Development of the British Blues and Rhythm

  --- show 45 ---   3-10-2016  St. Patty’s Day

Gary Moore                                     1990-1995

Rory Gallagher                                1973, 1974

*************************

Well, it’s time once again for our annual St. Patty’s Day show where, for the last coupla decades, I have featured British Blues, but somehow in the context of the last 26 months that doesn’t seem very special, so for today I’ve put together a pair of actual Irishmen who really know how to rock the Blues.  By the time these guys came on the Blues scene I was paying way more attention to authentic Black American Blues so they kinda slipped under my radar back then but have surfaced now with a ferocity during this ongoing saga.

Life got in the way of putting out a blog last show (except for the playlist) but I had started off with the thought that I was not all that happy with its contents.  Eric Clapton has been way overplayed and this time in his career was awfully hard to find some good Blues, Jeff Beck had done much better stuff than his collaboration with Bogert and Appice, and while it was my favorite couple of sets, Traffic can in no way be considered a Blues band.  Well, my opinion of this show is the polar opposite with two fresh guitars from the Emerald Isle recharging the British Blues scene.

*************************

This is our introduction to guitarist Gary Moore and I use all three of his albums I have in my collection, but we should be visiting him again when he teams up with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker.  Moore was born in Belfast April 4^th 1952 but relocated to Dublin by the end of the 60s where he joined the band Skid Row.  The band’s lead singer, Phil Lynott, would soon depart to form Thin Lizzie, but it would be far from the last of the pair’s collaborations.

When Skid Row opened for Fleetwood Mac, the group so impressed Peter Green that he helped them acquire a recording contract with CBS.  The band put out several singles and a couple of albums but achieved only minor success, so in 1972 Gary formed the Gary Moore Band with drummer Pearse Kelly and bassist John Curtis fronted by Moore as singer/guitarist.  When their 1973 album Grinding Stone disappointed, Moore rejoined with Lynott in Thin Lizzie, but by 1975, he was doing studio work until he joined Colosseum II for three albums in 1976 and 1977.

Appearing as a sideman for three other artists in 1978, he also put out a second album under his own name, Back on the Streets, which included the UK Top Ten hit Parisienne Walkways with vocal provided by Lynott.  In 1979 the two were back recording Thin Lizzie’s Black Rose, but problems arose between Moore and Lynott, so Gary dropped out from the band as they were in the midst of a U.S. tour.  Moore then played on drummer Cozy Powell’s Over the Top album and formed another group, G Force, which lasted long enough to release one album in 1980.

Moore teamed up with Emerson Lake and Palmer’s Greg Lake for albums in 1981 and 1983 as well as another Cozy Powell guest shot.  He got back together with Lynott for an album and a single in 1985 before the singer’s longtime abuses took his life in January of 1986.  Gary also went strongly into a heavy metal career with six solo album releases between 1982 and 1989.  .

All of this history brings us to today’s material with the knowledge that Moore was no newbie when he returned to his Blues roots.  He had become interested in the Blues in the sixties through the works of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and especially Peter Green.  Our opening set is taken from his 1990 Still Got the Blues album which, assisted by an impressive guest list, turned out to be the best seller of his entire career.  We open up with Albert King joining in on the song he made famous, Born Under a Bad Sign, and we later hear Texas great Albert Collins on one of his favorite tunes, Dirty Dishes.  Other noteworthy artists that played on songs that didn’t make my cut included one with George Harrison and three with pianist Nicky Hopkins.

I picked up Gary’s second Blues album, After Hours from 1992, early in my time here at KKUP but never really got into it because it was at a time when I was starting my CD collection and would frequent the CD shop where Craig Detwiler, the saxophone player for the band Nitecry, was working and after I had found maybe $70 woirth of used CDs to buy he would come up to me and say, “Here’s a few more that haven’t been put out on the shelves yet”, and I would wind up leaving with a dozen or so discs just about every week.  With more friends like that, I could go bankrupt.  The point being I had more new albums to listen to than I had time, so it was almost like hearing a new album when I played it in preparation for this airing.  Once again we open up with a King as guest vocalist, this time B.B. on Since I Met You Baby, but while Albert Collins added another tune to this album we won’t be hearing it this time around..

