By Mike Farragher

“When Rory came to town, it was rough going, you know, it was the coming of Jesus!”

So says Seamus Kelleher, producer of the magnificent concert tribute, Songs and Stories: New York Remembers Rory Gallagher.

If you think that sounds biased, you would be right. Kelleher, the lead guitarist for the Celtic rock powerhouse known as Blackthorn, has been a loving curator of the Gallagher legacy here in the States.

On October 30, 2002, Kelleher booked Manhattan’s Bottom Line and invited other Gallagher fans to pay tribute to the Cork blues great. I was at the show, which still represents one of the musical highlights of the decade in my mind.

The event was captured by Home Team Productions, which created an hour-long documentary around the performance with highlights of Rory’s life and work. That show is the spine of this DVD, which splices in historical snippets, interviews with the likes of Sean Fleming and Black 47’s Larry Kirwan, and rare Gallagher interviews in between fiery performances by Manhattan’s Irish American greats.

Kelleher pays his debt to the guitarist in spades with this loving tribute. A strange magic happened at the legendary Bottom Line in New York City that night. I recall being in the room and feeling a blue breeze that was surely Gallagher’s presence. He must have been proud to see Sean Fleming turn in a blistering read of “A Million Miles.”

He must have had a tear in his eye when Larry Kirwan sung “No More Messin’ With the Kid,” or when fellow Wexford native Pierce Turner unleashed the song “Rory Gallagher” that night.

“Rory Gallagher bought a cheap guitar/and into Cork his port of call/came sounds of blue notes/played em small/he lost no time in moving on/he was going places/a fire contained was now enraged/a bold of blue came from the stage/and Rory roared like a lion uncaged,” sings Turner over a pensive chord structure.

“He was there before Boomtown Rats and U2,” he says in the documentary. “Whether those folks know it or not, they owe a great debt to Rory Gallagher.”

While Kelleher cut his own formidable guitar chops on Gallagher’s riffs, the Salthill native formally began his love affair with Gallagher’s music when he met his idol after a gig in Galway.

“He was just after playing for three hours, and I asked him to talk to me for a few minutes,” recalls Kelleher. “He spoke with me.”

The concert has highlights that are too numerous to mention. Pat McGuire does justice to the funky shuffle of “Brute Force and Ignorance,” while Jersey Shore blues hound Matt O’Ree evokes the spirit of the fallen legend with his fiery blues riffs and his eerie likeness to Gallagher himself.

“He was a huge influence,” Kelleher says. “During a career spanning 30 years he sold over 20 million albums. He was not only a great blues guitar player, but also a wonderful songwriter and a favourite of Bob Dylan and John Lennon.”

In other Kelleher news, his band Blackthorn are currently in the studio working on a new CD, which is scheduled for a March release.

“It is being produced by a wonderful character called Eamon McElholm,” says Kelleher. “He is the guitar player with Solas. He is really getting the best out of us.”

To order a copy of Songs and Stories, log onto the HomeTeam website at http://hometeamproductions.tv/songs.html or Film Baby http://filmbaby.com//.