An invitation to play at the Baloise Session is a kitemark of quality. On being invited, Irish blues rock guitar icon Gary Moore was following in the footsteps of primo talent like James Brown, Ray Charles and Eric Clapton, as being asked to tread the boards here suggests the artist concerned is at the top of his/her game and deserving of a seat at the top table.
Gary Moore was widely respected in every band he played in .. Skid Row, Thin Lizzy and Colosseum 2 .. and while he became a guitar hero, he never became a ‘star’ because he always followed his own muse. Once the thrill had gone (sorry!) he would up and leave, even if stardom was on the horizon. He was never taken into the hearts of the great British public. Most people know Clapton, Beck, and Page, though few outside the rock fraternity had ever heard of Gary Moore. However, he did help write the book on playing rock, blues and occasionally metal, even playing some jazz fusion with Colosseum 2.
With just a three-piece band behind him, Pete Rees (bass) Vic Martin (keys) and Lizzy’s Brian Downey (drums), Moore wandered onstage and showed the crowd at Baloise just why he was so feted amongst his contemporaries. ‘Oh Pretty Woman,’ from Still Got The Blues, was his opening statement, making clear we’re in for an evening of up-tempo, foot pressed firmly down on the pedal blues rock. He follows this with BB King’s ‘Since I Met You Baby,’ which was straight out of the John Mayall playbook, with not too much in the way of blues but plenty of guitar shredding. Chuck Berry’s ‘Thirty Days (to get back home)’ is much faster than the original version, and with a lot more guitar than Chuck ever played.
But then came Al Kooper’s ‘I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know,’ the first real blues in the set, and for this reviewer the best track on the album, proving Moore is able to play blues as a bluesman rather than a guitar hero, as he puts real ‘feeling’ into his vocals and especially in the somewhat restrained solo. Thin Lizzy’s ‘Don’t Believe A Word,’ from their Johnny the Fox album, is played in two halves, the first half as a slow blues, with Moore’s playing redolent of Peter Green, before the track speeds up to become the version Lizzy fans would know.
Two songs from Still Got The Blues follow, the title track, which reached no:31 in the charts in 1990, and the driving, up-tempo ‘Walking By Myself,’ before he encores with ‘The Blues Is Alright,’ from After Hours, another one straight from the John Mayall playbook, which sees Moore engaging in another lengthy bout of guitar shredding while encouraging the audience to sing along to the chorus.
For a bluesman, this was a good rock show. That Gary Moore knows his way up and down a fretboard is not in dispute but just as with blues men like Joe Bonamassa, I’d much rather hear less lightning-fast solos and a greater emphasis on playing the blues, getting more out of fewer notes.Â
