Albums

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THE ESSENTIAL RORY GALLAGHER
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SonyBMG have released ‘The Essential Rory Gallagher’, to mark Rory’s birthday. The Rory Gallagher Guitar Tablature Book is also published alongside and HMV included Rory in their very successful ‘Inspirations’ campaign throughout their stores in the UK & Ireland.

The track-listing for the double sided cd is:

CD1
1. Follow Me
2. Moonchild
3. Bought & Sold
4. Laundromat
5. Bad Penny
6. Edged In Blue
7. Brute Force & Ignorance (Live)
8. I Fall Apart
9. Loanshark Blues
10. Who’s That Coming
11. As The Crow Flies (Live)
12. Barley & Grape Rag
13. Lonesome Highway Refraining
14. Out On The Western Plain

CD2
1. In Your Town
2. Philby
3. Slumming Angel
4. Continental Op
5. Cradle Rock
6. A Million Miles Away
7. Wheels Within Wheels
8. Crest Of A Wave
9. They Don’t Make Them Like You Anymore
10. Walk On Hot Coals
11. Shadow Play
12. I Could’ve Had Religion (Live)
13. Tattoo’d Lady (Live)
14. Bullfrog Blues (Live)

On the release of the guitar tablature book, Daniel Gallagher writes: “As with all things to do with Rory’s great musical legacy, it’s very hard to decide what to choose for a release and what to leave out. Like the Essential CD we went with a range of Rory’s material that we felt would show his versatility not just as a musician but also as a songwriter. With the same thinking this songbook has been compiled to highlight not just Rory’s master of the guitar and its different styles but also to show what a great songwriter he was. The book contains 14 tracks, we tabbed 20 but had to work to a limit of 128 pages though the other 6 tracks will be available from Music Sales online. The book comes with full guitar tab and notation with chord diagrams, lyrics and melody notation. I think Music Sales have done a great job with us on this and hopefully it will achieve enough success so we can make volume 2 and beyond.

Live At Montreux
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Legendary Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher played the renowned Montreux Festival on five occasions spanning his breakthrough years in the mid seventies right up to the year before his tragic early death at the age of 47 in 1995. This CD brings together material from the shows in 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1985 to create the definitive Rory Gallagher live collection.

Track Listing
1 Laundromat
2 Tore Down
3 I Take What I Want
4 Bought And Sold
5 Do You Read Me
6 Last Of The Independents
7 Off The Handle
8 Mississippi Sheiks
9 Out On The Western Plain
10 Too Much Alcohol
11 Shin Kicker
12 Philby

BIG GUNS (2005)
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* No 5 in Classic Rock's 'Best Of and Box Sets' Chart 2005 *
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The pick of the back catalogue, rematsered in 5.1 surround sound, without losing any of the raw effective tones that gave Rory his trademark rotts of rock and blues sound.

"Here we see how a life almost constantly on the road honed his stripped-down formula to something incredibly, joyfully raw. ''Bullfrog Blues'' features some of the rudest slide work ever committed to tape, and this from a man who was such a purist that he frowned on the use of any effects pedals." - BBC online review

WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS (2003)
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Wheels Within Wheels (WWW) is the title of the new album by the much-missed Irish hero of blues-rock guitar legend. Not only does it represent the realisation of a long-held dream of Rory's to release a record of acoustic folk flavours, it also bathes his musical legacy in an elegant new light. The album follows a recent emphatic endorsement of Gallagher's cultural standing, when the Irish Postal Service included him on a set of four music stamps along with U2, Van Morrison and Phil Lynott.

Longtime Rory Gallagher fans always loved the acoustic sets with which he would regularly season his hard-driving blues and rock performances. His untimely death in June 1995 left his ambition to make an album of such material unfulfilled, but not any more. Keenly in tune with his brother's tastes in acoustic music, Donal Gallagher has crafted long at this labour of love, working with material spanning some 25 years of Rory's four-decade career. Wheels Within Wheels is the remarkable result.

The album features contributions and collaborations from Martin Carthy, recently departed skiffle legend Lonnie Donegan, Bela Fleck, Bert Jansch, Ronnie Drew and the Dubliners, acclaimed flamenco player Juan Martin and others. Recording locations include San Francisco, Ghent, Montreux and other spots closer to home, and the results are just as varied, encompassing flamenco, traditional Irish, skiffle and American folk-blues styles.

"Rory made inroads on doing an album like this," says Donal, "But sadly he didn't get a chance to complete something that was a wish for him something he would have done whether it was released or not."

