Rory Gallagher

Did I spell it right?

Anyway, here in the UK I've just sat through an evening documentary on Rory followed by a recorded performance of one of his concerts. I had always heard people talk about him but never really engaged with his music. Well, now i have and all i can say is - Wow! What a player...somewhere between Gary Moore and Hendrix perhaps.....

I feel a bit of an arse for not having engaged with his music much earlier - but i am also reminded how nice it is that the guitar introduces you to such good stuff.

What do you all think of Rory? Anyone see him live? Did you rate him as good when he was around? Who was your last guitar discovery?

rory is awesome. my second ever concert experience was seeing him.

Check out the comment from Hendrix when asked about who is the best guitar player. I wore out more copies of Irish Tour than any other record I owned and have been listening to Gallagher since the "Taste" days. Super talent, great songwriter and player and was an all-around nice guy. I remember after one show he was sitting in the corner nursing a beer and shooting the breeze with a few of us. Some great vids on YouTube. Here's one of my faves:

[youtube]rDNP-NEe2C8[/youtube]

Hey Jonc - Nice anecdote

What albums would you recommend I should start with as an introduction to Rory? Any suggestions of where to start or should i just wade in at any point of his career?

i have another suggestion for you. alvin lee. with ten years after. phenomenal player. the best guitar player that played at woodstock.

Suggest you start with Irish Tour as it covers pretty much what Rory was about and then explore from there. Btw, his drummer Rod de'Ath was a great foil for him (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_de'Ath), and there are many clips on YouTube that span the next 5 or so years, which are worth a look/listen. Good call on Alvin Lee. Others you might want to take a listen to; Kim Simmonds (from middle-period Savoy Brown, though the real talent on these records was vocalist Chris Youlden), Peter Haycock (Climax Chicago Blues Band), and Jim McCarty, who is not too well know, but played some smoking guitar on the three Cactus albums (Cactus, One Way... Or Another, Restrictions) and before that with Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels. I'd also recommend listening to Rod Price on the early Foghat albums with Chateau Lafite 59 Boogie being a great example of his slide playing. Finally, and even if you can't stand Lou Reed, everyone needs to listen to Rock and Roll Animal. The dual guitars of Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner are still amazing. Ok, one more - - Robin Trower, Bride Of Sighs. Of course there are many others like Steve Marriott, Paul Kossoff, and Mick Ralphs. I could probably go on.

I feel a bit of an arse for not having engaged with his music much earlier - but i am also reminded how nice it is that the guitar introduces you to such good stuff.

A big +1. It still blows my mind that I was 40 years old before I ever heard his stuff. Here's my similar post a while back:

http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=3972

I love Rory, he'one of my favorite guitar player. I love him so bad that I've created a forum dedicated to him and his music, it's in french language, and it's here:

http://rory-gallagher.forumactif.org/

Fell free to join us, you can write in english, no problem.