Joe Bonamassa has never been one to let the grass grow under his feet and, over the years, he has conducted various live shows that have played tribute to the Blues’ greats – with the Three Kings shows in the US and the British Blues Invasion shows here in the UK being great examples that found their way to film.
Here, however, we have something a little different. While Joe has never made a secret of his lifelong admiration for Irish blues legend Rory Gallagher, the inspiration for this special set came from not from Joe and his team but from Donal Gallagher, Rory’s brother and curator of his legend. The result is a tribute that Joe subsequently described as “one of the biggest challenges” of his musical life. Of course, once the suit goes on and the sunglasses come out, you’d be hard-pressed to see much in the way of Joe’s nerves, yet there is a certain frisson to this live album (culled from a trio of live shows) that helps to separate it from the pack.
Perhaps adding to the sense that this is something different is the fact that Joe hit the stage with a very different band to normal. With Jeremy Stacey on drums, local guitarist Conor Brady, and bassist Aongus Ralston [The Waterboys], only the irrepressible Lachy Doley remains from his current line up on keyboards. This, and the fact that he had Gallagher’s own 1930 National Triolian resonator guitar on stage for As The Crow Flies makes for a truly unique offering in the Bonamassa archives.
Formats
As with the previous two live sets (2023’s Tales Of Time and 2024’s Live At The Hollywood Bowl With Orchestra), Spirit Of Rory is available on LP, CD/DVD, and CD/Blu Ray.
While it’s always good to have a visual document of a live show included in the set, the film this time around is slightly disappointing. While it looks, of course, amazing, the direction focuses heavily on Joe for extended periods of time. As a result, while we get plenty of close ups of Joe’s exquisite solos, we also get a number of shots of him wandering the stage, with the rest of the band either swathed in darkness or filmed at a distance. That’s not to say they don’t get their moments to shine (Aongus is seen rocking out during Bullfrog Blues and Lachy seems to get a fair bit of attention) but, overall, the filming feels less dynamic than normal. Nevertheless, this is a minor criticism of an otherwise excellent set.
The DVD / Blu Ray discs also include a handful of bonus features including Ballycotton – A Million Miles Away, Rory’s Acoustic Guitar, and The Inspiration of Rory (A Conversation with Brian May & Slash). These little extras, while not available at time of writing, appear to add greater depth to the story and flesh out a concert that was clearly very close to Joe’s heart.
The concert
The show opens with a stinging rendition of Cradle Rock – previously covered by Joe on A New Day Yesterday – the audience’s cheers ringing out loud and clear over that oh-so-familiar riff. Any nerves Joe may have had are soon burned away in the white-hot furnace of Rory’s indelible riffs, drummer Jeremy adding a dirty shuffle to proceedings that is given further weight by Lachy’s keys. As opening gambits go, it’s a strong one and it’s cool to hear Joe launching himself at the track with such vigour. He follows it up with On Hot Coals, a classic that always subverted expectations thanks to a hulking great intro that gives way to something altogether slinkier. And then, of course, there’s the evergreen Tattoo’d Lady, which still sounds like the greatest song Thin Lizzy never wrote. Here it’s played with brio by Joe and his band and it’s a rare listener who can put this on and not find their foot tapping along in time to the music.
In a move that will probably be seen as heresy, I can’t help but feel that the likes of I Wonder Who are more effective than the pyrotechnic-fuelled opening tracks. While hearing Joe blazing away like a man possessed can never a bad thing be, when he digs deep to reveal his soulful side, it feels like there’s a stronger emotional connection to the material and, when he hands over to Lachy for a lengthy solo, the sustained cheers suggest the audience feel it too. Joe stays in mid-tempo territory with an excellent rendition of Calling Card, his deft touch on the guitar really giving life to the solo. Like the best blues covers, it finds Joe playing tribute to the spirit of the song rather than the letter and you can feel his love for the source material shining through in his performance. It segues directly into the slide-driven Delta stomp of Who’s That Coming?, a cracking song that has influenced any number of blues and southern rock bands over the intervening years. An extended masterclass in driving blues rock, it forms a powerful centrepiece to the show.
Having explored Rory’s soulful side, Joe kicks out the jams with two rocking numbers back-to-back – a scintillating Messin’ With The Kid followed by ramshackle rocker Bullfrog Blues, this latter delivered with toe-tapping flourish by a band clearly enjoying the hell out of themselves. No less electrifying is Treat Her Right, which Joe uses as a dizzying showcase for his ever-evolving fretwork, the frantic riffing that brings the piece to an end part Rory Gallagher punch, part dirty Cream groove. It’s followed by Bad Penny which, while marginally more laid back, is still possessed of some fiery leads.
A real highlight of the show is the lovely I Fall Apart. With an emotion-laden melody, it feels like a spiritual sequel to Joe’s evergreen take on Sloe Gin shot through with elements of Pink Floyd and Procul Harum for good measure. It’s followed A Million Miles Away, which finds the entire crowd clapping along. Arguably the single clearest example of Rory’s longstanding influence on Guns ‘n’ Roses, the easy groove and massive chorus effortlessly keep the listener hooked for the duration of the song.
Joe has a treat in store next as he brings Rory’s Resonator guitar out for an epic As The Crow Flies. It’s an emotional moment and you can tell that Joe and his band are as affected by it as the audience, making it all the more amazing that it was captured for posterity on this excellent live set. It leaves a wild-eyed, slide-soaked Back On My Stompin’ Ground to wrap things up, Joe offering one last salute to Rory with a smile on his face and a spring in his step.
Honestly, I’ve never been too much of a fan of tribute albums as, all too often, they devolve into simple hero worship. Here, however, Joe takes set of beloved Rory classics and, in the face of a fiercely partisan audience, makes them his own. It’s a remarkable performance, delivered by one of the greatest bluesmen currently treading the boards, and it will leave you with a desire to listen to more Rory Gallagher and to more Joe Bonamassa – one hell of a result all told. 9/10
