Customer Reviews

Close As You Get

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's a great CD. Each one since the Scars CD seems to get better and better. Gary continues to place more effort on his vocals and is nearly back to the Still Got The Blues and After Hours era when considering the smoothness, dynamics and overall tone of his voice.

The order of the songs is mid/up tempo followed by a ballad. This pattern repeats throughout the entire CD.

If The Devil Made Whisky - A mid tempo, growling tune with a slightly abrasive guitar riff. Nice slide guitar work (which is always a treat for me). It's a great lead off track.

Trouble At Home - Slow bluesy ballad with an organ backing up the melody. Very dark and moody solo.

Thirty Days - Up tempo number with an infectious groove. The solo fits the song perfectly (you'll "whoo" right along with Gary). Fun.

Hard Times - Mid tempo shuffle with harmonica coloring the song throughout. The guitar solo is played with alot of passion and energy. You can almost see Gary making the faces. Great song.

Have You Heard - Back to the ballad, and again with organ backing. The solo is more passionate in this one than Trouble At Home. Nice.

Eyesight To The Blind - A recognizable cover tune. Gary's take is fairly predictable, but engaging. The organ is present, but a bit more in the background as Gary's guitar volume donimates it. Very good solo helps make the song distinctly Gary's.

Evenin' - Another ballad. Starts out with just a percussion beat, then the rest of the band joins in. This one probably has Gary's most vunerable vocal and delicate solo. Dreamy.

Nowhere Fast - Slow tempo song that is essentially a ballad I suppose. Not as delicate as Evenin', but not as dark and moody as Trouble At Home. Here is where I'm beginning to think that this is not the "back to the rock blues" everyone had thought this CD would be. Ha!

Checkin' Up On My Baby - Harmonica driven mid tempo. The harmonica tone is devastating. Gary's extended guitar solo becomes an extention of the harmonica tone and comes on very smoothly. Harmonica comes back together with the guitar for the outro. This would be a great song to see live. Awesome.

I Had A Dream - Very slow tempo ballad with a soaring vocal for the chorus. My buddy always comments on songs like this one. He compares the depression and despair in Gary's voice during the verses to "wanting to slit his wrists". Passionate.

Sundown - A rare treat! This one is an acoustic resonator slide guitar number that is just Gary and his guitar. It is a unique and perfect way to close the CD.

The CD runs just over 51 minutes, which is nearly identical to the last CD, and 10 minutes longer than the "way too short" Power Of The Blues. If you've loved the best of Gary's previous blues work, I have no doubt that you'll love this one too.

Ireland's Gary Moore is one of the great guitarists of any era. He's also a terrific rough and tumble vocalist. It's a shame that he is not more highly regarded here in the States. Part of that might be that he never tours over here anymore for some reason.

Close As You Get is another in a long line of tremendous albums from Moore, and is probably his best recording so far this decade. If you are familiar with his music you already know what you're going to get. If you're not familiar with him, you will be getting brilliant musicianship packed with thrilling six-string exploits and gutsy vocals. Blues rock at its finest.

Moore is the man whom Jack Bruce once referred to as the best guitarist he had ever worked with. Coming from a musician the caliber of Bruce, who also happened to work for a while with a guy named Clapton, that's saying a lot.

If you're a fan of blues/rock and great guitar playing, you can't go wrong with Gary Moore.

one reviewer said the Gary never made it on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. I would have been more shocked if he did make it as that rag is extremely overrated and not nearly as hip as they think they are. I'd probably love that rag if I was 12 years old and clueless.

What attracted me to Gary way back in the day was that his licks were full of fire and passion, he played like he meant it. I absolutely love his hard rock and fusion work and I enjoy his blues playing.
For some odd and unexplainable reason he never caught fire here in the states and that is a damn shame. In his prime he could wipe the floor with the pretty boy posers that some people seem to drool over. I originally gave this disc 5 stars but upon further review I will say it is a 3 star CD if only because Gary seems to be treading water here. His Still Got The Blues disc is way better. I'll always have a soft spot for Gary but it's a shame he doesn't want to dust off the power chords and slash and burn like he used to. Although still a fine player I think his blues stuff is getting a bit stale. Sorry Gary. :(
www.electriceyes.us

Gary Moore has to be one of the hardest workers in music - this is his 4th cd in 5 years to go along with a GREAT live dvd. This new cd also reunites him with drummer Brian Downey of Thin Lizzy fame. The slow stuff/the fast stuff - all INCREDIBLE. If you want a cd by the best living guitar player today - get this one.

Some say Gary is overlooked and underrated. Perhaps they are right, for he didn't even make it into RS's 2003 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. But that's just fine with me. Over the last many years I have become jealous for Gary; go find your own guitar god. Just keep reading and believing your rags about great guitarists and you will miss the best.

"Close As You Get" is the new release from Irish guitarist/vocalist Gary Moore. Similar in some respects to his former CD, Old New Ballads Blues, the Moore originals sit nicely between blues covers. As he did previously with songs like "Gonna Rain Today", he's proving his skills as a blues songwriter to all who care to listen.

"If The Devil Made Whisky" is a raw and gritty 12-bar roadhouse blues song. Gary gets down and dirty with both guitar and vocal on it. He adds some harsh slide midway through, bringing an ambiance of pure electric blues to the onset. His voice utilizes a tremor that's very reminiscent of a Steve Marriott style.

