Close As You Get is one of five album featuring Gary Moore to be reissued on 24th April that includes Heavy Petting by Dr Strangely Strange the band he was in back in the late 60's formed by some of the kids he was in a care home with, along with his last four albums. His band on this album are Brian Downey, Vic Martin, Pete Rees and Mark Feltham. The album was produced by Gary Moore and Ian Taylor who were assisted by Jonathan Tayler-Webb at Sarm Hookend and mastered by Sean Magee at Abbey Road.
The album opens with the strutting blues of If The Devil Made Whisky that has a laid-back edge to the stunning guitar and emotional rendition of what sounds like it ought to be a 70 year old classic being updated. Trouble At Home is classic slow Gary Moore searing heartbroken blues, with his baby shedding endless tears and Brian Downey's most restrained drumming that is a gentle tap on the cymbals for much of the song. All his worries are dealt with between each build and fall.
They then rip through Chuck Berry's Thirty Days like wild bluesmen who know just how much trouble they can get into during Thirty Days, steam train chugging rhythm call to Gary's guitar and vocals playing off it, steadily building pace, Brian's cymbal crashes and flourishes make it sound like the band are having a blast playing this.
Hard Times have walked right into your life and you are stretched by being broke, with a woman who always wants more, while chasing the next big thing to replace you with, Mark Feltham's harmonica battling it out with Gary's guitar in places, of course the guitar wins with some scintillating manoeuvres.
Have You Heard is a slow imperious version of the John Mayall down hearted broken blues, with some neat interplay between the keyboards and guitar. They then blast through Sonny Boy Williamson's Eyesight To The Blind with a cool loose and louche feel, a super cool bassline for some explosive guitar playing, getting deep to the heart of just how much they want that woman.
They then play a slow loping version of the Jimmy Witherspoon classic Evenin' that is full of passion and pain, wondering how they can ever go on without you by there side. The minimal backing and restraint shown on the guitar solo adds poignancy. Nowhere Fast sounds like it's very late at night, they are all sippin' whisky and trying to find a way to keep you loving them, but can't find a way out of that rut.
Checkin' Up On My Baby has all the paranoid coercive controlling behaviour that was laid out by Sonny Boy Williamson, for why he was walking out that door, with Mark Feltham's colossal harmonica solo making clear just how gone he will be, long before Gary rips the world apart with a brutally caustic guitar solo.
I Had A Dream is the most soulful song on the album, sounding more like the Righteous Brothers down on there knees sobbing and begging to be allowed to bring the dreams they have for you to reality, a perfect love story that in places has echoes of In The Heat Of The Night, before the keyboards surge and you've already left him, with his guitar crying him to sleep once more.
The album closes with Son House's delta blues Sundown played on an acoustic guitar with some cool finger picking showing Gary can bring all the emotion and emphatic playing without his usual amplification, this is a great unplugged blues classic.
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