Rory Gallagher - Calling Card (1976)

The first Rory Gallagher LP I bought was 'Sinner... and Saint' (1975). I was totally hooked by the way the Irish guitarist strangled his Strat — musical sadism never sounded so thrilling — and quite taken with his underrated songcraft, marvellously infused with equal measures of folk, blues and rock as it was.

'Calling Card', produced by Deep Purple's Roger Glover, puts the late Irish rocker (God bless his soul!) in a quartet setting that doesn't quite do it for me as much as his early '70s trio efforts. But it does have some terrific, infectiously propulsive blues.