Shana Morrison's New Album, Joyride, Out Now
Shana Morrison has a new album out called Joyride.

Album Song List:
1. Joyride
2. Gone for Good
3. I Am a Rose
4. Tomorrow's Eve
5. Blue Angel
6. He Won't Send Roses
7. Means to Me
8. Heart Shaped Tattoo
9. No More Mrs Nice Girl
10. Ten Thousand Things
11. One Less Monkey
12. Makin Love
11. Good Enough for God

Ordering Information:
Send $18 check or money order to
(includes shipping and handling):

Shana Morrison
P.O. Box 302
Mill Valley, Ca 94942 USA

Add $3 postage per CD for
addresses outside the U.S.

Make payment payable to:
Shana Morrison

40th Anniversary of Moondance
Van Morrison's legendary album, Moondance, was release today, February 28, 1970. 40 years ago. It was a follow up to his classic Astral Weeks. Unlike Astral Weeks, however, Moondance was a commercial success and established Van as a major artist. It peaked at #29 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart.

The single released was Come Running with Crazy Love as the B-side, which peaked at #39 on the Pop Singles chart. Crazy Love was only released as a single in Holland and did not chart. Moondance, as a single was not released until 1977 and peaked at #92.


Your Favorite Songs On Moondance
Into The Mystic (54%)
Caravan (35%)
And It Stoned Me (26%)
Crazy Love (21%)
Moondance (20%)
Brand New Day (12%)
These Dreams Of You (10%)
Glad Tidings (9%)
Come Running (7%)
Everyone (5%)

Your Thoughts:

The difficult second album!!! Considering this album followed Astral Weeks is incredible....the album as a whole is masterly,but I cant think of a better opening side of music than side one...He should do a sequence of albums live like Steely Dan....10 nights in Dublin or Belfast anyone!!!!
-Anonymous

The entire side one of the original vinyl record was just the perfect slab of rock music I'd ever heard when it was played to me in, I think, 1975.
-Bern

Whenever Moondance is played on the radio or over a sound system somwhere. I can recognise the song in two or three notes...I have heard the song more times than any other and yet where ever I am and no matter what I am doing..

I will listen to it until to the end each time...

It's the album that brought me to this 'obsession' and feel quite fortunate 40 years later we still can still hear him perform it live..
-Bob C.

Moondance was the first album I bought with my first adult pay packet that left me any disposable income. Not until September 1971, though. I was a skint school pupil before that, spending all my money on beer and scrounging cigarettes off all and sundry. I'd liked Van from 'Them' days and I used to hear the title song from 'Moondance' on the radio and always loved it so much. I couldn't persuade my brother to buy it. I was knocked out when I eventually got the album and heard the rest. None of my friends liked Van then, so I'd not heard it all. Converted a couple afterwards. (Also bought 'Abraxas' and 'Buffalo Springfield Again' that day. Wonderful music). For loads of reasons, Moondance remains my favourite album by anybody.

I mentioned a while back that Moondance was the highest selling performer/sole producer abum of the 1970s. Jimmy Page had co-produced a couple of Led Zep efforts and Mike Nesmith and a cast of thousands (well, several) produced some Monkees' discs, but Moondance outsold all others where the performer produced it on his own.

Thanks for raking up the memories. Sweet.

Cheers

-Jez

Reviews

Rolling Stone
Long ago, Van Morrison reached that point where the influences on his music no longer mattered. It is as pointless to attempt to detect those influences as it would be for any musician to try to imitate him.

Van Morrison's music cannot really be imitated, because, as with Dylan's music, what one hears is not style, but personality. With each record -- Them Again, Astral Weeks, or Moondance -- one gets a sense that Van has achieved some ancient familiarity with his band and with his songs; no matter how the music changes, the long inventions of Van's singing, his full command of the musicians that play with him, and the striking imagination of a consciousness that is visionary in the strongest sense of the word, creat an atmosphere that instantly sets its own terms. Morrison's powers are clear: his strong gift for melody, his ability to move freely within virtually any sort of contemporary instrumentation, his verbal magic as inventive and literate as Dylan's, and most of all, the authenticity of his spirit.

Moondance is his first album in over a year. Unlike Van's masterful Astral Weeks, this one will be immensely popular; Van's picture already fills the windows of record stores and his new music is getting more airplay on FM stations than anything in recent memory.


Van's new album might send one back to the bright enthusiasm of "Brown-Eyed Girl" and the magic blues of Them Again; Van now sings with a magnetically full electric band, complete with piano, organ, vibes, and intricately controlled saxophones and flute. The band's performance has a stately brilliance; and if it recaptures some of the feeling of the earlier music, the past is serving as a rite of passage toward the celebrations of Moondance.

Van opens with "And It Stoned Me," a tale of boys out for a day's freedom, standing in the rain with eyes and mouths open, heads bent back: "Oh, the water, let it run all over me..." The sensuality of this song is overpowering, communicated with a classical sort of grace. "And it stoned me/To my soul/Stoned me just like jelly roll..." There is no strain for meaning in Van's words or in his voice. "Let it run all over me..." -- you feel the exhilaration almost with a sense of astonishment. The band, playing subtle, gentle rock and roll, surrounds the singer; here, as everywhere on Moondance, the horn arrangements are absolutely exquisite, as eloquent as a sermon in a backwoods chapel.

With "Caravan" one might begin to remember the early Impressions: the instantaneous aura of fantasy and desire that Curtis Mayfield created for "Gypsy Woman" tumbles down again as a fanfare on piano and the roll of drums and guitar open a composition of seductive grandeur. "Caravan" is a strange song; the images are easily real and the music is profoundly comforting, yet there's the edge of a story here that fades without ever revealing all it has to tell. "Now the caravan has all friends/Yes, they'll stay with me until the end...Gypsies...tell me all I need to know..." Woven between the fragments and framed by the textures of the horn with blazing imagination: "Turn up your radio/And let me/Hear the song/Turn on your electric light/So we can get down/To what is really wrong." The singer moves from the gypsy campfire to his lover and back again, with a lovely sort of affection. Van's singing is pure expression, pure sound; the band moves off and then forward again. A graceful soprano saxophone holds notes behind Van's words: "Now, the caravan is painted red and white/That means everyone is staying overnight..."

