Taste

Prior to establishing himself as a solo artist, Rory Gallagher led the blues-rock trio Taste through a period of moderate popularity in the U.K. during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The group drew heavily from the Cream template while folding folk, pop, and jazz touches into its blues-rock foundation and spotlighting a technically gifted guitarist. Taste never reached the level of Cream, especially in songwriting, and shared the latter’s occasional lean toward blues-rock excess. Even so, the band held its own with a subtler approach than most acts tied to the British blues boom.

Gallagher remained the clear centerpiece throughout Taste’s existence. Beyond his skilled and flexible lead guitar work, he delivered vocals with a soft yet assured tone and supplied nearly all the band’s original songs. Much of the group’s material stayed more measured and proportioned than the guitar-hero emphasis that would define Gallagher’s solo releases in the 1970s. He also contributed saxophone and harmonica on select tracks.

Gallagher assembled the first lineup of Taste in his native Ireland in 1966, enlisting bassist Eric Kittringham and drummer Norman Damery. In May 1968 he moved to London and, still several months away from turning twenty, recruited bassist Charlie McCracken—who had previously worked with Spencer Davis outside the latter’s commercial peak—and drummer John Wilson, formerly of Them but not during its best-known phase. Two studio albums appeared in 1969 and 1970, the latter reaching the British Top 20. Taste remained largely unfamiliar to American audiences at the time of its dissolution shortly afterward, though a pair of live albums surfaced in the early 1970s to maintain catalog availability.