Gary More Live – From Baloise Session is due out on 23rd May from Provogue Records, featuring the Irish guitar hero, with a very special guest making an appearance behind the drumkit you’ll not want to miss.
We didn’t know it then, but when Moore took the stage for the Baloise Session back on 13th November in 2008, he was less than three years away from his untimely passing at the age of 58. Yet this very special performance – Captured for the Live From Baloise Session reminds us that the guitarist played with untouchable skill and molten soul, right to the end.
It’s hard to imagine a finer showcase for Moore’s cask-seasoned talent than Baloise Session. Far from the mud and melee of a traditional festival, the event held in Basel, Switzerland – Formerly known as AVO Session – is an intimate encounter with A-list artists, where discerning music-lovers sit at lamp-lit tables modelled on the vintage after-hours clubs of New York, soaking up the set with no distractions.
From Ray Charles and James Brown to Elton John and Eric Clapton, an invitation to the Baloise Session is the stamp of an all-time musical great – and there’s no doubt that Moore belongs in that number.
Gary Moore at full throttle was a spectacle in rock ‘n’ roll. From his formative years out on the boards of late-’60s Dublin with Skid Row, through his ’70s gunslinger shifts for Thin Lizzy – onto an ever-evolving solo career that rewrote the book for blues, rock, metal and more – the Irishman attacked every show like it was both his first and last, shrugging off his hallowed reputation and earning his place amongst the greats all over again.
One setlist could never contain it all. Live From Baloise Session, however, is a fist-tight, fat-trimmed distillation of everything that made Moore the blues master, hitting all the marks you’d hope to see from a late-period live set by this deathless artist.
With no fuss or fanfare, the bandleader – flanked by Pete Rees on bass, Vic Martin on keys and fabled Thin Lizzy drummer Brian Downey – walks from the wings, plugs his Les Paul into twin Marshall stacks and fires up ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’ (the fiery Albert King cover that was a highlight of Still Got The Blues). As a statement of intent, it’s stinging, and as Moore soothes and strangles his first solo of the night, you’re reminded of Joe Bonamassa’s sage observation: “Gary’s approach to soloing was like placing a brick on a car’s gas pedal — The brick would go down, and he would never stop!”
Strapping on a Gibson ES335, Moore then tears into his own ‘Since I Met You Baby’ (a spring-heeled groove from 1992’s After Hours, whose studio version featured a guesting B.B. King).
This vintage Baloise Session performance serves as a reminder of all the Irishman did in his lifetime to leave his beloved genre in the best health. The likes of Gary Moore will not come again, but while this deathless music plays, he still walks amongst us, his power undimmed.
Gary More Live – From Baloise Session will be released on CD/Blu-Ray, 2LP blue and also marble yellow flame (web exclusive) as well as being available digitally. Tracks featured are: ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’, ‘Since I Met You Baby’, ‘Thirty Days (To Come Back Home)’, ‘I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know’, ‘Don’t Believe A Word’, ‘Still Got The Blues’, ‘Walking By Myself’ and ‘The Blues Is Alright’.
Check out the live video for ‘Since I Met You Baby’ as a first taster of what’s to come.