"Every Rory album that was released had at least one acoustic rock track, but it's when you compile the complete collection you see the whole basis, and the power of blues, Irish music, any traditional form I think that's where Rory's head was going. It's a real troubadour set of works. Essentially it didn't set out to be an album with collaborations on it, it really took its own turn that way, as we'd speak to people tracks were uncovered. Obviously as with any album, there are some repair works, but by and large it's mainly as the tracks were intended to be, we haven't added orchestras."

"I wanted to keep a sense of lightness about it, and it shows him as a well-rounded musician. Blues was his mantle, but it came in different forms. He was constantly listening to Martin Carthy, good pals with the Clannad people, he was just checking all types of folk music out. Folk was getting him back to the roots and the true art of playing."

Wheels Within Wheels has even a further distinction, visually speaking. From works found, Rory had been planning to have a painted cover, or even a self portrait. Renowned artist David Oxtoby had previously refused all requests to paint an album cover, but his love and respect for Rory led him to accept this invitation. "I had met David in 1991 when he was selling all his paintings for Nordoff-Robbins," says Donal, "and I happened to mention that Rory and I had two of his Elvis lithographs. He said he was fond of Rory, he'd done a painting of him in 1969 when Rory was with Taste, but never finished it. If he found it, he'd finish it and let me know."

"Ten years later, I got a catalogue in the post from him, he'd completed the Rory painting, but very set in 1969. I contacted him in the hope that he'd do the album cover, but he said he didn't do that sort of thing. He called me the following day, it was a Saturday, and said your brother's a bugger, he woke me up at 2.00 this morning, I stretched my canvasses and I've already started sketching him, bring me some shots. When I looked at what he did, it was eerie and a bit frightening if you like, but it matched the spirituality of the album."

"A beautiful man and an amazing guitar player. We'll miss him very much" - The Edge (U2)

MP3 Samples: Flight To Paradise . Wheels Within Wheels

LET'S GO TO WORK (2001)
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Released as a box set and featuring a previously unreleased live album called
'Meeting With The G-Man' and three other albums in 'mini' vinyl sleeves, 'Live In Europe', 'Irish Tour' and 'Stage Struck'. The CD also includes two prints and newly commissioned artwork.

"He was the one constant in a world of music that changes too swiftly and with little sympathy"
- Simon Jones (Get Rhythm)

ETCHED IN BLUE (1991)
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Released in 1991 after a world tour with a selection of 14 tracks from fourteen different albums which spanned the solo career of a blues and rock legend. The title song 'Edged In Blue' was believed to be a number one chart hit by the then head of Chrysalis Records, Chris Wright, but in typical Rory style he decided not to release it as a single and left it as one of the outstanding tracks on the album 'Calling Card'.

"Ireland's most passionate blues guitarist ever"
- Simon Jones (Get Rhythm)

MP3 Samples: Edged In Blue . Loanshark Blues

FRESH EVIDENCE (1990)
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There was a familiar pattern with many of Rory's LP's. On the whole he composed all the tracks on his albums, bar one, which was always composed by a legendary Blues figure. In this case, 'Empire State Express' was written by the Delta Blues godfather, Sun House. Rory had a long career spanning from the mid 60's to 1990, yet as 'Fresh Evidence' shows, unlike many of his contemporaries, Rory never lost sight of the Blues, the music that he lived to play, the music that he made his own.

"Gallagher was the undisputed prince of earthy electric blues"
- Simon Jones (Get Rhythm)

MP3 Samples: 'Kid' Gloves . Empire State Express

DEFENDER (1987)
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Rory returned from his sabbatical in tremendous style. 'Defender' showed that Rory had lost none of his songwriting or production abilities, in fact he'd improved them. Studio technology was changing fast at the time and many an inexperienced producer had been yielding music that would become dated before the year was over. Thankfully Rory did not rely too heavily on technology and stayed with real instruments for this album. On the whole, this album was restrained on the Heavy Rock side of things in favour of a return to the Blues.

"Rory Gallagher was right up there with the very best guitar players, it's indeed more than reasonable to mention him in the same breath as Hendrix or Eric Clapton, he may well have been the best of them all"
- Organ (web Zine)

MP3 Samples: Continental Op . Failsafe Day

JINX (1982)
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Two and a half years on and Rory returned to Germany to record 'Jinx'. He enlisted some extra help for a few of the tracks including Saxophonist, Dick Parry who had already shown his abilities on Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side Of The Moon', and Brinsley Schwarz keyboard player, Bob Andrews. Rory returned to his roots on the track 'Ride On Red, Ride On' originally recorder by and the little known but exceptionally talented Bluse guitarist/harmonica player, Lousiana Red in 1963. This was to be Rory's last album for over five years, although he did appear (playing guitar and sitar) on two albums by a band called Box Of Frogs which was made up of three ex-Yardbird members.

