'I’m just a conduit. I’m not Rory': Joe Bonamassa on his Rory Gallagher gigs in Cork
L-R: Joe Bonamassa will, in his words, serve as a conduit for the late, legendary Rory Gallagher
The first time guitarist Joe Bonamassa heard the music of Rory Gallagher, it felt like the world had stopped. “I was from a small town in upstate New York, and it was very blue collar, working class,” begins the blues musician and three-times Grammy nominee, as he unpacks his relationship – musically and spiritually – with the late Cork guitar wizard.
Bonamassa speaks of Gallagher with a reverence tinged with wonder. The day he heard Gallagher’s music pouring out of a speaker, he knew that this was an artist with whom he would have a life-long fascination. Here was a musician he could relate to – someone from an unprepossessing background. A player whose lightning finger work was matched by his humbleness and lack of pretension. “The Rory thing always for me was he was that guy: the image and the music went together,” says the 48-year-old from upstate New York.
