Released by: Eagle Rock Ent
Release Date: September 20th, 2011
Genre: Rock Blues
Links: http://www.gary-moore.com/
Tracklist:
“Live At Montreux 2010” track listing:
01. Over The Hills And Far Away
02. Thunder Rising (not on CD)
03. Military Man
04. Days Of Heroes
05. Where Are You Now?
06. So Far Away / Empty Rooms
07. Oh Wild One
08. Blood Of Emeralds
09. Out In The Fields
10. Still Got The Blues (not on CD)
11. Walking By Myself
12. Johnny Boy
13. Parisienne Walkways
Bonus – Live At Montreux 1997:
14. One Good Reason (not on CD)
15. Oh Pretty Woman (not on CD)
16. Still Got The Blues (not on CD)
17. Walking By Myself (not on CD)
When a fallen guitar great like Gary Moore passes away, you can’t help but feel sadness and at the same time rejoice for the vast amount of work he left the music world. When we look back at some of the best guitar players of our time that have gone too soon, we look at names like Hendrix, and Stevie Ray Vaughn that instantly come to mind. Course there are more and before thinking about how to even put into words the immense talent that native from Belfast constituted to the world, I had to take a step back and show a timeline from a career that started at the very tender age of 9 when Moore picked up a guitar and learn how to play.
As an early influence on Gary was the legendary British Blues Rock guitarist Peter Green, who was also the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac. Moore paid a tribute to Green on his 1995 album Blues for Greeny, an album consisting entirely of Green compositions. On this tribute album, Moore played Green’s 1959 Les Paul Standard guitar which Green had lent to Moore after leaving Fleetwood Mac. This should give you an image of what type of music Moore was moved by and later implied to form his own playing style.
Obviously we probably remember Gary for his sting in Thin Lizzy, where he jumped on board for the “Black Rose” album. Following the tradition of great Irish guitar players, such as Rory Gallagher or David Evans aka U2’s The Edge although his status was more cult especially here in the USA then overseas. Moore’s solo career jumped between early rock, hard rock into more traditional blues sounds later in the middle of his solo sting as an artist. But Gary wasn’t your conventional Blues guitar man, he had a unique way of using his vibrato and a distinct form of simplifying his guitar tone that was just magnificent. In the past he had talked about knowing how to use “space” in between guitar licks, when initially learning how to master the blues. The amazing crisp sounds that would come out of his guitars was always captivating no matter which style he helped transgressed.
I guess it was fitting that his last filmed performance came at last year’s Montreux festival, one of the most prestigious music events on the planet. Gary was fortunate enough to have been invited to play there 6 times during his illustrious career. The most memorable and one of my personal favorite live performance is the 1995 Live Montreux DVD with his band The Midnight Blues. This fine performance really shined the spotlight on the ferocious attack on the fret board by Moore, and on hand to help him out we’re people like legendary blues guitar man Albert King.
This DVD released by Eagle Rock sets the tone last year and has Gary taking center stage performing some crowd classics, along with 3 new songs that we’re said to be part of a new Rock album Moore was working on. The songs “Days Of Heroes,” “Where Are You Now” and “Oh Wild One,” prove to be a more straight forward rock sound, with some golden touch of soloing from the master himself. I guess we won’t ever know how the album would of turned out, but I find it interesting that for an artist of Moore’s caliber who had abandoned the Rock sound for such a long time, and to have successfully had a charged career making Blues Rock, that he would be working on a Rock album again to me speaks volume and perhaps we can get more tracks unreleased of this album at some point in the future.
Some more classic cuts are displayed with “So Far Away/Empty Rooms” and “Out In The Fields”all come roaring back memories of Ireland and his trademark landmark album “Wild Frontier” and his connection to the motherland Ireland. I have to admit that one of those songs that I could hear 30 years later down the line and still have that same impact on my ears and soul, is the exquisiteness of “Still Got The Blues” a song which to me shows you how a beautifully done composition can be displayed when a gifted guitar man like Moore belches unrelenting supremacy of his wizardry chords. The set ends with the classic “Parisienne Walkways” which plays itself well despite the muddle voice of Gary.
The reality here is that you have to compare and take into consideration the work of art from a legendary guitar player like Moore, and to witness this last performance will probably bring moments of nostalgia for most fans if not sadness. He had clearly lost a step in his vocal abilities, I always thought he possessed a solid vocal range for someone who took main duties with his guitar. The years do show a bit of tear on his range, but never on his chords, this is a final step into the limelight for what some consider one of the best guitar players that ever lived, a high praise that are only worthy of the sum of it’s parts and the total sum was extremely satisfying. I think for generations to come we will forever be in debt to a classy guitar player like Gary Moore, from his signature Signature Les Paul BFG to the ingenious power to touch people with strings. An artist that was able to transcend into different genres and win that battle is something to me that I came to respect furthermore and for that you have to give him his dues even more. Don’t you worry Gary you will be playing in in perpetuum, forevermore in those Parisienne Walkways. Cheers!!!
“Looking back at the photographs.
Those summerdays spent outside corner cafes.
Oh, I could write you paragraphs,
About my old Parisienne days.”
Written by Denys
Ratings Denys 8/10
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