Watch: Rory Gallagher Ghost Blues DVD

A soul full of passion and the Irish blues: the recent documentary Ghost Blues pays tribute to the late Irish guitarist. Out now on Eagle Rock; video clips, below.

BY MARY LEARY

Rory Gallagher's story is the sort that makes me wish I'd held onto those superlatives squandered on several other reviews. No other European blues maker has managed the precarious mix of heat, charisma, and decency that came naturally to the perennially tousled multi-instrumentalist from Cork (born in Ballyshannon), who made his name with a passionately mangled Fender Strat. So many listeners felt similarly that Gallagher leapt over Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, John McLaughlin(!), and Pete Townsend for Melody Maker's "best guitarist of the year " spot in 1973.

The ramshackle fire of Van Morrison has been something of a psychic cousin. But Gallagher's need to be a pure blues channel bristled with a fervor that would typically be characterized as religious or political. Per Bob Geldof in Ghost Blues: The Story of Rory Gallagher (Eagle Rock), "Rory always struck me as a priest with long hair - you know, that quiet sort of Cork thing. And he could've been in a seminary... except his chalice was his guitar and his prayers were the blues." Call this a spoiler or a warning, but when the film got to Gallagher's illness, and death (in 1995, from post-liver transplant complications), I cried - at the sadness of his demise, at realizing a world without his presence, and at the homages erected in his honor. It's hard to imagine anyone who wouldn't respond to the faces of  Rory's brother Donal, The Edge, and the Mayor of Dublin at the 2006 unveiling of a diminutive bronze Stratocaster at Meeting House Square. The ceremony brims with the love - and sense of wonder -- Gallagher elicited, from all accounts, from just about everyone who knew him.

Gallagher first burst into my consciousness in the mid -‘70s. Full of startling kinetics, the piece of dynamite, which he called "Walk on Hot Coals," stunned with much more than sound: If any white man could make you believe he knew something about walking on hot coals, this was the one. As with several U.K. players, including Fleetwood Mac and Savoy Brown, he wove the essence of the blues with his own narratives. Especially with breakout trio Taste, Gallagher combined blues with jazz, rock, and Irish folk. In his solo work - the bulk of his career - the bigger emphasis on pure blues was colored by idiosyncratic rhythms that seem to have hybridized from immersion in Irish folk, skiffle, rock, and Django Reinhardt. Another GB commentator says Gallagher created his own genre, "Irish blues."

Ghost Blues peppers biography and performance footage with the observations and recollections of family, band mates, and the bevy of musicians inspired by Gallagher. Johnny Marr is typically enthusiastic: "I once saw him change a string without stopping the song. Just for that alone there should be a monument to him." Cameron Crowe shares his experiences of touring and drinking with Rory, who was so self-effacing that he feared audiences wouldn't welcome him once his health and appearance were on a downward spiral. In the second disc, The Beat Club Sessions, Gallagher thanks the audience sincerely, without any sense of "showmanship," every time he speaks.

Several commentators mention Gallagher's role in opening a door for Irish rockers.  Fantastic - but we understand more about the emotion he inspired in his countrymen when GB gets into his refusal to cancel tours through areas particularly wracked by the Civil War. One of the film's most expressive talking heads, Hot Press editor Niall Stokes explains, "He was the ultimate hero there. And he did cross that sectarian divide that was such a phenomenon in Northern Ireland. In the context of the most intense conflict, people from both sides of the divide came to see Rory at those great gigs at the Ulster hall... and it's a reflection of the real connection that he made with people at a grassroots level, where the ordinary people felt connected to something magic and something brilliant." Bassist Gerry McAvoy: remembers "...the first concert, the first night. It would've been Christmas, '71 or '72. We did this show, and there was bombs going off - about six bombs went off around the city centre the night of the concert."

Rory's take on the situation characteristically dodges any posture that could invite idolatry; shifting the focus: "There's always a great audience in Ulster - it's a pity almost no one else goes to play there."

It's no surprise when this long-awaited, first fully-authorized documentary consistently absorbs with riveting footage, the kind of story "you can't make up," and the anecdotes of folks bursting to share them.

Those keen for more concise sonic gold will find the bonus The Beat Club Sessions zooming in on Gallagher at an elated, vigorous peak (two sets, from'71 and '72, in Bremen, Germany). He's bolstered by a rhythm section (McAvoy/bass; Wilgar Campbell/drums) remarkably in sync with his nuances. No wonder Blind Faith had Rory (with Taste) join its sole American tour: the boy blisters from start to finish. "Hands Up" is full of leonine flare (Gallagher sang like Clapton, with more backbone and roar). "In Your Town" has an intensity not too far from The Sonics' "Have Love, Will Travel" - the backbeat's more upbeat, and the tone may be cleaner, but the floor's still covered with cinders. Pulse-quickeners are tempered by the romantic lyricism of "Just The Smile," and the restrained momentum of acoustic picking on Blind Boy Fuller's "Pistol Slapper Blues." Other favorites include the hummable original, "I Don't Know Where I'm Going" (which could have been one of the singles Gallagher refused to make despite music industry pressure). Chills may be induced by the casual vibrato with which he slashes into Junior Wells' "Messin' with the Kid."

Slide wizardry, tones and tricks that could make Jimi Hendrix look up from his dinner are all here. But the ultimate draw is the joy Rory took in performing. His guitars were just appendages. His voice was just a mouthpiece for a soul full of passions that were, in his own words, "in me all the time, and not just something I turn on."

The Beat Club Sessions is also available on audio CD.

[Photo Credit: Harry Potts, via Wikimedia Commons]

Below: In Your Town and I Don't Know Where I'm Going, plus the film's official trailer.