"It's a good thing he doesn't have much stage presence," said a friend after watching Van perform this song. "Otherwise it'd be too much to take."

"Into the Mystic" is the heart of Moondance; the music unfolds with a classic sense of timing, guitar strums fading into watery notes on a piano, the bass counting off the pace. The lines of the song and Morrison's delivery of them are gorgeous: "I want to rock your gypsy soul/Just like in the days of old/And magnificently we will fold/Into the mystic." The transcendent purity of the imagery seems to turn endlessly, giving back one's own reflection. Van's more abstract songs are mosaics of brilliantly chosen metaphors -- ambiguous and instantly recognizable. Morrison communicates directly even when he is most obscure; his visions have power, and the ambiguity of those visions is always unified by the sympathy of the music -- there is no "backup band" on Moondance any more than there is an "Lay Lady Lay." Something's been made; it stands, it won't be broken down.

Perhaps "Glad Tidings," which ends Moondance, is the song that most makes one want to come back to this album without even thinking about it. "Glad Tidings" is a vital, leaping promenade through the streets of the town; fast, clean rock and roll moves it along as striking horns guide the song, until they cue the chorus into an explosion of real joy: "Yeah, we'll send you glad tidings/From New York/DO DO DO DOOT DO DO/Open up your eyes that you may see/DO DO DO DOOT DO DO/Ask you not to read between the lines/Hoping that you come right in on time."

Moondance is an album of musical invention and lyrical confidence; the strong moods of "Into the Mystic" and the fine, epic brilliance of "Caravan" will carry it past many good records we'll forget in the next few years. Van Morrison plays on.
- Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone, 3/19/70.

Billboard
His Astral Weeks album was overlooked by the charts and praised as the aesthetic success of '69 throughout the underground. Morrison's new masterpiece should cure the public of its previous oversight with a more commercial entry, still rich with the soul/folk nuances of this sensitive lrish song surrealist. "Stoned Me," "Caravan" and "These Dreams of You" should bring this unique musical personality to rock and folk lovers.
- Billboard, 1970.

Christgau's Record Guide
An album worthy of an Irish r&b singer who wrote a teen hit called "Mystic Eyes" (not to mention a Brill Building smash called "Brown Eyed Girl"), adding punchy brass (including pennywhistles and foghorn) and a solid backbeat (including congas) to his folk-jazz swing, and a pop-wise formal control to his Gaelic poetry. Morrison's soul, like that of the black music he loves, is mortal and immortal simultaneously; this is a man who gets stoned on a drink of water and urges us to turn up our radios all the way into (that world again) the mystic. Visionary hooks his specialty.
-Robert Christgau

John Tobler
Van Morrison's 1968 LP Astral Weeks had made him a cult hero. But Moondance was his first U.S. Top 30 album, and also his first to go platinum.

Morrison was living in Woodstock's rural paradise when he wrote many of these songs, although he left the area following the influx of people after the celebrated festival. Some of the musicians he assembled for the album remained with him for several years, including guitarist John Platania, horn player Jack Schroer, and Jeff Labes on keyboards.

Moondance showcases Van Morrison as a masterly songwriter and charismatic vocalist. In contrast to the acoustic Astral Weeks, the sound is bigger, meatier, with a horn section to add punch; the songs are more tightly structured, less improvisatory. The first side of the LP is almost perfect. "And It Stoned Me" paints a vignette of adolescence with a storyteller's eye for detail, while the smoky, jazz-infused title track remains one of Morrison's best-loved songs. Ethereal sailor's ballad "Into The Mystic" is a moving meditation on the splendor of love; the shivering strings are a wonderfully appropriate complement to his vocals. Elsewhere, a celebratory air, bordering on spiritual joy, haunts many of the tracks -- witness the closing trio of "Brand New Day," "Everyone," and "Glad Tidings."

Helen Reddy had a 1971 U.S. hit with "Crazy Love," while Johnny Rivers' version of "Into The Mystic" charted in 1970. Van himself had a U.S. Top Forty hit with "Come Running." His solo career was on the rise.
- John Tobler, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, 2005.

Music of Ireland: Welcome Home
Check your local PBS station schedule in U.S. for air-times

Grammy Award-winner Moya Brennan hosts, exclusive interviews and performances by The Chieftains, Riverdance’s Michael Flatley, U2, Pete Seeger, Sinéad O’Connor, the late Liam Clancy, and others

Never-before-seen performances by U2 and Friends, Clannad, The Dubliners’ John Sheahan, Paddy Moloney and Moya Brennan, the McPeake Family, and an authentic Dublin pub session combine with vintage clips of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem and The Dubliners on The Ed Sullivan Show, Judy Collins playing music from the ‘old country,’ The Pogues and Van Morrison with The Chieftains on RTE’s Late, Late Show...

New Song Playing on Van's Website
A new song by Van, Here They Come Again, is currently playing on his website!
Check it out at vanmorrison.com

Texas Shows Canceled

Austin 360
VAN MORRISON CANCELS UPCOMING BASS CONCERT HALL SHOW TICKET REFUNDS AT ORIGINAL POINT OF PURCHASE

Mr. Morrison has reluctantly had to cancel his January shows owing to severe exhaustion. This includes the show scheduled for Saturday, January 23 at Bass Concert Hall at The University of Texas at Austin. Tickets purchased will be refunded at the original point of purchase.

Customers that purchased tickets online or by phone may contact Texas Box Office at 512-477-6060 to arrange refunds. Canceled shows have a two-year window to obtain a refund.

