''Calling Card'' is the sixth studio album and eighth album overall by Irish singer and guitarist

Rory Gallagher William Rory Gallagher ( ; 2 March 1948 – 14 June 1995) was an Irish musician, singer, and songwriter. Regarded as "Ireland's first rock star", he is known for his virtuosic style of guitar playing and live performances. He has sometim ...

. Released in 1976, it marked the second of four albums he released on

Chrysalis Records Chrysalis Records () is a British independent record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ell ...

during the 1970s. The album was co-produced by Gallagher and

Roger Glover Roger David Glover (born 30 November 1945) is a Welsh bassist, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as a member of the hard rock bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. As a member of Deep Purple, Glover was inducted into the Rock and Roll ...

, the bassist for

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...

and

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

. This collaboration was notable as it was Gallagher's first experience working with a high profile producer and remains his only successful partnership of such collaboration. Calling Card also marked the end of an era for Gallagher's band, as it was the last album to feature Rod de'Ath on (drums) and Lou Martin on (keyboards). Following the ''Calling Card'' tour (1976-1977), Gallagher restructured his line up, retaining only his long-time bass guitarist Gerry McAvoy. He hired Ted McKenna as the new drummer, forming a revised

power trio A power trio is a rock band format having a lineup of electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit, leaving out a dedicated vocalist or an additional rhythm guitar or keyboard instrument that are often used in other rock music bands that are quart ...

that became his core group from early 1978 until 1980.

Recording

The sessions for the album began in the summer of 1976 at

Musicland Studios Musicland Studios was a recording studio located in Munich, Germany established by Italy, Italian record producer, songwriter and musician Giorgio Moroder in the early 1970s. The studios were known for their work with artists such as Donna Summer, ...

Munich, Germany Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. Roger Glover joined as co-producer after meeting Rory Gallagher during a Deep Purple tour where Gallagher served as the opening act. The choice of Glover signified a conscious attempt by Gallagher to try new directions from the

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

he was best known for. ''Calling Card'' is one of his most diverse albums. It also reflects the synergy that the band had developed after years of playing together. As producer Roger Glover commented “they all seemed very dedicated to Rory, there was an allegiance, born of years of smoky clubs and endless journeys”. This was the fifth and last release featuring this line-up.

Reaction

The album is often considered one of Gallagher's finest studio offerings with

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

giving the album 4.5 stars out of 5. In its August 2005 issue, ''

Guitar Player ''Guitar Player'' was an American magazine for guitarists, founded in 1967 in San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francis ...

s "Oeuvre Easy" feature on Gallagher praised its "brilliant songs" and "rockin' edge" and listed it in the "Inspired" section of his catalogue. Irish folk group

The Dubliners The Dubliners () were an Folk music of Ireland, Irish folk band founded in Dublin in 1962 as The Ronnie Drew Ballad Group, named after its founding member; they subsequently renamed themselves The Dubliners. The line-up saw many changes in pers ...

later recorded "Barley And Grape Rag" with Gallagher for their 1992 release, '' 30 Years A-Greying''.

1999 remaster

The album was reissued by

Buddah Records Buddah Records (later known as Buddha Records) was an American record label founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's foundin ...

in 1999 along with the rest of Gallagher's catalogue. As with the rest of the reissues, the album featured remastered sound, newly written

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or cassette j-cards. Origin Liner notes are descended from the prog ...

by Gallagher's brother Donal, and bonus tracks "Rue the Day" and "Public Enemy" (an early version of a track that later appeared on Gallagher's 1979 album '' Top Priority'').

Track listing

All tracks composed by Rory Gallagher.

Personnel

*Rory Gallagher –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

and

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica incl ...

* Gerry McAvoy –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

* Lou Martin – keyboards * Rod de'Ath –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

;Technical *Hans Menzel, Mack – engineer

References

External links

Rory Gallagher's Official Site
{{Authority control 1976 albums Rory Gallagher albums Albums produced by Roger Glover Albums produced by Rory Gallagher Buddah Records albums Albums with cover art by Mick Rock