Officially Speaking (vinyl division): Acoustic Rory Gallagher!! Cleveland 1972

 

RORY GALLAGHER

Cleveland Calling

(Chess Records/Universal Music)

VENUE: Live WNCR-FM radio broadcast from Agency Recordings Studio, Cleveland Ohio; August 7th, 1972

SOUND QUALITY: Pretty darn good, actually, given the antiquated original source material. If you want to be overly-critical, there’s a lack of depth to the performances, which are missing the electrifying dynamic present on most of Gallagher’s records. However, the nature of an acoustic performance covers a lot of sonic flaws as there are not as many layers to capture – just the magic of a man and his guitar, his voice, and his harmonica – another gig played by a bluesman older in spirit than his young age (24) would suggest. 

COVER: Simple but effective major label quality packaging with separate B&W photos of the legendary Irish guitarist on the front and rear covers and an overall neutral greyish tone. The inner sleeve is in color with track listing and credits, and photos of the current in-print Rory Gallagher album catalog should newbies wish to discover more great music from the gifted guitarist.

TRACKLIST: (Side A) Pistol Slapper Blues • Don’t Know Where I’m Going • Gypsy Woman • Out of My Mind (Side B) The Cuckoo • Banker’s Blues • Should’ve Learned My Lesson • Blow Wind Blow

COMMENTS: Like many a U.K. youth in the 1950s, Irish blues-rock guitarist Rory Gallagher found early inspiration in popular skiffle artist Lonnie Donegan. Gallagher began playing guitar at the tender age of nine years old, and bought his first electric guitar (a Stratocaster) at the age of twelve. Listening to Radio Luxembourg and the American Forces Network (AFN) late at night, Gallagher broadened his musical palette with early rock ‘n’ roll influences like Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. It was when he discovered the music of Muddy Waters that he fell in love with the blues and, throughout his teenage years, he would play a mix of folk, blues, and rock music, finding further inspiration in artists like Woody Guthrie and Big Bill Broonzy. Gallagher subsequently taught himself to play slide guitar, harmonica, saxophone, mandolin, and banjo with vary degrees of virtuosity.

Gallagher’s first band of note was Taste, a blues-rock power trio formed in 1966 when the guitarist was a mere 18 years old. That band released a pair of well-received studio albums – 1969’s Taste and 1970’s On the Boards – before breaking up; a pair of live albums were released in the wake of the band’s demise to capitalize on Gallagher’s bourgeoning reputation as a six-string prodigy. Gallagher released his self-titled solo debut in early 1971 and followed it up a few months later with his sophomore effort, Deuce. Gallagher broke into the U.K. Top 10 for the first time with 1972’s Live In Europe, which was unusual in that the album featured performances of five songs that hadn’t been previously-recorded by the guitarist.  

The eight-song Cleveland Calling LP was released for October’s third Record Store Day “drop” in a limited edition of 3,000 copies and documents Gallagher’s live broadcast by Cleveland’s WNCR-FM radio in August 1972. I don’t know how they did it at WNCR, but I do know that their crosstown rival (WMMS-FM) used to broadcast slews of live performances, and taped many (if not all) of ‘em, creating a treasure-trove of live 1970s-era classic rock that languishes in a vault somewhere (hopefully). Evidently, things didn’t work out too well as many of the WNCR on-air staff revolted against company efforts to overly commercialize the station, going on strike in late 1972. They were subsequently fired en masse by management after a late-night meeting mediated by the station’s morning DJ, Don Imus (who would soon go onto bigger broadcast markets). The station itself switched over to an automated country format on January 1st, 1973. 

But I digress…Gallagher’s acoustic performance here is stunning in its passion and complexity. After a brief intro from the station’s deejay, Carolyn Thomas, Rory starts his short, sharp set with a rowdy cover of Blind Boy Fuller’s Piedmont blues gem “Pistol Slapper Blues,” one of the previously-unrecorded tunes from Live In Europe. With spry guitar pickin’, Gallagher does an admirable job in capturing the joi de vivre of Fuller’s original performance. “Don’t Know Where I’m Going” is one of three Gallagher originals from Deuce, a harmonica-driven country-blues jam that could easily be mistaken for 1930s vintage, Rory’s vocals flowing above simple strummed chords, the overall result greater than the sum of its parts.