Please contact Texas Box Office for further questions regarding refunds.

Mick Green 1944-2010
Mick played guitar on Van's recent albums including Back On Top and Keep It Simple. He had been touring with Van in recent years as well.

mickgreen.co.uk
IN LOVING MEMORY
It is with the greatest of sorrow that I have to inform you all that my father, Mick Green, has this morning (11th Jan 2010) passed away. My dad will be deeply missed by his family, friends and fans around the world. He inspired and dazzled with his amazing talent and his sharp personality and wit. His spirit will continue to live on through his music. Thank you all for your support and thoughts.
-Brad Green

vanmorrison.com
Since shortly after Christmas, there has been a great deal of misinformation and rank speculation concerning me and my private life arising out of a recent unauthorised posting on my website. My private life is exactly that, it is private. I have, in my long career, never spoken about it and I'm not about to start doing so now. My public communications will always be through my music which is what I am known for.
-Van Morrison

Tell Us How You Got Into Listening To Van's Music
We like to hear how and when you started listening to Van's music. Was it a particular song that did it or an album? Send us your story and we'll post it on the blog along with other stories. You can post your story in the comments section below & we'll then put it in post or you can email it to vanmorrisonnews{@}yahoo.com
Thanks.
-John

Your Stories:
It was "Moondance" first and then, in quick succession, "Street Choir" and "Astral Weeks." I had been hearing Van on late-night FM radio and reading about him in Rolling Stone, and I was hooked immediately. Have been ever since. By the time Van appeared at the Troubador in L.A. in 1973, I had everything I could get my hands on from Them-time on. My girlfriend Laura Greenwood and I attended two of the Troubador shows, parts of which went into the "Too Late to Stop Now" LP. In fact, the second, slightly higher-pitched female scream that slips in there just after Van finishes "Domino" is Laura.

The Troub was tiny and every seat was great. Laura and I sat in the "last row," up on a small platform, maybe 30 to 40 feet from the stage and right next to a back door leading to the restrooms and the stair for the balcony. Shortly before the show was to begin a small, seemingly nondescript man stepped out of the doorway and stood next to me, his right shoulder almost brushing my left. He stood there looking straight ahead as though he might be waiting for something. It was as though I could feel heat or energy coming from him, but he was standing too close for it to be comfortable to look at him directly. Frankly, I didn't think much of it. A few moments later someone - probably Doug Weston - encouraged us to welcome Van Morrison and the man standing next to me in a cool stitched leather coat headed for the stage. By then the band was cooking and I never gave it another thought. That's how it was back then - before you knew what someone looked like ahead of time because of the internet or MTV. Plus Van was really a chameleon in those days. Although we were still in high school, Laura and I began following Van "up the highway, down the highway," because he began playing gigs all over Southern California - L.A., Santa Monica, San Diego, Irvine, Anaheim, Santa Barbara, Oxnard and more.

And I have to say this because I get really cranky about reviewers and "fans" talking about how temperamental Van is. It's his music, damn it, it's up to him to do with it what he wants! I twice saw what others might call temperamental shows and they are among my favorite musical memories. One was in San Diego when, in the middle of "I've Been Working," Van up and left the stage and didn't come back for ages. Finally one of the musicians left the stage, presumably to bring Van back on, which he did after awhile. And man, did Van pull out the stops after that! He blew the place down. The other time was in Anaheim when he got fed up with people shouting from the audience. At one point he walked away from the microphone and began singing with no amplification. And you could hear him beautifully - especially when everybody quit yelling so they could figure out what was going on. Later, Van decided to crawl up on the piano and lie there for awhile until he figured out what he wanted to do next - which was to leave. It took forever for the audience to bring him back, but - just as in San Diego - when he came back, he started in all over again, playing an extra long and extra hot encore of at least 4 songs, I think it was.

Laura was a beginning photographer then - this was an age when you could just bring your camera and shoot. She got some wonderful images, of which I still have a few copies. Laura never published them and she died in 1993. If the webmaster can put these up, I have attached 8 photos that have never been published or seen by anyone other than Laura Greenwood, my friends and I.

1st and 2nd photos - Oxnard, CA, February 12, 1974
3rd & 5th photos- Shrine Auditorium, L.A., October 5, 1973
4th, 6th, 7th 8th photos- Troubador, L.A., May 24 and/or 27, 1973.
-John F.

Thank you John for you story these great photos taken by Laura. (John G.)

I wasn't much of a Van fan growing up in the seventies. I gravitated more to Zeppelin, Paul Rodgers, Gregg Allman and so forth. Van seemed to belong to a different generation, and while I was a huge Jeff Beck fusion fan, I found what little I knew of Van Morrison to be too jazzy for my tastes. Or certainly too brass heavy and not nearly enough guitar.

Ironically, it took the Chieftains to get me to buy a Van record, and it was a great one. While I knew he could sing, I was enraptured by his performance on Carrickfergus. Such power and tone.

This was followed shortly by the release of Avalon Sunset, and that did it. I couldn't believe how naive I had been towards this reclusive artist. Hymns to the Silence solidified it for me.

Because I was late to the game, I have always held Van's nineties work in a higher stead than the earlier material, great as it was. I just love the resonance of his voice in the later songs.

In recent years, I have had the privilege to finally attend his shows. And I am thankful that when I finally did, I was up on just about his entire catalogue and thoroughly enjoyed whatever he chose to play.

Atlantic City 2005, Virginia 2006 and DC 2009 are nights I will not soon forget.

For Van Morrison on this Thanksgiving holiday, I quote Neil Young:

"Long may you run"
-Ed (Washington)

For me and my husband it started in 2007 after listening to the 'Astral Weeks' album for the very first time. Nothing was the same anymore after that ... Since then we got the entire Van cd / dvd back catalogue we could get hold of. And went to each Van gig within reach. The bug has hit us for good and will stay, I'm sure of that. Although we found out after some time that there is a lot more good music other than Van's to discover. The journey isn't over yet ...
-Petra S.