"The Greatest Irish Rock Guitarist of all time" - Total Guitar - Dominic Pedler

MP3 Samples: Bourbon . Jinxed . Ride On Red, Ride On

STAGE STRUCK (1980)
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Due to Rory's expanding tour schedules and the demands from his fans for more of Rory live, 'Stage Struck' was released as Rory's third live album and was recorded whilst on his third world wide tour. In keeping with his recent output, this album kept the intense Hard Rock sound and powerful guirtr solos from start to finish. Rory's music always sounded best when played live. His solos were played with such passion, fed by the audience's enthusiasm, that it is little wonder that his live albums are so popular.

"1980's Stage Struck is one of three Gallagher live albums recently re-issued and it remains the perfect raucous soundtrack to a night's hard drinking"
- Sid Griffin (Q Magazine)

MP3 Samples: Shadow Play . Shinkicker

TOP PRIORITY (1979)
A year after 'Photo-Finish' and Rory was back in the same studio in Germany. As with the previous album, he enlisted Alan O'Duffy, who had worked with the likes of Paul McCartney and Humble Pie, to co-produce the album. Rory continued in the direction he had set himeslf the previous year and produced another Heavy Rock album, this time providing even heavier crunching rythm guitar and guitar solos.

On this album Rory's lyric writing particularl excels on the track 'Phlby', drawing inspiration from his reading passion of crime/espionage novels.

"Playing with Rory in Los Angeles was one of the biggest thrills for me ever"
- Slash (Guns & Roses)

MP3 Samples: Bad Penny . Philby

PHOTO FINISH (1978)
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'Photo-Finish' was so titled because the album was delivered to Chrysalis at the eleventh hour, just (and only just) making the deadline. Rory reduced his band to a three piece removing the keyboards from the line-up and bringing in a new drummer. This album is unique for Rory in that it's Blues influences make way for a more Hard Rock sound. The fact that bands like the Scorpions were knocking around the studio at the same time perhaps could have a bearing on this. One outstanding track on this album is 'Cruise On Out' with it's Hard-Rock-Rockabilly rythmsection, written by Rory with Elvis in mind.

"Gallagher was the undisputed prince of earthy electric blues" - Simon Jones (Get Rhythm)

MP3 Samples: Overnight Bag

CALLING CARD (1976)
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Having toured frequently on the same bill as Deep Purple, Rory built up a friendship with the group's bass player/producer, Roger Glover who offered his production services on Rory's forthcoming album 'Calling Card'. Echoes of the Deep Purple sound can be heard particularly on the track "Moonchild". However, despite the influence of a Heavy Rock legend stting behind the controls, Rory still managed to make this one of his most diverse albums. Once again he approached Jazz on 'Calling Card', then he showed a softer side to his songwriting with 'I'll Admit Your Gone' and the standout track 'Edged In Blue'.

"The Greatest Irish Rock Guitarist of all time"
- Total Guitar - Dominic Pedler

MP3 Samples: Moonchild

AGAINST THE GRAIN (1975)
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Despite signing to a new company for a six album recording contract, Rory stayed true to the Blues even when his contemporaries were changing to a more commercial sound. The appropriately titled 'Against the Grain' has a superb acoustic take on a leadbelly song, 'Out On The Western Plain' and Bo Carter's 'All Around Man' are nicely tucked in towards the end of this album. 'Against the Grain' is, on the whole, a hard rock album heavily reliant on tracks with solid riffs but interspersed with slower tracks like the beautiful melodic 'Ain't Too Good' and the Boogie style 'Bought And Sold'.

"Yet another posthumous gem from the seemingly bottomless pit that is the Gallagher archives"
- Classic Rock - Dave Ling

MP3 Sample:

BBC SESSIONS (1974)
From the earliest stages of Rory's musical odyssey, the BBC played an important part in his musicianship. Some of the earliest memories are of Rory 'surfing' the radio to access the Blues and Jazz programmes of the day, not coming out to play in the morning because of Saturday Club (the radio 'Old Grey Whistke Test' of it's time) and rushing home from school for the four o'clock programme which devoted thirty minutes of music to a different group each week. The young Rory considered these shows to be an acid test of the performers musical proficiency, keenly listening to hear how far a band would deviate from their recordings and to the real depth of their repertoire.

