In November/December 1977 and January 1978, Rory Gallagher recorded a complete new studio album in San Francisco.
There were a variety of reasons why the album wasn’t released at the time – though, in 1992, Rory did reveal that the main reason it didn’t come out (it would have fitted between ‘Photo Finish’ and ‘Top Priority’) was because “the mixing of it had become complicated” and, as a result, he “couldn’t get some of the songs to sound right”. He also said that with the passing of time, he now felt there was a good chance the album “could eventually come out in some form - remixed”.
Sadly, of course, Rory is no longer with us in person but his legacy has been lovingly maintained and nurtured by his brother and manager, Dónal. He, now along with his son Daniel, Rory’s nephew, have returned to these recordings and performed the extraordinary job of mixing the album with contemporary technology - and Rory would surely approve of the results.
To enhance what is already a 'holy grail' package for Rory’s fanbase, the Gallagher’s have also compiled and mixed a live album recorded over the four shows Rory performed at The Old Waldorf in San Francisco around the same period, in December, 1979. The result is a mouth-watering double CD package.
The title, ‘Notes From San Francisco’, is, of course, a play on words, with the notes referred to being both musical ones and written ones, as Rory used to send postcards back to Ireland from wherever his career took him. The sleeve is an original postcard he sent, and several others from the time have been sourced from the original US postcard company who produced them. This limited deluxe edition includes, amongst other things, a set of personalised Rory postcards complete with Rory ‘stamps’.
Rory’s hand-written lyrics for the studio album were in a notebook in the possession of the album’s original producer, Elliot Mazer (famous for his work with Neil Young, Janis Joplin, Linda Ronstadt and The Byrds, amongst many others), and these have also been reproduced in the new artwork.
‘Notes From San Francisco’ is released on the Capo label on 6 June.
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