Upon a quick first reading, Blueprint (released 2/18/73) might not seem a fitting title for Rory Gallagher’s third solo album. After all, with his eponymous LP, he had effectively created a template for his future outings under his own name (following the disbandment of Irish power trio Taste), and the fittingly-titled follow-up, Deuce, reaffirmed the wisdom of the approach (as did, in its own fiery way, 1972’s Live In Europe).
Nevertheless, the significance of this third solo album’s title may lie in its emphatic affirmation of Gallagher’s deep belief in the career path he chose to take. He was sufficiently confident to avoid simply grinding out variations on a predetermined formula, preferring instead to formulate assiduous studio recordings of well-crafted originals.
So, as a practical means of shaking things up, Blueprint Gallagher featured a keyboardist for the first time in his work. A bandmate of newly-recruited drummer Rod de’Ath, Lou Martin takes his piano bouncing through the opening cut of eight, “Walk On Hot Coals;” perhaps not coincidentally, this is one of the four longest tracks here, along with the next, similarly-arranged selection, “Daughter of the Everglades.”
As the means to showcase the reconfigured band dynamic, such choices are fully in keeping with Gallagher’s decisive creative approach. Still, in also playing to such lengths on the roughly six minutes of “Race The Breeze,” this quartet indulges itself no more in the recording studio than on stage. Their collective sense of purpose only magnified the earthy impact of their performances, the tone of which economy and self-restraint Gallagher himself set with his disciplined guitar work during the slightly tongue-in-cheek boogie-woogie of “Hands Off.”
Additional instrumentation in the four-piece format also allowed for further authentication of Rory’s fondness for acoustic textures. His harmonica appears front and center next to unplugged bottleneck guitar on “Banker’s Blues” and, not surprisingly, for the ragtime instrumental “Unmilitary Two Step;” the precision in the picking only adds to the joy in the musicianship.
Meanwhile, in its near-waltz time, “If I Had A Reason” is almost but not quite a torch song. Such a closing to a Rory Gallagher album is an unusual but nonetheless fitting choice here, given all the novel elements that pervade this half-century-old effort. As with the bulk of Rory Gallagher’s self-composed material, much of which filled Blueprint doesn’t diverge too far from standard blues progressions.
Still, even with the obvious homage to genre icon Muddy Waters in the very title of “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son,” the Irish musician not only imbues the structure with small but crucial variations, he sings with the same unabashed vigor that permeates his electric slide playing (plus more harp work). And, appropriately enough in the context of an album marking such significant changes for the iconoclastic artist, what sounds like nothing so much as crescendos from a harpsichord (celeste?) begin the number.
While the two expanded packages of Blueprint released roughly a decade apart in the early 2000’s proffer different cover artwork and inside graphics (the original of which is actually the source of the record’s title taken from a guitar amplifier wiring schematic), both single discs boast remastering by Tony Arnold and CD mastering by Andy Pearce of the ten tracks. Oddly enough, or perhaps not, the earlier release sports considerably more definition in its enlarged scope of sound.
The sonic contrast is readily apparent between the two even on the identical pair of bonus tracks. The utterly conventional blues-rock nature of an alternate version of “Stompin’ Ground” suggests why it wasn’t included on the final track listing, as is also the case with this off-the-cuff take on Roy Head’s “Treat Her Right” (though a cover song had no place on a studio set of the Cork native’s). With 2023 marking the fiftieth anniversary of Blueprint, it will be interesting to see whether Rory’s family, as is their wont, goes to the same extensive lengths to curate a lavish archival set comparable to those of the eponymous solo record and its follow-up. Given the expanse of style in just these forty-five or so minutes, a deluxe edition might well surpass the curiosity/fascination factor of its predecessors.