I got here in stages. Back in '78, Wavelength was the first song of Van's that captured my attention. I bought the album and listened to it frequently. I remained interested and listened attentively through the 80's, but the only other record of his I bought was Beautiful Vision. The next stage hit in the early 90's with the release of Hymms to the... See More Silence. I snapped it up after reading a rave review in Time Magazine, listened to it often, and followed it up with purchases of Moondance, Tupelo Honey, Too Long in Exile, Best Of Vol. 1, Enlightenment and Days Like This. By then I was an enthusiastic fan but not yet over the top. The final, serious-fan stage came with the release of The Healing Game and my discovery of the Van-L list, which occurred about a month apart in 1997. The good people of Van-L helped me develop a deeper appreciation of Van's contributions as well as a healthy wariness about Van, personally. The contrast seems to work. I don't look up to the guy but have tremendous respect for his music. He is a unique artist- true to his vision and immensely talented. My journey through his body of work helped me discover a lot of excellent music by other artists and also encouraged me to start playing several instruments. It changed a part of my life.
-Steve L.

Wavelength was my first introduction to Van .....I was hooked !!! 1978.....Then came Common One....a little bit different but was very interested.....when I could afford to buy records I started to buy it all I didn't even know Brown Eyed Girl was Van's until the 90's .......by then I was listening to everything.....without a doubt he is the best singer, songwriter , musician....performer.......OF ALL TIME!!!!!I don't even think the others would argue that!!!!!
-Shelley M.

For me and my wife (then girlfriend) it started with his Philadelphia Academy of Music concert in May of 1972. I was 17, and she was 15; one of the early defining BIG concerts of my life loving music and probably her first. That was the still memorable beginning of a life long (ever since) love of his music. He had his full brass complement of... See More players and a fantastic group of back up singers.To me it was the Van of his Band and the Street Choir. He never removed his dark shades at any point in the the show, but it didn't matter. We were smitten and that was that. Been that ever since!
-Sean O.

I always loved Into the Mystic and Brown Eyed Girl, and a while back my sweetheart introduced me to Avalon Sunset, then came Hymns to the Silence and A Night in San Francisco... powerful. I walked down the aisle to These Are The Days. 3 years later almost to the day, we find ourselves at the Hollywood Bowl, sharing in that transcendent experience.

I am grateful that Van has the courage to share his sublime poetry and music.
-Melanie H.

The first time I remember hearing Van was Moondance on the radio when I was in college. I loved the voice and styling (at the time I was into Kenny Rankin and Al Jarreau) and I immediately went out and started to buy his albums, Moondance first, followed quickly by His Band and Street Choir, Tupelo Honey, Hard Nose the Highway, Veedon Fleece, Into the Music, and Common One, all on vinyl. Eventually I got It's Too Late To Stop Now and that basically lived on my turntable for months.

I can still remember going to the local record store and looking at this huge selection of albums but only having enough money to buy one or two at a time.
So I didn't get into the albums strictly chronologically; I just picked one or two at a time that looked the most interesting. Which was kind of fascinating about Van; with his huge catalog, I could buy one album from the early 70's and another from the 80's. Each album was an eye-opener and amazing in its own way and I just couldn't hear that voice enough. Since this was the time of albums, the side one/side two aspect was central to the experience, as in side two of Into the Music. There was something special about flipping over the record knowing what was to come next.

My interest has waned here and there, but I always seem to come back to Van, always look forward to seeing him live and hearing his latest album.
-Michael F.

By turning up my Radio!
-Graham R.

I grew up in Northern Ireland, through all that Van Morrison grew up in. I knew all the old hits and liked them, but they had turned into overplayed pop songs.

Then, I went to a concert in Belfast in 1999 and saw Van play The Philosophers Stone. As they say in Belfast – that changed “the lot”. Even the old songs mean more now.

-Dave M. (Big Clem)

I bought two cheap "cut-out" vinyls spring 1982, since listening to Van Morrison was briefly mentioned in Swedish novelist Ulf Lundell's debut novel Jack (yes, title refers to Kerouac). Into the Music and Summertime in England. As I remember it, it took me several months before I was hooked, but by the end of 1982 I had the whole catalog. And some vinyls -- and quite a few tapes... 1983 was a bit boring, the first 'new' record I bought was Inarticulate Speech, followed by seeing a very boring first concert in Stockholm.

1984 was exciting, going to several concerts in Belfast, Van doing Astral Weeks' stuff. An absolute highlight was getting No Guru in the mail some weeks before its release. I just cried that Saturday morning with my coffee. And played it very loud at night with my Jamesons. For me the most amazing albums are Astral Weeks, Veedon Fleece, Into the Music, Summertime in England and No Guru. I also like The Healing Game a lot. Keep it Simple is his best in years. But there are so many good songs over all these years... "The Story of Them" for example!!! Live-wise I will never forget Belfast 1984, perhaps even more remarkable were the shows in the Grand Opera House in 1989. The Georgie Fame injection around those years was an energy-booster!! I love the VHS Beacon Theatre video from around 1990 -- but could anybody send me a DVD with better sound and picture?!! Love the video from Waterfront 1997. Love the recording from Skeppsholmen, Stockholm, 2008. Love The Man.

"What's good is bad, what's bad is good, you' ll find out when you reach the top, you're on the bottom." Van quoting Bob at Rockpalazt 1982...

That’s it. From an unedited Wolf.
-Ulf C.

