Customer Reviews

Back to the Blues

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Gary Moore rolls into 2001 with a solid return to the blues with his new hard hitting Back To The Blues on CMC International. Those who know Gary's Blues Alive/After Hours/Greeny & Still Got The Blues albums are going to love this new tour de force plate. Though only 10 tunes grace this album (6 by Gary & 6 covers)...This is a generous helping with Gary at times burning the fingerboard and yet playing as slow with a textured precision that is fueled with passion and grace that satisfies the soul. Gary produced this album but this time around the sound is very stripped down and bare bone, as opposed to the albums mentioned above (excluding the live Blues Alive). Yes there are echoes of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Rory Gallagher, Peter Green and Roy Buchanan. But you know what? Gary Moore is a master guitarist and a legend as well and the sound is all his own. His soul. His tune "Drowning In Tears" is a beautiful slow blues ballad with a mournful haunting guitar. On "Stormy Monday " & "Cold Black Night (another Gary tune) both have Gary turning up the fire and shredding the fingerboard. THESE TUNES ARE EXPLOSIVE! "Enough Of The Blues" may be the single but Gary's "Picture Of The Moon" is another great blues ballad in the "I Still Got The Blues For You" vein which could possibly get him another worldwide radio hit. Need a good dose of melodic articulate fret work? "The Prophet" a stunning instrumental is easily Gary's answer to guitar great Roy Buchanan's "The Messiah Will Come". I think you got the picture. This CD will be well received among his legions of fans. For new fans of his music, this CD is a great starting point. BTW: Gary is actually smiling in some of the pixs! A.

Yet another gem from the most underappreciated guitarist in rock.After two great records,Dark Days In Paradise and Different Beat,Gary Moore returns to the shaft where he mined his most precious gold...the blues.The man truly has a gift for this material."Enough Of The Blues","You Upset Me" and "Stormy Monday" especially show that Gary could show his contemporaries a thing or two about how this music should be played.Full of passion, soul and spirit, his guitar will take you places that mere mortals fear to tread."Cold Black Night" is an excellent nod to Gary's own hero Jimi Hendrix, which would not have been out of place on Electric Ladyland."The Prophet" ranks right up there with"The Loner" from Wild Frontier in sheer brilliance.All in all not a bad note played any place on this disc.It's really a shame that more people in the US especially don't know Moore!

This is a raw and powerful album. It has Moore's rugged rock vocals along with his great guitar work. The CD starts out with a nice textured song, "Enough of the Blues," that begins with just Moore and the guitar and then explodes into a full sound. Nice!

Moore's guitar sounds much like Roy Buchanan, especially on "You Upset Me Baby." (which also has a bit of a swinging blues style). Track four, six (a track which has an Eric Clapton feel to it), and eight have a much more Gary "Moore-ish" sound to it, with his quick tricks and licks coming through, along with his trademark tone. Every song is either raw blues or has a very rock blues sound to it.

This is a great CD, every song is good (there's not a bad song in the lot). Those who are Moore fans will love this album, while those who are perhaps just getting acquainted with Moore will find this album a big treat as well. Overall the album is blues but has both upbeat and slower tunes as well, making for a nice textured album.

this is probably my favorite GM album. Its raw unadultered Rock/blues. He made a wise choice going into blues.
definite buy!
If you like this album check out "Howard Luedtke and Blue Max".

Gary Moore has a great talent with the Guitar. Throughout this Cd this is proven time and time again. The instrumental cut "The Prophet" is worth the price of addmission alone( I agree with the other reviewer who made refference to Roy Buchanan). The lonely final cut "Drowning in my Tears" is perhaps the icing on the cake. The rest of the CD has it's moments but pales in comparison to these two stellar cuts. The Yardbirds " I ain't got you" is a fine rendition. Yet, some of the other material leaves one wishing for more highlights. Gary has never been known for his voice, but hey neither has Neil Young and he still puts out an album now and then that can be considered a work of art. Bottom line on this Cd is it's a good taste of Gary Moore, but it leaves you wanting more of Gary's best.

