Irish Tour
RORY GALLAGHER
(Buddha)
When people discuss the pantheon of guitar gods, the name Rory Gallagher rarely comes up. The late Irishman is one of the most underrated ax men in rock annals. He was also an accomplished songwriter and singer, boasting a throaty growl teeming with emotion. Irish Tour finds Gallagher in top form, backed by bass, drums and some killer organ runs courtesy of Lou Martin. The disc contains nine monster cuts, ranging from Gallagher's slide/acoustic cover of Tony Joe White's "As the Crow Flies" to the definitive, nine-minutes-plus version of his signature song "A Million Miles Away," a cathartic masterstroke about being wasted and lonely at a hotel bar far from home.
This article appears in Oct 17-23, 2007.