After college graduation in the mid-70s some friends rented a New Jersey shore house and they only had two scratchy albums.... Mahavishnu Orchestra Wings of Fire and Moondance. We would listen to them when we drank beer after being on the beach all day and again late at night after the bars closed. That was my first immersion into Van and dabbled for the next 10 years picking up a used album here and there so his music was always in the mix. In 1990 I had lunch at a friends apartment and she played Avalon Sunset. At the same time another friend recommended Common One and from there I was hooked. I delved deeper into Van's work and all that I had missed. Astral Weeks in particular simply blew me away. I was never sure of the appeal of his music to me until I recently heard him quoted as saying how much he internalizes the music as if he is singing to himself. It all made sense ..."I wanna know did you get the feelin'? Did you get it down in your soul?". Yes I did.
-Anonymous

As a kid growing up in the 60's and 70's I'd come across a few of Van's on the radio now and then (the usual suspects such as Brown Eyed Girl, Domino etc) but nothing really grabbed my attention all that much.

Then one day around 1980 I stopped into my local hole in the wall record shop (now since long gone) and the guy running the place was playing something that really connected with me. I took a peek behind the counter where the album cover was propped up against the wall next to the record player and it was Common One by that Van Morrison fellow. Hmmm, I didn't know he made music like this, maybe I'll have to check into this guy a bit more...

Here it is 30 years, dozens of official albums and numerous amazing shows later, and I'm thankful for that day when I happened to walk into that little record store at just the right moment.
-John in Las Vegas

I've been hooked since 1971 at the ripe old age of 8 when my older sisters bought "Street Choir"!!! I was fascinated that a fellow Irishman could sing the blues with such conviction and started to dig deeper to find out more about this amazing singer...a journey that has taken me on an odyssey through Blues, Jazz, Gospel...over 40 albums,50 live shows culminating in Astral Weeks Live at the Garden in February...truly music on a different level!!! Van, I salute you for forging great art and "turnin lead into gold"!!
-Anonymous

I remember loving Moondance and buying the 8 track for my groovy VW while in High School. I can still see it and the rest is Van and happy listening history.
-Susan S.

Believe it or not, I only bumped into Van's music a couple of years ago when I was putting together a Tom Jones compilation CD for my sister. I was mesmerized by Van's portion of the Tom/Van duet, Sometimes We Cry. I couldn't get enough of it, so I began to listen to anything done by Van to get an idea of his range. I first gravitated to his more recent stuff, feeling more comfortable with his deeper timbred voice but before long I adjusted to the early Van voice and I've bought just about everything he ever did, including all his remastered albums. Van is now the favorite artist of both my sister and me and we don't know how we managed to live on this planet as long as we have without realizing who Van was. It's not that we hadn't ever heard and loved Brown-Eyed Girl or Gloria or Domino or Days Like This. It's that, thanks to FM radio that plays 10 songs in a row without ever telling you the name of the artist or the name of the song, we managed to stay "Van ignorant" for 40 plus years! Sorry, Van! But we're sure making up for it now! :-)
-Marilyn M. Boston, MA

My mum was ill. It was late 2005 in Liverpool and the weather was grim.
On my way back to the hospital, 'And It Stoned Me' came on my personal CD.
Don't get me wrong, I'd loved Van for years: 'Astral Weeks', 'Moondance', 'Best Of'... that sorta' thing. I was in my early 20s.

But I was about to realise how wide the water really was. And deep.
George Ivan Morrison's music has affected everything I do since that September afternoon. The wind was biting through me, but it didn't matter. Van was singing something about "jelly roll" and I just knew. Slowly but surely over the following few months, I filled the spaces in my Van collection.

'It's Too Late To Stop Now' and 'Into The Music' had always been on my list, but now I dived in. Head first. My own music changed too - out went the Telecaster and Springsteen impersonations. I picked up an acoustic guitar and wrote the best music of my life.

'Saint Dominic's Preview', 'Street Choir', 'Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart' and 'Veedon Fleece' followed. All touching me somewhere previously buried deep, deep down in my soul. It's the little things...
The way he sings "to you" on 'Fair Play'. The violins on the Soul Orchestra's 'Caravan'. Everything about 'And The Healing Has Begun'. The unadulterated couldn't-give-a-fuck pop of 'Domino'. The way the band shifts on Saint Dominic's Preview's "and we gazed upon...". And the euphoric rush I get when 'Celtic Swing' comes on.

All life is there. And that's the important thing. Life. Van Morrison is what it is to be alive.
Vital.
-Alan O.Hare, Liverpool (cheers John! love the blog, thank you...)

I started listening to Van when I was in elementary school in the mid 90s. I remember washing my mom's car in the summer and playing "Jackie Wilson Said" on cassette. I would point my fingers in the air and sing the intro "da da da da duh!" and dance as my red hair went flying. Now, I am 20 years old, and sometimes the youngest fan at Van shows. My dad and I love listening to Van when we drive together.
"Wavelength" is our favorite to rock out to, but "Carrying a Torch" is our best fist-pounding singing fest. To woo me, my now-boyfriend learned to play "Sweet Thing" on the banjo. I took him to a Van show and now he's hooked too.
-CJ Lotz

I first saw Van live in England at the legendary Knebworth Festival 1974. I was on my very first holiday in England together with my best friend and our own first car! In Brighton we saw this concert poster of Knebworth with the Headliners Allman Brothers and Doobie Brothers. And The Van Morrison Show. This was the start to listen to many Van's vinyl albums. He was not my absolute favourite at that time but it was slowly growing from year to year. When the CD's were coming in the 80s I bought every released Van album, later every remastered edition. And with the help of a friend I was connected to the famous Van group some years ago. There I got all
the many wonderful shows including the 1974 Knebworth show, where it all starts for me.
-Ray, Germany

"It was the 60's...how could I remember any details? I do know he was still with THEM."
-Mary B.

