There will be much dropping of jaws for committed rock fans, with the arrival of Blues, featuring 36 mostly unreleased recordings from Rory Gallagher, some acoustic, some electric – and almost every single one of them truly electrifying. No songs are duplicated. Some are culled from studio sessions for various albums – from Deuce in 1971 right up to Jinx in 1982 – while others are from stage shows and lost radio station sessions. There’s also a small number from recordings with artists of the calibre of Muddy Waters, Jack Bruce, Albert King and Lonnie Donegan.

The entire project was piloted by Daniel Gallagher, nephew of Rory and son of Donal Gallagher – the latter having kept the Gallagher flame lit for several decades since Rory’s untimely passing in 1995. It was Daniel’s role to listen to all available tapes, follow up rumours about numerous others, decide which tracks best fitted the Blues theme, sort out the best takes, fit them all into a working running order and look after the editing and the packaging. As somebody once said, “simples!”

“The project was a long time in the works,” Daniel tells Hot Press, “but the great thing was that there was so much to choose from. Of course, some of the tape boxes had scant information on them, but it was also often hard to choose the best version of a particular song. For example, initially there were five really fine recordings of ‘Can’t Be Satisfied’ and I had struggled to pick one. But then just as the project was near completion, I heard that a German guy had a version of it that I hadn’t known existed. It had been recorded for Radio FFN in Lower Saxony in 1992, and features Rory’s National slide guitar. When something that great lands in your lap, even at the last minute, it picks itself.”

In the new issue of Hot Press, Daniel Gallagher explains - with fascinating insight - how he went about curating this collection of recordings and what it means for the legacy of the greatest guitarist this island has ever heard.

Read the full story in the new issue of Hot Press, out now. Or order it here: