Joe Bonamassa Plays Rory Gallagher
Live at the Marquee, Cork
★★★★★
Performing successful albums in their entirety is a wheeze popular with acts needing to tour to pay their way when the record industry no longer works for most artists.
Performing somebody else’s album in its entirety is perhaps a first. Rory Gallagher’s live album Irish Tour ’74 inspired generations of guitarists with a passion that matched his technical ability.
Among them was the American blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa, who, now 48, wasn’t even born when Gallagher was touring Ireland, but he was inspired by this record that he played to death as a kid.
On stage on Tuesday, Bonamassa recalls that when the promoter Peter Aiken asked if he would like to play an entire set of Gallagher covers in Gallagher’s hometown of Cork, he responded “F***, yeah”, but when he thought about what he had let himself in for he added another four-letter expletive, this one beginning with an S.
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Bonamassa’s sartorial style is a world and a generation apart from Gallagher’s checked shirt and jeans – a blue-collar uniform for a blue-collar guy. Bonamassa’s neat waistcoat and matching shirt and trousers make him look a bit like a waiter at an expensive wedding, but appearance isn’t everything.
The American’s admiration for Gallagher is as genuine as his passion – and as their mutual love of Fender’s most famous instrument. “Where’s the f***ing Stratocaster?” Bonamassa teases the audience. He’s referring to Gallagher’s battered and chipped 1961 model, which is to go on show at the National Museum of Ireland after being bought at auction for €1 million plus change last year, and donated to the State.
Weeks of rehearsals have paid off for Bonamassa, as his band, with a couple of Irish musicians, are as tight as a submarine door. The set list from Gallagher’s 1974 tour dominates the evening: Cradle Rock is followed by Walk on Hot Coals and Tattoo’d Lady, a song that shows Gallagher was much more than just a blues guitarist. He could write exceptional songs and lyrics.
There’s a fan-favourite moment when Gallagher’s long-term bassist and friend Gerry McAvoy bounds on stage with a chipped and peeled blue bass that, like Gallagher’s famous Stratocaster, could tell many stories if only it could talk. He looks as glad to be there as the audience are to see him.
These three concerts – Bonamassa plays again on Wednesday and Thursday – have been organised to mark 30 years since Gallagher’s premature death, at the age of 47, in 1995. He would have been 77 today – which is to say younger than Neil Young, who at 79 has just headlined Glastonbury.
There will always be thoughts of what might have been, but Gallagher gave everything to his craft both on and off stage, and his legacy is secure. Bonamassa pays due homage while showcasing his own abilities. Truly, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