I heard Van's voice probably from the age of 11 or 12 on the radio and my older sister had a couple of albums. I didn’t think much of him, he was ok, kind of a voice that was quirky, and rhythms that kind of swung but not totally. Years passed, and having read a lot about music his name kept popping up referencing his influence but I did not have a desire to listen. Anyway around 1981 while listening to the radio, Natalia came on. I really liked it. So weeks later I went out to by the album but could not remember the song name. Not knowing what to buy I bought "Into The Music". It took a couple of listens, but when I heard side two of that album my music listening was changed forever. I had never heard music so deep, intense and dynamically extreme. No one I had ever heard before or since was so literarily "into the music." It also seemed that I could personally relate to what he was singing about. I listened to that album daily for a long time, then went and bought his whole back catalog a few at a time while also moving ahead. Needless to say I was blown away by his body of work. Around 1985/1986 I was beginning to lose a little steam, and was not looking that forward to his next album, and in fact delayed buying it for some time. Being in a record store one day and seeing nothing that interested me, I settled for No Guru, No Method, No Teacher. When I heard for the first time I knew right then that this guy was the greatest songwriter/singer I had ever heard before or since. And the amazing thing is that there was no one like him, he stood alone. I have listened ever since, and "A Night In San Francisco" was another high point for me. I don't know if I will ever get as exhilarated by the music as I once did, but I will be listening - and it doesn't matter if I do or not because Van's music has given me more than anyone else's.
-Phil, CT

Back in '82 I was bicycling across the US (Virginia to Oregon) with a group of 10. Walkman's were just introduced to the market. I purchased one and made lots of music to take with me (no Van). After the first few weeks, somewhere around Missouri, I started trading cassettes with another rider. He was loaded with Van. By the time we got to Wyoming... See More, Beautiful Vision became the sound track for the rest of the trip. It was the only tape I'd listen to- over and over and over. I'd never heard anything like it before and it made every pedal stroke throughout the Rockies something incredibly special. Van's music became a part of me and never left.
-Wanda M.

I always loved Van’s songs and music, since my teenager times, so, those albums from the seventies had a big influence, mainly Moondance, St. Dominics Preview, Veedon Fleece and so on. Anyway I really dig all Van’s releases, (like the extraordinary Poetic Champions, Sense of Wonder, for example, and also the more recent ones), and I admit that, due to his unlimited talent and genius, as a composer, Van is the kind of musician that can play/sing whatever he likes because he is always good!

I do miss his live shows, because, through the years I only managed to see him live twice, more than 15 years ago, so I keep wishing he stops by my neighbourhood…
-Jorge, Lisbon, Portugal (congratulations for the excellent site!)

Well it stared about '64 or '65 when I heard "One, two brown eyes", "Mystic Eyes" and of course "Gloria". Being from the midwest there was actually a band called the Shadows of Night who were getting airplay with Gloria which was not as good as Them's but confused this 13 year old boy until I figured it out. For some reason Van's music has consistently, with little exception, been the soundtrack for my life. Not on a conscience level or planned, but when I started looking back after many, many years it just seems to have done that. So much information or direction seemed to come in right on time. Hints of things, names of people to read or explore, ideas that lead to a process of information gathering that could nudge me one way or another. That's what he gave me that helped shape who I am. The music itself has been marvelous, but it was the timeliness of the information or direction I received that has been valuable to me. Yeats, Beckett, Heaney, Wordsworth & Coleridge and on and on. Anyway, The father and daughter dance at both my daughters weddings were to Van songs, their choice not mine. My grandaughter even listens to Van. My grandaughter, Christ I getting old. Well, that should be more than you care to know ,but you asked. "Though lovers be lost love shall not, and death shall have no dominion." Mr. Thomas.
-Mike M.

When i was in jr. high in the hinterlands of New Mexico, usa, (c 1965) i borrowed someone's 45 of Gloria by the Shadows of Knight, not knowing it was a VM composition... still have it. Then, on radio, remember Mystic Eyes, Brown Eyed Girl later heard Moondance and both Van and Johnny Rivers' versions of Into the Mystic, which i thought was the coolest song ever. Liked Jackie Wilson Said on the radio and bought St Dom's Preview and really enjoyed the whole album. I was living in LA then and there was alot of buzz on the radio (KMET-FM) about Van, and they played lots of songs from the Moondance and St Dom's albums. He must have recently done his 73 Troubadour stand. 28 years later, 2001, went to a Dylan concert which lead to dylan bootleg trades which led to VM bootleg trades. e.g: Fillmore W 70, Troubadour 73, Amsterdam 86, Dublin 95, and later, Montreux 90, Malvern 03 and i was blown away. now have about 30 official cds, 175 boots, thinking about seeing him for the first time in Dallas next month, Jan 2010. looks like i've been a fan for almost 45 years...
-George S.

Well I was seventeen at the time back in 1978, living in rural Cheshire, UK. I was brought up on Johnny Cash and Glen Campbell, which was no bad thing (still listen to them today). I had gone down the old farts music route from a teenager getting in to the Beatles, Black Sabbath, then Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan.
I remember being at a friends house and reading the NME on the critics choice top 10 albums of all time. I knew all of them (had most) except number 4, which was an album called Astral Weeks by a Van Morrison. I was somewhat surprised as I had never heard of the man - I assumed he was American. A week or so later I was in our local independent record store and saw Astral Weeks for sale and was intrigued by the cover and the song titles so decided to take a punt.I rode home on my bike clutching the LP (like many before) and put it on the player in my room when I got back.I was completely bowled over on first play - it was so different from any other music I had heard and it connected like no other music had previously - I called my Dad to come and listen but it had no effect on him. For months I played the album and got lost in it as if I was transported to a sad film where I was the main actor. My journey started.
My next purchase was Moondance, and although it seems impossible to me now, it was a massive disappointment at the time - where had the loose free flowing style of Astral Weeks gone????? I now play Moondance more often than Astral Weeks and believe Side one (of the album as it was) to be the finest song cycle on any album. I headed to see the man at the Edinburgh Rock festival the following year and have seen him over fifty times since (when he's good live there's no one better).
I love lots of music but Van is still way ahead of the pack (followed by J.Cash, Nina, Dick Gaughan etc). His latest albums are not up with his best but still contain enough gems for me to keep coming back and the voice although greatly changed is still magnificent.
-David B

Irish Times
Van's Astral Weeks Voted Best Irish Album
VAN MORRISON’S 1968 masterpiece Astral Weeks remains the choice of some of Ireland’s top musicians as the best Irish album.