The album contains about four slow blues numbers, each with its own style and sound, making it extremely diverse and interesting. "Trouble At Home", a Moore original, is a slow blues in the air of "As the Years Go Passing By", from his 1990 classic "Still Got the Blues". His tone is cutting and bright, and he maximizes the sound of a Fender spring reverb when chopping the strings of the verse ending chords.

"Have You Heard", the second slow blues, gets into a slow Otis Rush muse. Vic Martin's Hammond organ adds persona and appeal to the Mayall penned tune. "Evenin'" is a personal favorite of mine. His guitar tone is amazingly clear and warm. The bridge contains a sliding chord that's hauntingly reminiscent of Peter Green, in tone and style. Actually, the whole song is kind of Green-ish, and really very nice. "I Had A Dream", the last slow blues, reminds me of "Gonna Rain Today" from "Old New Ballads Blues". Though dissimilar in style, both present a remarkable blues ballad vibe. It's songs like this that are helping to make Moore a noteworthy blues songwriter, a member of an elite group in contemporary times for sure. Influences are obvious here as well, especially that of a note slurring, volume manipulating Roy Buchanan. The song is exemplary of the brilliance in Gary's playing currently.

Let's rock it up a bit now. "Thirty Days" is easily understood as the Chuck Berry song that it is, only done from a Gary Moore perspective. The solo is turbo charged in that mode as well. "Hard Times" is one of those `middle of the road' Gary Moore songs, for the reason that although it's inherently bluesy, his rocked up lead solo and potent vocal push it over the line, giving it that signature Gary Moore blues-rock quality. He adds the same potency to Sonny Boy Williamson's "Eyesight to the Blind".

Williamson's "Checkin' Up On Baby" is very interesting for a couple of reasons. Besides the compelling Jimmy Page like riffs (Brian Downey of Thin Lizzy fame is on drums), his vocal is similar to the old bluesman himself, making it an extremely creative recording. "Sundown" closes the album in a good way. It's a Son House song done acoustically, proving that although Gary typically plays the blues with a lot of strength and flair, he can get downright pure when he wants to as well. In other words, it's as `close as you get' to the real thing.

"Close As You Get" is a collection of brilliant performances by Gary Moore. I think he's in his prime as a player now, and the fact that he has chosen the blues as his actual calling seems to have put his mind and his playing in the right perspective. And as usual, especially since "Still Got The Blues", his guitar tone is killer! Although he can play quite fast, he's one in a unique breed of players who has proven that 'less is more', a concept that sometimes takes a while to understand. Listening to a Gary Moore note soar is one of life's joys.

I have to agree with the last reviewer that Gary is probably the only guy out there right now who brings the same searing power and passion to blues guitar that Stevie Ray did. Close as you Get is Gary Moore's fifth album in the last seven years, and even if those albums don't quite measure up to his 1990 classic "Still got the Blues", they are all far better than anything being heard on top 40 radio today.

The undeniable guitar prowess of Moore should certainly make him a household name here in America, but after all these years he remains largely unnoticed by mainstream music fans thanks to a screwed up media that cares more about shoving Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and other talentless stars down our throats year after year rather than give any attention to quality music by a great talent like this. How pathetic is it when the best musicians in the world are no longer allowed on radio playlists and you have to look outside the mainstream to find music of any quality or substance.

With this new 2007 release, Gary delivers his usual combination of high-voltage blues rockers and moody blues ballads while toning down the abrasive heavy metal feel of previous blues-rock efforts like 2004's "Power of the Blues". The haunting and dreamy "Evening" and "I had a Dream" are two strong ballads that prove Gary can still outsing nearly anyone in the top 40 today even if his vocals don't match his explosive guitar work. Gary tackles two standards by Chicago blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson with "Eyesight to the Blind" and the hard-charging rocker "Checking up on my Baby" that finds Gary tearing through a blistering extended solo at the end. Thirty Days is a hard rockin' cover of the old Chuck Berry classic although there are better Berry tunes I would rather hear Gary attempt.

Other highlights are the raw and gritty Moore original "If the Devil made Whiskey" that sounds like an old Elmore James song, the John Mayall slow blues "Have you Heard", the Moore original "Hard Times", and the Son House song "Sundown" which ends the CD with an impressive seven minute slice of pure acoustic Mississippi blues that should show all the blues purists out there that despite his heavy metal background Gary Moore can handle hardcore traditional blues as well as anybody out there today.

Overall, Close as you Get is probably Moore's strongest blues album since "Still got the Blues", but whether or not he can top that fine 1990 effort remains to be seen. Gary Moore fans will enjoy this one as well as anyone looking for modern blues-rock with top-notch guitar work.

This is the best guitarist playing the blues today. The former guitarist for Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore broke out on his own with some heavy-metal albums (yes, albums), that may have gotten little public notice, but are, non-the-less, underground thrash classics today. He broke into the blues with "Still Got the Blues" and actually broke into popular music rotation of big FM radio stations.

Since then he has experimented, done some fantastic stuff ("A Different Beat" comes to mind), but he always comes back to the blues.

And he is the only one that comes close to playing the blues with the passion and verve that Stevie Ray Vaughn brought to the genre.

Gary is an excellent guitar player
but the vocals on this album tend to get old pretty fast.
The guitar work though,....is moo-cho fun for guitar jammers like myself !!!!

While I think the blues venture is getting a little redundant for Gary, I was pleasantly surprised. There is enough difference here from his recent albums to make this a great release. Alot better than Old New Ballads Blues. However, hopefully he'll try something new next time.