I’ve also had his Blues for Greeny for a couple of decades now, but why would I listen to it instead of the original Peter Green material from his Mayall or Fleetwood Mac days?  Well, I didn’t but, as I think you’ll agree, his renditions are respectful of Peter’s work and well worth the listen.  I combined these two albums in one set because I wanted Gallagher’s live Irish Tour ’74 to wind up the show.  I also moved up Jumping at Shadows from the Greeny grouping one song before the completion of the After Hours portion because otherwise there would have been too many slow tunes in the latter half of the set, and I think that works out well here.  Actually, Blues for Greeny came out in 1995, a year after Moore’s combining with Baker and Bruce, but I prefer to approach that album separately.

The liner notes from these three CDs were pretty much useless aside from the personnel lists (thank goodness for the AllMusic online guide), but the Greeny notes brought this quote from Gary regarding his friendship with Green: “One night, at London’s Marquee club, he asked me if I wanted to borrow his guitar.  All through the Bluesbreakers and Fleetwood Mac he had played this particular guitar – a 1959 Gibson Les Paul and so I jumped at the chance.  A few days later, he called me up and asked me what I thought of it.  I told him that I loved it and he asked me if I wanted it.  I told him that there was no way I could afford it, but he said if I sold my main guitar (a Gibson SG) then whatever I got for it, I could give to him and then it would be like swapping guitars.  It’s the best guitar I’ve ever played and I’ve used it all the way through this album.  It has a magic all its own and a sound that I’ve never heard from any other guitar.”

Of the five albums Moore recorded between 1995 and 2003, only 2001’s Back to the Blues is in our genre, but his next four albums spanning 2004 to 2008 appear to be all Blues, including the last of his recordings before he passed away from what appeared to have been a heart attack on February 6^th 2011.

*************************

This is our fifth visit to the music of Rory Gallagher and we will very likely be hearing him on each of the next four shows as well.  If I could spread them out a little bit that would be preferable, but as we are winding down our chronology there are not that many Blues-related artists in my collection from the eighties on.  Actually, I’ve been looking ahead and it appears that we just might end up this series in July or August (finally!) and my opinion is that there is lots of good material with at least one strong Blues act in each of the shows.

Beginning in June of 1972, the players on the two albums presented today would be a constant for the next six years, with Gallagher retaining his bass player Gerry McAvoy while changing drummers to Rod De’Ath and expanding from the trio format with the addition of keyboardist Lou Martin, The latter two were formerly members of the band Killing Floor.  My collection does not include his 1973 disc Blueprint (#12 on the U.K. charts), so we start off with his Tattoo (also put out in 1973 and reaching U.K. #32) and wind up the show with a long live set from Irish Tour ’74.  The album reached #34 and was also the subject of a documentary directed by Tony Palmer.  A personal favorite from the set is 100% Alcohol because I rarely hear Chicago Bluesman J.B. Hutto’s music recreated.

*************************

While I was writing this post I listened to the full playlist and, damn, did I do a good job on this one.  Now, we all know it must be my talents that make these guys sound so good, right?

*************************

Since it is still relatively new, I thought I’d mention that KKUP is now streaming on the internet and, while it is still in a developing stage, we have been putting out the word.  I’m not all of that good with high-tech stuff, but it seems pretty easy to access.  If you go to our website at KKUP.org you will see on the home page a strip of options immediately above the pictures of the musicians the next to the last option being LISTEN ONLINE.  By clicking this, it brings up a choice of desktop or mobile.  I can only speak for the desktop but after maybe a minute I was receiving a crystal clear feed.  As already mentioned, this is still a work in progress and we are currently limited to a finite number of listeners at any one time.  I mention this so you will be aware to turn off the application when you are not actually listening.  (I put the player in my favorites bar for the easiest of access.)  Now we can reach our listeners in Los Gatos and Palo Alto, even my family in Canada.  Let your friends elsewhere know they can now listen to your favorite station, and while they have the home page open they can check out our schedule.

*************************

Oh Pretty Woman
King of the Blues
Midnight Blues
Walking By Myself
Moving On
All Your Love
Too Tired
Texas Strut
   Gary Moore

Livin’ Like a Trucker

Sleep on a Clothes Line
They Don’t Make Them Like You Anymore
20/20 Vision
Admit It
Just a Little Bit
   Rory Gallagher

Since I Met You Baby

Cold Night in Hell
Key to Love
Jumping at Shadows
Don’t You Lie to Me
Long Grey Mare
Merry-Go-Round
I Loved Another Woman
The Same Way
The Supernatural
Showbiz Blues
Looking for Somebody
   Gary Moore

Cradle Rock

Tattoo’d Lady
Too Much Alcohol
As the Crow Flies
Who’s That Coming
Back on My Stompin’ Ground
Walk on Hot Coals

   Rory Gallagher