U2’s The Edge, Shane MacGowan, Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol, Glen Hansard, composer Bill Whelan, Sharon Corr, Gavin Friday and Laura Izibor as well as members of The Sawdoctors, The Blizzards, The Coronas, Republic of Loose and dozens more bands and musicians all participated in the poll for the 250 greatest Irish albums for Hot Press magazine.

The poll, published in the magazine yesterday, was last carried out in 2004.

The enduring appeal of Astral Weeks is no surprise.

Last year Morrison celebrated the 40th anniversary of the album’s release by playing it in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.

The album entitled Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl and a DVD of the same name were released earlier this year.

In a rare interview, Morrison said he decided to play the songs live because the album had received no promotion on its release from Warner Brothers.

Morrison said the album was “timeless and unchanging”.

U2’s 1991 album Achtung Baby at number two is chosen ahead of The Joshua Tree (number 5), which has often featured on the top of best Irish albums polls. The albums are usually reversed in best-of polls.

Thin Lizzy’s classic Live and Dangerous , which was voted the best live album of all time by Classic Rock magazine, comes in at number three, while the choice of The Irish Times music critics of greatest Irish album, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless , is at number four.

Whipping Boy’s little known 1995 album Heartworm is at number six, The Undertones’ self-titled debut, with its single Teenage Kicks , is at number seven and The Pogues’ Rum, Sodomy and the Lash is at number eight.

The only new entries in the top 10 from the last poll are Ash’s album 1977 and Damien Rice’s O .

Morrison’s 1970 album Moondance is at number 11. He has 11 entries in the top 250, U2 have nine and Rory Gallagher has seven.

Cathy Davey’s Tales of Silversleeve is the highest new entry outside the top 10 at number 19, followed by Fionn Regan’s The End of History at number 20.

Other prominent new entrants are two albums from last year – Jape’s Ritual at number 28 and Lisa Hannigan’s Sea Sew at number 29. Damien Dempsey’s Seize the Day is at number 30.

Julie Feeney’s album Pages , which was released earlier this year, made it to number 55.
-RONAN McGREEVY

Van Interviewed On The Imus In The Morning Show
Listen to the interview here.

Watch a video of it here.

Van appeared on the Imus in The Morning show on Monday morning 26-Oct-09.

Imus In The Morning is broadcasted on US television on the Fox Business Channel weekdays 600-900 am.

Van appeared earlier this year on Don Imus' show for an interview.

The Imus-Morrison Love Affair, Part II
Fresh off last night's gig at Madison Square Garden, Van Morrison talked music, religion, and unauthorized biographies today with his Rupert Pumpkin Don Imus, who has listened to the live and recorded versions of Van's Astral Weeks album at least 50 times.

First, Van wanted to talk biographies, specifically those that have been written about him without his input. "They never want to talk to me, and I've offered," he said, the studio lights bouncing off his big black sunglasses. "If you want to talk to me, I'll give you my input, seeing as I'm the subject matter for the book. It's a con!"

To Imus's suggestion that people are afraid to speak to him, Van said, "I'm the horse's mouth, but instead of getting it from the horse's mouth they get it from the donkey's ass."

The above statement, while crass, sounded positively melodic spoken in Van's Irish lilt.

Imus has had plenty of unauthorized crap written about him, and could not care less. "I think I'm a pretty decent guy," he said. A pause. "Did you know I have cancer, by the way?"

Since Van resides on planet Earth, he knew Imus had cancer, and was glad to hear the holistic treatments seemed to be working, so far.

Growing up in Belfast, Ireland, Van told Imus he found out about artists like Lead Belly, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf by invading his father's music library.

"That was my bible," said Van, who doesn't listen to any current music, but confessed a track he heard on the radio a few weeks ago caught his ear: It's A New Day, by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. Random, but we'll take it.

Van was also exposed to country artists like Hank Williams, which proved helpful when choosing tracks for his own country album Pay The Devil. "I just grew up with that, and blues, and jazz," he said.

Though he is clearly not country, Van said his style of songwriting is similar in that he writes his songs as one would write a play, using characters and storylines. "I think it's drama," he said. "It's theatre."

As Van struggled to remember a joke he'd heard about country music, Imus helped fill in the blanks, saying, "If you play country songs in reverse they have a happy ending."

Van praised country singers for their incredibly talent. "Almost everybody in the Country Music Hall of Fame can sing," said Van. "Compare that to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How many singers can you find there?"

Imus observed that many of Van's songs are about mysticism and spirituality, though Van is not a particularly religious person. He said his belief in God depends on how God is defined.

"I think people are programmed already...they get it from society, the media," he said, adding that the important part is ridding oneself of this programming.

Besides religion, millions of people, including the I-Man, find meaning in music, specifically the timeless tunes of people like Van, Bob Dylan, and The Beatles. Today, for example, Imus read into Van's song Madame George, which was based on a composite of characters, including some of Van's family members and a history teacher he once had. Not, as Imus suspected, on Elton John.

"There's no big mystery," Van said, with as much as a laugh as he could muster.

Formerly a member of the band "Them," with whom he released the B-side-track-turned-hit Gloria in 1964, Van said in the end "Them" was just, well, him.

"There wasn't any money, so everybody jumped ship," Van explained. "But the manager wanted to keep me. He said, 'As long as I have you, I can get anybody.'"

Breaking news: Unexpected "Them" reunion on the Imus in the Morning program today!

-Julie Kanfer

28-Oct-09 MGM Grand Theatre, Mashantucket Concert Review
Mass Live Van Morrison Maintains the Mystery in Concert at MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods

If you’re a high-roller shelling out $350 for a fine ticket, hoping to hear one of your favorite stars sing nothing but his hits, then Van Morrison might not be your guy.

