Rory Gallagher

★★★★

Rory Gallagher: 50th Anniversary Edition

UMC. CD/DL/LP

Solo debut by Co. Donegal guitar great gets five-disc box set treatment.

Having left Taste in 1970 due to managerial/intraband tensions, everything clicked for Rory Gallagher in his new, self-named power trio. Led Zeppelin’s Peter Grant helped nail a lucrative deal with Polydor, Eddie Offord engineered while Rory produced, and Gallagher’s new Belfast-raised foils Gerry McAvoy (bass) and Wilgar Campbell (drums) nourished his electric/acoustic blues vision via a hard-hitting telepathy. A typically gutsy “Pop Deux” concert filmed for French TV in 1971 – Gallagher a magus in double denim; five choice Rory

Gallagher tracks premiered a month before the LP’s release – offers delicious context here, while the accompanying hardback book with informative essays by McAvoy and RG’s brother Dónal will delight aficionados. BBC Radio session tracks cement the notion that Gallagher brought his all to every show (try his take on Otis Rush’s It Takes Time).