Rory Gallagher kickback cityBrace yourself, Christmas is coming. This means the usual flood of greatest hits and re-mastered classic albums from iconic musicians are hitting the shelves, all crying out for attention with loud cover art and promises of “unreleased material”.

But fans of Rory Gallagher may notice a new release that does just enough to rise above this level of cashing in and provides a genuinely interesting multimedia package.

‘Kickback City’ combines a two CD collection of music inspired by Rory’s lifelong love of crime fiction with a  new novella by Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin (who wrote ‘Rebus’ series of novels) and art from American graphic artist Timothy Truman (most well know for his work on ‘Grimjack’).

Donal Gallagher, Rory’s brother, put this project together as a tribute to his brother. In a recent interview with Goldenplec, he stressed that “Rory’s writing was always overshadowed by his guitar playing.” ‘Kickback City’ seeks to redress that balance, taking a collection of Rory’s most noirish songs and presenting them in a context that forces the focus back onto the lyrics.

So on songs like Continental Op – inspired by Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled detective fiction – lyrics like “Blood stains on the dress/of a millionairess” can finally be viewed as they were meant to, as if the words came from the mouth of Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade.

Despite the well-known title track, ‘Kickback City’ mostly eschews more of Rory’s better known repertoire and instead sidesteps into material that never made it onto any greatest hits collection. The album encompasses far more subtlety than big sweeping blues-y guitar solos (although there are still plenty of them here too).  But more than anything else, tracks like Loanshark Blues and Secret Agent display a musician who could wrap some incredibly atmospheric and moody lyrics around masterful guitar work. The brooding swell of Slumming Angel exudes the sense that all of this music would fit perfectly on the soundtrack of a film noir thriller.

And of course this is the point, as the written material and the visual packaging all combines to one single multimedia product. When consumed all at once, with Rory jamming away on the stereo and Rankin’s hard-boiled prose in front of you, ‘Kickback City’ suddenly blossoms into a totally immersive experience.

The second CD contains live tracks, a practical must have for a musician who could improvise and innovate so freely in front of an audience, as Rory could. I Ain’t No Saint and Messin’ with the Kid, in particular, showcase a musician with a gift for delivering an unrelenting soulful intensity in his live shows. And although this material, like the rest of the album, isn’t anything long term hardcore fans won’t have heard before, the novelty of the package does just enough to sell the concept.

It isn’t quite a concept album, a novel, a graphic novel, or a book with an accompanying soundtrack. It is all of these things and more. It’s a package just unique enough that there isn’t yet a single term to describe it.

‘Kickback City’ is a gift true Rory fans aren’t likely to be disappointed to find under the tree on Christmas morning, particularly if they share his passion for detective stories.