Devoted followers of Sixties guitar gods always have a place in their prayer book for players like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and The Who’s Pete Townshend. It would be a sin if they forgot to turn the page to Rory Gallagher.

Like Hendrix, Gallagher left this world way too early, but his legacy doesn’t seem to be as fully appreciated. While Hendrix’s catalog continues to be explored (or exploited), Gallagher’s deep well of blues, folk, and rock material has yet to find its way into a box set.

Until it does, the recently released Crest of a Wave: The Best of Rory Gallagher (Eagle Rock Entertainment) answers some of his fans’ prayers. Years before U2’s explosion, as Billboard magazine’s Ed Christman points out in the album’s three-page career retrospective, it was Gallagher who put Ireland of the rock map. There was a bona fide, electrified style and grace as traditional Irish instruments like bagpipes and fiddles went temporarily back in the attic. Gallagher eventually played with blues legends such as Muddy Waters and Albert King, and was invited by the Rolling Stones to replace Mick Taylor. Talk about standing on holy ground.

Gallagher, 47 years old when he died in 1995 after years of excessive alcohol use, was not only a phenomenal player but an extraordinary performer. And while seemingly millions claim to have witnessed Hendrix, Townshend and Ten Years After’s Alvin Lee wreak havoc at Woodstock during the glorious summer of ’69, I was one of the few thousand who had the privilege of seeing two master musicians play it straight a few weeks earlier in Chicago. Gallagher invaded America for the first time as the frontman for a Cream-like powerhouse trio named Taste, and they opened the show for Clapton’s supergroup formation of Blind Faith that included Steve Winwood and Ginger Baker.

Article Author: Michael Bialas

A newspaper editor and former college football player, Michael Bialas makes sports his business but exploring and reviewing music, movies, TV and other forms of pop culture are among the games he enjoys playing now.
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