Sometimes when you get lost the best option is to go back to where you started. The current disarray in the music scene, with label closures, miserable download sales and an increasing expectation that music should be free for all, makes this release a timely affair, a chance to return to the basics of the blues rock that underpins most of contemporary rock.
Dubliner McCormack is a long-serving electric blues guitarist who also trades under the name Samuel Eddy, and this, his first album in seven years, includes outakes from Rory Gallagher’s final studio recording, Jan Akkerman from Focus, and Moving Heart Keith Donald. So those who have yet to hear a real blues guitarist in full flight have a treat in store.
The elementary opener ‘Rock Me Baby’, complete with squalling guitars, sets the scene for what’s to come, while ‘Stranger On The Run’ brings echoes of Clapton/Cream at their zenith. Akkerman adds some fret-melting runs to the slow-burning ‘Mystica’ and on ‘Down And Out’ McCormack plays like his hands, heart and soul are on fire. But the star attraction has to be ‘Falsely Accused’, five minutes of shimmering intensity, one more reminder of the sheer genius of Rory G.
Not that this is just one unrestrained guitar orgy. McCormack has a voice full of conviction and passion, devoid of the cod-blues warbling of second-rate Irish bluesers. There’s some thundering drumming from Ger Farrell, solid bass from Sully O’Sullivan and a poignant appearance from pianist Herman Brood on ‘The Grove’.
Kindred Spirits brings us a golden hour of genuine raucous blues, with a little polish, but lots of spit.