Rory Gallagher Quotes

We play our Irish songs a bit more loosely.

First I was a European-style player, then I was a downtown 'noise guy,' and now some people call me an Americana guy.

The British ballads became a new kind of form in their hand. And out of them came the blues, a new kind of song of commentary and satire, a song form which, after all, has become the main musical form of the whole human species.

I am, and always will be, a blues guitarist.

Any nobody from the folk blues world could avoid being influenced by Woody Guthrie, who is actually of Scottish-Irish ancestry.

I've grown up on American songwriters my whole life - listening to Paul Simon and Bob Dylan and people like John Prine - you know, classic, real songwriters. They've been the lion's share of what I've really focused on as a writer and as influences, too.

I have a great liking for the Chamba folk music, which depicts the beauty of women and the mountains with a touch of Indian classical music.

My own style on the guitar grew out of my experience with the lute. I suppose some people might say I play each like the other. And of course I know a lot of guitar fans who wish I would stop playing the lute and vice versa.

I love a lot of Irish folk music and Irish folk songs.

One thing that I love about country music, probably more so than any other culture - maybe the blues rivals it - there are so many American folk heroes. There's the Coal Miner's Daughter, the Man in Black, the Red-Headed Stranger, and on and on.

I've grown up on Bob Dylan and all that, but there was a certain standard set up by people before 1955.

I love British folk music, but I'm not obsessed with it. I love the Celtic stuff, and Enya is a favorite, but that's more electronic.

I kept playing blues-based music all during the 1980s, and it was tough.

I don't really like club music or hip hop or electronic music at all. I'm like an old person.

'In the Pines' is a very old song dating back to slavery. Lead Belly made it popular.

We were never a boy band. We always had much more to offer than that, I thought.

The instrumental stuff is a good challenge, and it keeps my fingers athletically tuned, but I'm totally happy to bang away on some chords, sing some harmonies and play some wailing blues solos after the second chorus.

I don't really play a lot of slide in general, but it was fun getting into that style and exploring it.

Irish music in the local pubs was my first exposure to musical expression, and I feel like Irish music is very close to musical theater because it is always telling a story.

I'm probably the most successful Celtic bard of my generation, who projected this style and this image and this casketful of magical songs all around the world.

I like to play acoustic slide. I like that. I just... I can do it, you know. But it ain't my cup of tea.

I flow between modern and traditional jazz, between samba and choro - all maybe in a week's time.

Basically, I like anything with guts - Lead Belly, Bill Big Broonzy, Johnny Winter, the Stones.

Some people will basically just shred all over everything, even a ballad. I'm glad I wasn't born with that genetic chip - the need to just wheedle-whee all over the place.

It probably would be impossible for me to make music and not make it sound like Burzum. This is the music I make and the only music I am able to make, so I have no other options musically.