“Gypsy Woman” was a cover of a Delta-dirty Muddy Waters song that first appeared as a bonus track on the 1999 CD reissue of Gallagher’s debut album. Probably the bluesiest track here, Rory’s scattershot vocals and imaginative fretwork make the performance a pure joy. Another song from Deuce, “Out of My Mind” is a folk-styled rocker with impressive vocal gymnastics, nimble guitar playing, and more than a few stylistic nods to the skiffle tunes of the musician’s youth. Flipping the flapjack, second side opening song “The Cuckoo” is a traditional English/Irish folk song that wouldn’t find proper release until the posthumous 2003 album Wheels Within Wheels, itself a treasure-chest of acoustic outtakes and lost recordings from across 20 years of Gallagher’s career. 

Deceptively complex in the manner of many a rusty old song from musty, forgotten songbooks, Gallagher pours his soul into the performance, gilding “The Cuckoo” with exotic fretwork and strong vocals that help shape the song’s lyrical story. The guitarist follows up with a reading of his idol Big Bill Broonzy’s “Banker’s Blues,” which he’d record a year later for the critically-acclaimed Blueprint LP. After giving Ms. Thomas a lesson in harmonica styles, he launches into a fine approximation of Broonzy’s folkie proto-Chicago blues sound, capturing all of the tongue-in-cheek humor of the lyrics with his light-hearted vocals and intricate guitar strum. The last of the three original Deuce tunes, “Should’ve Learnt My Lesson” is another slab of old-school blues, rich with Gallagher’s elegant string-bending and the overall “high lonesome” Piedmont vibe captured by Rory’s mournful voice.       

Cleveland Calling closes out with “Blow Wind Blow,” as obscure a Muddy Waters song as you’ll find (it’s from the oft-overlooked classic 1969 LP Fathers and Sons). Fresh from playing on the Chicago blues legend’s The London Muddy Waters Sessions album, Gallagher acquits himself nicely here, digging into the song’s roots in the Mississippi Delta of Waters’ plantation-raised early days, his up-tempo guitar playing matched by syrupy vocals and a just-beneath-the-surface energy that threatens to explode with any random note. Sadly, a studio recording of the song wouldn’t be released until the excellent 2019 “odds ‘n’ sods” collection, Blues, a three-disc collection of rare, unreleased, and live recordings that would land Gallagher back on the Top 20 of the U.K. charts.

Gallagher moved past 1972 to enjoy a modestly-successful career throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, releasing a total of eleven studio and three live albums over a 20-year span, with 1990’s Fresh Evidence representing the guitarist’s swansong. Gallagher would die of complications from a liver transplant (a tragic necessity due to decades of living a rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle) in June 1995. Over the course of his career, Gallagher had the opportunity to perform and record with musical idols like Lonnie Donegan, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Muddy Waters and was part of the band Box of Frogs with former Yardbirds Chris Dreja, Paul Samwell-Smith, and Jim McCarty. While he never rose above the status of “cult artist” in the U.S. his loyal following has supported a steady stream of posthumous live albums and DVDs. 

Perhaps most importantly, Gallagher’s undeniable talents would subsequently influence artists as diverse as Johnny Marr of the Smiths, Alex Lifeson of Rush, Glenn Tipton of Judas Priest, and fellow blues guitarists Gary Moore and Joe Bonamassa, among many others who all cited the humble Irishman as an influence on their own music. Gallagher also swayed contemporaries like Eric Clapton (who once credited Gallagher with “getting me back into the blues”) and Jimi Hendrix (who, allegedly asked how it felt to be the world’s greatest guitarist, replied “I don’t know, go ask Rory Gallagher”) and had been asked to join both Deep Purple and the Rolling Stones to replace those band’s wayward guitarists. 

While Gallagher could strangle his Stratocaster and torture a stack o’ Marshall amps as loudly and energetically as 1970s-era contemporaries like Johnny Winter, Leslie West, or Pat Travers, Cleveland Calling is a fine representation of the often-understated (acoustic) aspect of Gallagher’s talents, his between-song conversations with the station’s DJ providing the barest of glimpses into the personality of the gifted musician and performer. Cleveland Calling is a “must have” if you’re a longtime Gallagher fan but stands tall on its own for blues fans who just want a taste of this too-frequently overlooked artist.  Grade: A (Rev. Keith A. Gordon)

Bonus view: