It’s been over seven years now since we lost one of Ireland’s finest guitarists – Gary Moore, and this year has seen both a book and an exhibition and now comes a tribute album from his friends, peers and family.
Hard as it is to cherry pick such a fine career Bob Daisley ‘and friends’ have managed to come up with a selection that should please many while still leaving them wanting more.
From Thin Lizzy to Colosseum II, together with his solo hits ‘Parisienne Walkways’ and ‘Out In The Fields’, Gary influenced a whole generation of guitar players and guitar playing. This album comes from bassist/producer Bob Daisley who had played with Gary since the 1980’s, and was the first to suggest to Gary that he should make a blues album – the rest, as they say is history
In putting together the album Daisley asked many members of the Gary Moore family tree, and some other great players, to contribute to the project. The response was not only encouraging, but very moving. The album though is certainly not a ‘by numbers’ effort – as Daisley says – “I didn’t set out to recreate anything that Gary had done, or to compete in any way, these arrangements and performances represent a ‘hats off’ to Gary and nothing more. Long live the memory of Robert William Gary Moore”.
What you get of course is an echo of those wonderful songs, though the arrangements do let the songs breathe rather and whilst the guitar-led tracks like ‘Still Got the Blues’ and ‘Texas Blues’ unmistakably recycle Moore’s distinctive guitar lines, tracks like ‘Empty Rooms’ are far from literal. It all goes to make a nice mix and a rather fitting tribute t the great man.
Highlights for me have to be the team-up of Danny Bowes (Thunder) and John Sykes (Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake) on ‘Still Got The Blues’; and Ricky Warwick (Thin Lizzy, Black Star Riders, The Almighty) and DeepPurple’s Steve Morse on ‘Parisienne Walkways’ both of which are real magic.
The album also sees appearances by Gary’s longtime sidekick, multi-instrumentalist Neil Carter, Don Airey (Deep Purple, Rainbow) and Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple). There’s also Eric Singer (Kiss), Darrin Mooney (Primal Scream), Brush Shiels (Skid Row), Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake, Dio), Steve Lukather (Toto), Joe Lynn Turner (Rainbow), Jeff Watson (Night Ranger), Damon Johnson (Black Star Riders, Alice Cooper) and Stan Webb (Chicken Shack).
Gary’s sons Jack and Gus are also involved, playing guitar and singing on ‘This One’s For You’, showing that the ‘Blood Of Emeralds’ still runs their veins.
Definitely one to enjoy!
