as there’s one disc that’s all-acoustic in the three-CD
package. He loved playing blues on acoustic, that’s
why I wanted to make a whole disc of it.
“He’s so associated with that screaming Strat
sound, but I think his acoustic playing is so excellent
and it might be my favourite part of the album. He’s
playing either this or the National (1932 Triolian
Resonator) and the National was more for slide.
“But it’s on tracks like Blow Wind Blow and a track
called Prison Blues – which we’d never even heard
before! We found it on a tape that was marked for the
Blueprint album and it was just him and Lou Martin
on piano, and him on the Martin. It’s a finished song!
They recorded it, it sounds fantastic, but for whatever
reason, it didn’t make the album and no one ever saw
it again! But this was by far his favourite acoustic and
he just loved playing it.”1957 RICKENBACKER COMBO 400
Moving away from his more legendary instruments,
it becomes clear that Rory had an eye for the
unconventional and the unusual, long before weird
pawn-shop guitars were dragged into the mainstream
by the likes of Jack White and Dan Auerbach. One
such oddity is a late-50s Rickenbacker Combo 400RORY GALLAGHER44