The Story:

The first time I heard a cut from this album was in Febuary 2002, and I was in Saint Petersburg, Russia staying at the Pulkovskaya Hotel. The hotel, at the time, had a little bar downstairs called the Red Club. Pretty original huh?. Anyway. The entertainment was Adult. And the track and interpretative pole dance that was the most impressive was..."Picture of the Moon". And with a generous tip to the DJ, he managed to play nearly the rest of the album for me. Stunning Blues/Rock Tracks with Stunning Entertainment.

The Review:

However the real killer track, to me, is 'The Prophet'. An articulate, tone rich and sensitive tribute to Roy Buchcanan the Telecaster Master from Washington,DC.

The Bottom Line:

This album is a Master Class of Modern English Style Blues-Rock Guitar.

Highly Recommended.

Great opening track -- too quiet at first and then, after you turn it up, it gets way really LOUD. Got to love it though; the authentic trad. acoustic blues start and the hard rocking blues follow up. Very cool.

High-lights: Enough of the Blues, Stormy Monday (comparable to his excellent version of Cold Day in Hell).
Low-lights: Picture of the Moon is a bit soppy, not bad though. I guess we had to have the mandatory ballad -- and Gary's previous ballads have been pretty darn good and very successful for him.

I haven't always been a fan of Moore. But when he got the blues in the late 80's, his career started to change for the better, and so did my opinion of his music. He put out 2 excellent albums in the 90's with "Still Got The Blues" and the brilliant Peter Green tribute album "Blues For Greeny". He veered a little too far south of the blues on his last album for my taste. But he's really got back on his game again with this new one. He does 4 covers on this, which I would normally knock a star off of for lack of originality. But he does such meaty interpretations of the old blues standards like "You Upset Me Baby", "Stormy Monday", and especially "I Ain't Got You", that he really wakes these oldies up and makes them his own. His originals are also very strong here. Especially the opener "Enough Of The Blues", which starts out innocently enough with a nice and bluesy dobro, but then quickly turns in to a catchy full-tilt blues rocker. Also of note is the beautiful ballad "Picture Of The Moon", and the hypnotic 9 minute closer "Drowning In Tears". Moore also does all the production work on the album. And it's so stylish and slick, that it makes me wonder why he hasn't produced other artists. As for his playing, you can tell Moore is a very confident and knowledgeable fretmaster with a gritty straight ahead style that always seems to entertain the most when he stays away from the heavy metal and sticks to the rockin' blues. As for "Back To The Blues", I enjoyed this as much as anything he's ever done. It's a great listen from beginning to end.

Gary is back and from the first notes he's ripping your head off!!! i feel like its the 80's again and in a good way !!! Gary is a great blues rock artist that is one of the best guitar players on he globe!!!!ALSO SINGS great!! The last cd that had this kind of intense blues was the great Victoria Warne's "live At The Savoy" 1999(CHECK THAT OUT!!!). the blues scene has become so stuffy and close minded . Gary is the only atist that would get way with Stormy Monday because he ROCKS IT !!! A TRUELY GREAT CD!!!

Back To The Blues is a heartfelt, at times bombastic, approach to rockin' blues and one has to wonder if old soul Eric Clapton will ever have it within himself again to put out an album this powerful. Moore simply smokes throughout this album. From the opening cut (Enough Of The Blues) through the final cut (Drowning In Tears) Moore's playing is fluid and passionate. Sure, his voice at times is a little thin and he does descend into all too familiar ballad territory on Picture Of The Moon but he also tears through the jump blues number You Upset Me Baby with such skill and energy that the minor shortcomings of this album are nearly obliterated. Finally, one has to mention his instrumental contribution to this album, The Prophet, which is in the finest tradition of Roy Buchanan and nearly worth the price of the entire album alone.