Thursday, June 12, 2008

Barry McCabe, Castel San Pietro Blues festival, 01/06/08












This very “simpatico” Irish bluesman really got all those present standing up on their feet with some great blues (and also r&r!). I got to talk to Barry at the end of the show. Again, yet another honour as he’s also played together with his fellow great compatriots, Rory Gallagher (an Irishman who grew up with the American blues and who died in 1995 after complications from a live transplant. So sad were the Irish upon hearing of his death that the mayor of Cork proclaimed an official day of mourning while the great Jeff Beck read the funeral eulogy) and Van Morrison. Barry’s been playing for about a year with Mick Taylor and apparently had put on quite the show together with Mick in Milan last year. Barry also invited him to be his 'special guest' for his CD presentation. They apparently had hit it off so well and the crowd enjoyed the show so much the only thing to do was to do it again...and again...and again.

And “out of the blue” (excuse the pun!), McCabe organised at the end of his gig (with a very low-key Snowy White in the corner) a great, great jamming session with Ana Popovic and the other back-up artists. One song (which I immediately recognised) was Grand Funk Railroad’s “Some Kind Of Wonderful”. The best was yet to come as the impromptu band concluded with that great American blues-rock guitarist himself, George Thorogood, and his “Move In On Over”!!

I can’t think of a better way to have ended such a great little free blues festival (and McCabe even told me after that the last encore wasn’t even rehearsed, it was just done on the spur of the moment!). I can’t even begin to imagine what the concert would have been like had Taylor also been on the same stage with these great performers (all pics by M. Rimati)!

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