But unlike Van Morrison or Gary Moore, both of who left Ireland with the rise of The Troubles to attain stardom elsewhere, Rab stayed home to protect his family.  Even Rory Gallagher, who would return to Belfast every Christmas for a special holiday concert (the only live music of the year there), relocated to London.  Rory became a legend - Rab became legendary.  So when Rab McCullough says he's got the "Belfast Blues," he knows what he's talking about.

The wheel of time turned from the 60's through the 70's and then the 80's, but in Belfast time stood still, locking the city in a thick, suffocating atmosphere of hate and mistrust.  For Rab, these were the dark days with only the love and support of his family to strengthen him. His music matured and deepened even as his public profile as a musician waned.

As the 90's dawned so did some small rays of hope for an end to The Troubles and with it, the opportunity for Rab McCullough to channel his heart and soul into his music once again.

In 1998 he traveled to the home of American blues - Memphis. While attending the famed Beale Street Music Festival he was asked to join Arthur "Mississippi" Williams on stage. It was this performance (by all accounts one of the most intense ever witnessed at the Beale St. Festival) that proved to be the catalyst for Rab to resume the career he thought he had lost forever.

The journey of a musician's rediscovery starts with the musician's rediscovery of himself. In 2000, he returned to Memphis to compete in The Blues Foundation International Blues Challenge. He took home 3rd Place and left his name on the tongues of everyone who witnessed his blistering performance.

A clear indication of the impact that Rab McCullough has had on the music community is that fact that Cream lyricist Pete Brown remembers hearing about a fiery young guitarist many years ago; when word started circulating last year about the return of Rab McCullough to the active music scene, Pete's memory and Rab's name connected. Having tracked Rab down, Pete put him forward as a member of the core band backing Dick Heckstall-Smith on his recently released "Dick Heckstall-Smith and friends - blues and beyond."

Dick fell in love both with Rab's vocal style as well as his playing, stating "…he plays guitar and sings and the whole thing is coming from inside him the whole thing just happens at once, the perfect set-up as far as I am concerned!"

Pete Brown concurs, maintaining "the thing about him that is quite interesting is that you give him a song and he comes up with a take on it that you might not have thought of." Now if two seasoned, expert musicians like Dick Heckstall-Smith and Pete Brown can be so impressed with the intuitive feel Rab McCullough brings to outside material, just imagine the intensity level he brings to his own.

The Blues is known as a soundtrack to the struggle to overcome but it is also a magic potion of hope. Rab's fiery guitar playing and soulful vocals have convinced many a fan that he honed his chops on Chicago's South Side or in some Texas roadhouse, but it was the streets of Belfast that molded and then refined his vital style.

It would have been a tragedy for his talent to be lost - but it would have paled next to losing his family. Rab McCullough chose the noble role of father and husband and his reward (and ours) is the reemergence of that talent with his family intact.

Rab McCullough has used the Blues to take him past the turmoil of Belfast to a place where all can have good times. Rab's blues is a passageway to that better place and time that we all seek.

Rab McCullough's Belfast blues never sounded so good.