I prefer this version.