Review: Gary Moore ‘Live From Baloise Session’

Review: Gary Moore ‘Live From Baloise Session’

By Hal Horowitz

Some blues musicians coddle their guitars, connecting with their instruments in more personal, intimate ways. Ireland’s Gary Moore took a different tactic. He confronted those six strings, wrestled ‘em to the ground and squeezed every ounce of sound out of them until they screamed ‘No mas.” He didn’t play his guitar, he attacked it.

Much of that aggression originated in the hard rock and heavy metal Moore started his career playing. He was a member of groups like Skid Row and Thin Lizzy, in addition to releasing solo albums chiseled in the more belligerent attitude of those bands.

But in 1990 Moore dove into the blues pool with the magnificent ‘Still Got the Blues.’ Despite a few side projects that found him touching on prog, jazz fusion and edgier music (a 1994 one-off with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce clearly tilted towards Cream), he stuck with that style until his untimely 2011 death at just 58.

Moore’s molten, at times volcanic, tone combined flurries of fleet-fingered note clusters with intervals of sustain and creative use of feedback, making his playing unique, especially in the crowded blues rock field.

Additionally, his gutsy, bellowing voice was instantly recognizable; a superb singer even without the high-wire fretboard gymnastics he was more than capable of shooting out at will. Moore’s guitar was as identifiable as that of Peter Green, a major influence and one to whom he dedicated an entire album of covers (‘Blues for Greeny,’ one of many highlights in his thick blues series).

Even though those blues years were relatively brief, he was prolific. Not only were there a dozen or so studio sets, but his popularity in Europe, where he mostly played, created an audience for live albums, of which there are plenty. And DVDs too, including a three disc set culled from his many appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

That brings us to ‘Live From Baloise Session,’ the latest addition to his already bulging catalog. This CD/DVD, recorded in Switzerland in 2008, captures Moore and his veteran backing trio cranking out the sometimes frantic, occasionally heartfelt, always impassioned playing that characterized his approach.

The eight-song, 50-minute set, finds the guitarist fired up, kicking off with blistering takes on Albert King’s “Oh Pretty Woman,” his own fast shuffle “Since I Met You Baby” and a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Thirty Days (To Come Back Home).” He prowls the large stage like a leopard on the hunt, peeling-off shards of notes with casual intensity and a no-nonsense facial expression displaying a dogged dedication to his music.

Even when the mood slows as he glides into Al Kooper’s “I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know,” and a tribute to his old buddies with a scorching revisit to Thin Lizzy’s “Don’t Believe a Word,” along with his own classic, “Still Got the Blues,” Moore’s fat notes and fervent singing go for the jugular. A spirited, high-voltage version of the iconic “Walking by Myself,” a Moore concert staple, upshifts into the red and gets the crowd off their chairs.

It’s an electrified if rather brief show, displaying Moore’s powerful, relentless, and ferocious playing. The camera work on the video and professionally recorded audio captures it with remarkable clarity.

Moore never attracted a substantial audience in the States, yet ‘Live-From Beloise Session’ is more proof that it wasn’t for lack of talent. He may be gone, but his music stays alive and fierce, delivering a template to younger players on how to do blues rocking right.

“Walking By Myself”