Taste
On the Boards

The platoon of the famous power trio straddling the Sixties and Seventies expands thanks to the intuition of the Irish genius of the 1963 Sunburst Stratocaster, unmistakably responding to the name of Rory Gallagher, who, after some initial trials, forms the Taste with Richard "Charlie" McCracken on bass and John Wilson on drums (both from the famous Them of Van Morrison, another timeless name of British Rock/Blues) in mid-1968.

This group, as mentioned, is thus officially enrolled in this circle, which includes prestigious names like Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. However, unlike the latter, grappling with so-called "psychedelic itches," the three from Belfast (later relocated to London for Polydor Records with whom they signed) lean towards a decidedly muscular Rock/Blues, but with Folk, Country, and even Jazz influences.

After the good debut with the eponymous album Taste in 1969, with which the trio immediately stands out for the presence of some solid Rock/Blues tracks like Blister On The Moon, Sugar Mama, and the classic Catfish (Blues), the group decides to raise the bar. Within a few months of the debut album's release, they record their second record effort at the start of 1970, named On The Boards.

With this album, the band offers a pulsating Rock/Blues enriched with new elements, starting with Jazz (of which Rory was a great enthusiast), as we can notice from the splendid It’s Happened Before, It’ll Happen Again and the title-track On The Boards where good Rory also skillfully handles the sax with solos that are decidedly apt in both mentioned tracks.

In tracks like Railway And Gun and If I Don't Sing I'll Cry, the usual Hard Blues is tinged with elements that hint at Folk, giving both pieces a very unique charm.

The more energetic Rock/Blues is instead found in the initial What’s Going On, in Morning Sun, and, above all, in the overwhelming Eat My Words where Rory's slide guitar starts to take the stage with force and excellent results.

See Here is instead a relaxed but charming Folk singer-songwriter piece thanks to Rory's usual skill even on the acoustic guitar (the famous 1936 National from which he would never part until his death), while the album closes with the umpteenth beautiful Hard Blues number I’ll Remember that seals, as best as it could, a work—the trio's second and last—that, as accurately described by the famous music critic Lester Bangs, would have led the band towards territories of "Progressive Blues," only to see its dissolution between the end of 1970 and the beginning of 1971, but that is decidedly another story...