"Rory Gallagher was an exceptional talent, he was one of only a few who could make his guitar talk, and so popular was he in his native Ireland that he was talked of in the same breath as Jimi Hendrix" - Music365 (web site)

MP3 Samples: Country Mile . Crest Of A Wave

IRISH TOUR '74 (1974)
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When you hear 'Irish Tour' you can understand why Rory always aimed to achieve a live sound on his studio albums. It shows Rory at his absoloute peak, playing to his native audiences, the atmosphere was impressively bottled up by the Ronnie Lane Mobile recording facility. 'Irish Tour' has since become Rory's most sought after album selling in excess of two million copies. At this point in time Rory had chalked up more than ten lengthy tours of the US. This platinum release saw the fruits of his labour making a huge impact on both the charts and on radio.

"One of the most consistent touring acts in Europe - not to mention completing no less than 30 campaigns across America"
- Hot Press - Peter Murphy

MP3 Samples:

TATTOO (1973)
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The Jazz tinged R'n'B track 'They Don't Make Them Like You Anymore' from 'Tattoo' shows how tight Rory's band had become. With an excellent rythm section and superb piano courtesy of Lou Martin, Rory had the best backdrop yet for his guitar solos.

'Tattoo' is a more laid back affair than 'Blueprint' leaving the band more space to experiment with different sounds and styles, even toying with the then fashionable Funk sound on 'Livin' Like A Trucker'.

"The late, great Rory Gallagher departed this world in 1995, yet remains revered among guitarists for his inventive way with blues"
- Record Buyer and Music Collector

MP3 Samples: Livin' Like A Trucker . They Don't Make Them Like You Anymore

BLUEPRINT (1973)
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With the addition of Lou Martin on keyboards and new drummer Rod De'Ath, the blueprint for Rory's new band was formed leading to the appropriately named album. At the time 'Blueprint' became Rory's most successful studio album breaking into the top 20 at number 12 in the UK. Rory was a very prolific songwriter but this was his first studio album in 16 months. This was due to the gruelling tour schedule resulting in the live album together with his guesting on both of the Muddy Waters and Jerry Lee Lewis 'London Sessions'. His time spent with his heroes Muddy and Jerry were for him, amongst the highlights of his life.

"One of the finest blues-rock guitarists ever to grace Britain, Rory Gallagher still remains an inspiration to many" - Classic Rock - Malcolm Dome

LIVE IN EUROPE (1972)
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The best way Rory could have followed up 'Deuce' would have to be with a live album. He did so with his first gold album, 'Live In Europe' which included a number of tracks including "I Could've Had Religion" (a Bob Dylan favourite), a rootsy Chicago Blues style song but with the electrics still switched on. This track has a good example of his versatility with musical instruments in the dual between harmonica and guitar at the end of the song. Naturally both instruments being played by Rory simultaneously.

"Live In Europe, was an almost textbook instruction to both up tempo electric blues rock and acoustic country blues"
- Sid Griffin (Q Magazine)

MP3 Samples: Hoodoo Man . Going To My Hometown

DEUCE (1971)
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A far more raw and electric album than it's predecessor, 'Deuce' was recorded to capture live, concert sound in the studio. The tracks were recorded before and after live shows in order to help gain the live feel. The result is a more mature and heavier album that only surfaces for air on the Folk-Blues track "Crest Of A Wave". and the superb Howlin' Wolf style "Should've Learnt My Lesson". It's no exaggeration to say that there is not a bad moment on the album, in fact, it's probably an underestimation. Johnny Marr of The Smiths cited this album as an influence for him on his early guitar playing.

"Gallagher was the undisputed prince of earthy electric blues"
Get Rhythm - Simon Jones

MP3 Samples: Crest Of A Wave . Should've Learnt My Lesson

RORY GALLAGHER (1971)
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This album entered the UK album charts at number 32, an excellent beginning for a solo career. It contains 10 tracks, all of which are Rory compositions and clearly show the continued blues rock direction that he began with Taste. A trademark of Rory's music is his inclusion into the fusion, jazz and folk instruments like alto sax and mandolin. "I'm Not Surprised" stands out on this album with it's mellow "unplugged" feel and loosely based Blues structure.

"One of the most inspirational guitarists ever, even today 5 years after his death, people still sight Gallagher as a major influence" - Rocks

MP3 Samples: I'm Not Surprised . Sinnerboy