Gerry McAvoy - Can't Win 'Em All (2010)

Incredibly, it took almost 30 years for this album to see the light of day. Nine Below Zero bassist Gerry McAvoy was still a member of Rory Gallagher's band when he began work on his first solo album and, while it would take him a few years to get it finished, dipping in and out of the studio as Gallagher's schedule allowed, by the mid-'80s he had emerged with a solid 11-song collection that, as he explained, wrapped up all of his influences in one. Rounding up songs that he'd been accumulating for years -- several of which would have sounded great in Gallagher's hands, incidentally -- it's a solid British blues album, tough and tuneful, and powered, unsurprisingly, by some of the most inventive bass playing around. But it isn't just a bassist's album -- a full band pounds behind McAvoy, while he adds vocals and guitars to the brew as well.