Anyone who says that Gary's blues lacks soul, lacks soul. Passionate.

A true guitar maestro's magnum opus. In a long and varied career, Gary Moore accomplished a lot, but never more than the virtuosic effort here. Great cameos, great song choices, great tone everywhere. Pure clean technique, flashy but natural, great taste. Mmmm! So good.

Plenty of purist tastemongers have criticized this and Moore's other forays into blues as being too loud, too fast, too soulless, too...whatever, are missing the point entirely. If you want museum recreations of blues classics just go to a folk festival. Moore takes the blues to a place familiar to him, informed by Peter Green, Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, and Page and establishes a legitimate third generation of electric blues in doing so. This album stands with SRV or Johnny Winter's best stuff with nary a bad song on it. His own compositions hold up well enough, particularly when he has fun with the subject matter such as "Texas Strut" or "Movin' On" but its the slow burn of the title track and his cover of "As the Years Go Passing By" that add contrast and mood to what could have been a serious guitar wank-off session. Luckily, Moore finds that elusive space where technique and soul become conjoined. The added cameos by gunslinging legends Alberts King and Collins are just frosting on a delicious cake.

As good as it gets...