Meeting with the G-Man

This album closes with a rendition of ‘La Bamba’ (replete with an organ sound made entirely from cheese) that’s marked by the stinging clarity of Gallagher’s guitar tone and the throwaway rasp of his vocal. However, ‘La Bamba’ is not the main reason you’re here. Nor is the familiar stroll through ‘Messin’ With The Kid’, the fugue riffing of ‘Moonchild’ or the raw boogie of the ‘The Loop’.
The mix on these electric tracks is sparse and echo drenched – much what you’d expect from a re-mastered bootleg. It’s a flavour that especially suits blues like ‘Mean Disposition’ and ‘Don’t Start Me Talkin’. The Muddy Waters’ tune, featuring sweet harmonica, also contains a set of guitar breaks primordial in their force and effect.
Sound quality is entirely irrlevant when from out of the hubbub of voices emerge the marvellous acoustic crests and falls of ‘She Moves Through The Fair’. It segues into a version of Leadbelly’s ‘Out on the Western Plain’ which Gallagher makes his own with stunning flat picking and a haunted, elemental vocal. It’s the highlight of the album’s superb collection of previously unreleased tracks, but the Doppler-like slide blues of ‘Mercy River’, the warm fuzzy ‘Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright’ and the raga-tinged, half reel of ‘William of Green’ are also superb.
Overall, this is a fitting epitaph to one of the bona-fide legends of Irish rock’n’roll.