So in honor of St. Patrick’s Day and my McCloskey ancestors, yes, they are the ones that my wife keeps finding newspaper articles about often being arrested in Beverly. Mostly for drunk and disorderly behavior including, my great-grandmother Margaret McCloskey Ashton, I listened to some Irish blues men, Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore. Now Rory Gallagher is one of those artist that I’ve heard the name and never really listened to their music, while Garry Moore I’ve heard and really like. The Gallagher album that I chose was Live at Montreux and is a collection of recording made during his performances in 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1985. Overall, I liked the album, but it was a little more blues rocky than the blues I usually listen to. There was one song that stood out on my second listen “Out on the Western Plain”. That track had a really neat acoustic sounding guitar. Also “Last of the Independents” and “Mississippi Sheiks” stood out. There are some good reviews at Amazon from fans who know more than me about Gallagher. Sadly, Gallagher passed away from complications after a liver transplant in 1995 at the age of 47. Also, I was surprised to read at Amazon that Hendrix rated Gallagher second to himself as a guitarist. I guess I will have to listen to some more Rory Gallagher!
Gary Moore is straight up blues. The former Thin Lizzy along with other bands guitarist is just a flat out guitar wizard in my opinion. The album 
I listened to today was his 2006 release Old New Ballads Blues and it is at times a really great album overall I don’t like the album as much as his 2008 release Bad for You
Baby which is a flat out great blues album! Here’s a nice review about that album from Blogcritics.
I also tried to listen again to this year’s Grammy winner in the Traditional Blues category Ramblin’ Jack Elliot’s A Stranger Here. I know he is a folk and Americana icon but I never have listened to a lot of his music and I just can’t get into this album. There are moments, but they are too rare to make this a great listen for me.
Here’s some Gary Moore! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O_YMLDvvnw