It's been roughly 8 months since the passing of Irish guitar legend Gary Moore, and what better way to calm the grief of losing such a musical talent than some live recordings from the vault. In this case, the vault is very recent, as Eagle Rock are now unleashing Moore's last appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2010, on CD, DVD, and Blu-ray. Not only is having some live recordings of a Moore always a great thing, but in this case the guitarist was moving back into his more 'hard rock' style, so this performance not only contains some great tracks of his during that era, specifically the Out in the Fields and After the War period, but there are also three new tracks written with band members Neil Carter, Jon Noyce, and Darrin Mooney that were going to be included on an upcoming album that never saw the light of day due to Moore's passing of a heart attack in February of this year.
To put it mildly, Gary's return to Celtic flavored hard rock was a long time coming. Sure, the blues material he'd been heavily into for the last 20 years has been great, but most of us grew up on Moore as a master of hard rock, and were counting down the days for him to return to that style. This CD set, while a few tunes shorter than the full concert that is shown on the DVD & Blu-ray, focuses more on the hard rock material. Gems like "Over the Hills and Far Away", "Military Man", "Blood of Emeralds", "Out in the Fields", and "Empty Rooms" sound just as good now as they did in the 80's, with Moore still able to pull off those monstrous leads and chunky riffs just like he did back in the day. New songs "Days of Heroes", "Where Are You Now", and "Oh Wild One" are a must hear for fans of Gary's early solo material as well as his time in Thin Lizzy , full of passion, rock fury, and of course blistering lead guitar work. Even the blues classic "Walkin' By Myself" is given a pretty heavy treatment, though the guitarist sits alone with his acoustic for a tender rendition of "Johnny Boy". It would be a shame for this set to not include the mandatory "Parisienne Walkways", and Moore does not disappoint one bit, delivering a stunning climax to this emotional concert.
If you are a true fan of the legend that is Gary Moore, it will be hard to fight back the tears during this awesome performance. I'll have a more in-depth look at the visuals of this show when I review all the material on the Blu-ray, but it's safe to say that if you are greatly missing Gary Moore like I am, you'll have to have both the CD and one of the video options in your collection pronto.
Track Listing
1) Over The Hills And Far Away
2) Military Man
3) Days Of Heroes
4) Where Are You Now?
5) So Far Away/Empty Rooms
6) Oh Wild One
7) Blood Of Emeralds
8) Out In The Fields
9) Walking By Myself
10) Johnny Boy
11) Parisienne Walkways
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