Rory Gallagher Project (IE)

About

Also known as: GALLAGHER Rory

Rory Gallagher was the kind of guitarist who could make a battered 1961 Fender Stratocaster sound like nothing else on earth, and that guitar became his most recognisable trademark throughout his career. He first turned heads as the frontman of the blues rock trio Taste in the late 1960s, and after the band split in 1970 he went solo, earning Guitarist of the Year from Melody Maker in 1972. Over the course of his career he played more than 2,000 concerts worldwide, including shows in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, and shifted over 30 million records globally. Influences ranging from Muddy Waters to Woody Guthrie fed into a raw, visceral style that earned him devoted fans and the respect of peers like Brian May, Slash, and the Edge. Often called the greatest guitarist you have never heard of, he never quite crossed into mainstream superstardom, partly because the music industry shifted beneath him in the 1980s. He died in 1995 at 47, but his legacy is very much alive. Statues stand in Ballyshannon and Belfast, streets and public spaces across Dublin, Cork, and Paris carry his name, and an annual tribute festival in Ballyshannon has run every year since 2002.