If you like seeing performers who talk to the crowd, tell tales between songs and make plenty of eye contact during a show, again, “Van the Man” might not be quite right for you.

And based on his show before a full house at the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods Wednesday evening, the 64-year-old Irish troubadour isn’t about to change now.

Nevertheless, if you want to hear a guy who still has one of the most soulful voices on the planet, play solid, meticulously arranged versions of relatively obscure material, the MGM Grand was exactly the right place to be Wednesday.

Yes, the tickets were expensive, topping out at $350 for the best seats. But as long as you did your homework, you knew that Morrison for a year now has been focusing on his highly-influential 1968 breakthrough album “Astral Weeks.” It served as the focal point of this concert as well, which found Morrison sporting a fedora and sunglasses, backed by an exceptional nine-member troupe.

Given all the stars who take the stage extremely late at their concerts, kudos to Morrison who actually kicked into “Northern Muse (Solid Ground),” three minutes before the 8 p.m. time printed on the ticket. Of course, maybe he just wanted to get things moving so he could watch the World Series because he finished the show exactly 90 minutes later, with a somewhat perfunctory but no doubt crowd-pleasing finale of his early hit “Gloria.”

Morrison also did one of his other huge smashes from early in his career, “Brown Eyed Girl,” as the second song of the night, while seated behind the piano. But those were the only two songs in the entire concert that could actually be classified as hits, though the singer has had plenty through the years.

Early on, he focused on tracks such as “The Mystery,” before one of the night’s highlights “In the Garden,” which found the band and the frontman picking up the spiritual intensity considerably at the end, as he sang into his golden microphone the repeated refrain “no guru, no method, no teacher.”

From there it was on to “Astral Weeks” for the next 40 minutes or so. It was sparked early on by the hypnotic “Beside You;” the beautiful “Sweet Thing,” which was illuminated visually by streams of forest green light bathing the stage; and a sturdy combination of the harpsichord-traced textures of “Cyprus Avenue,” with the fluid jazz flavors of “The Way Young Lovers Do.”

Morrison’s voice, which was marvelous most of the night, did get a bit weary toward the end and he was noticeably raspier on a lackluster “Ballerina,” closing the “Astral Weeks” portion of the night with a stronger “Madame George.”

His band was in full bloom on one of the concert’s major highlights, a full electric version of “And the Healing Has Begun,” before the aforementioned “Gloria” paved the way for a swift departure.
Morrison remains a mystery man, ethereal, oblivious, aloof, enchanting, impenetrable, mystical and moody. And that just partly explains why he’s remained such a fascinating figure for all these decades.
-Kevin O'Hare

Setlist
Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
Brown Eyed Girl
Fair Play
The Mystery
In the Garden
Astral Weeks
Beside You
Slim Slow Slider
Sweet Thing
Cyprus Avenue
Young Lovers Do
Ballerina
Madame George
Help Me
And the Healing Has Begun
Gloria

27-Oct-09 Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Baltimore Concert Review
Baltimore Sun
JazzTimes managing editor Evan Haga saw Van Morrison last night at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Here are his thoughts:

The Irish singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Van Morrison is one of popular music's great contradictions, as he proved last night during a 90-minute set at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The performance was, on several levels, bewildering.

Over the last four-plus decades, Morrison has written indelible melodies and delivered them in his singular blue-eyed-soul shout, a sort of half-croak, half-belt that feels at once homey and otherworldly. He has recorded songs, like "Brown Eyed Girl," that even children know to sing along to. People genuinely feel like they own his music, even when it's dressed in jazz and Celtic flourishes.

But what he offers, even as it's anchored in American roots and R&B, is so totally esoteric. A notoriously diffident and difficult personality, Morrison, like Bob Dylan, is now less interested in celebrating those terrific melodies than being a roots bandleader ...

Morrison spent most of the Meyerhoff gig directing his crack nine-piece ensemble (with strings) through simmering vamps and R&B shuffles, stoically cuing a keyboardist to lay out here, inviting a guitarist to bend a few more bluesy licks there. You heard stop-time percussion solos, long, true notes played on soprano sax and flute, corner-bar organ and muted, Miles Davis-esque trumpet. For many in the audience, it very well may have been the most they’d ever listened to improvised music.

Morrison himself holds musicianship dear, even if his chops on guitar and sax are middling (he fares better on harmonica). His voice is the thing, and he treats it like his horn, turning lyrics into syllabic scats, re-harmonizing songs whose melodies are set in stone (as he did on "Moondance"), and generally understanding that his inflection and phrasing is more important than annunciation.

There's a parlor game I play at shows like these, especially Dylan. Compare what you remember to what you’re hearing: Last night, "You wiped the teardrops from your eye in sorrow," a favorite line from "In the Garden," became "You'll ride the T. Rex tomorrow."

It's the voice that makes for moments of transcendence, no matter how much attention Morrison pays to his band. His generous croon over the striding "And the Healing Has Begun" and thrusting "Gloria" almost made up for how unaccommodating he is as a performer. In case you're wondering, "Brown Eyed Girl" was tossed off at the very top of the show.

The hour and a half flew by without Morrison acknowledging his audience, and there was no encore despite the crowd's floor-shaking request for one. There were also tech issues: Toward the beginning, a radio signal was continuously funneled into the sound system, providing a serious distraction during ballads, and the house lights seemed constantly in flux throughout.

You might chalk all or at least some of this up to Van the Man's legendarily defiant being. But with tickets running roughly $80 to $350, legend only goes so far.

-Sam Sessa

Setlist
Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
Brown Eyed Girl
Fair Play
The Mystery
All in the Game
Moondance
Queen of the Slipstream
Help Me
Fame
I Can't Stop Loving You
Philosopher's Stone
Little Village
In the Garden
On Hynford Street
Gloria
And the Healing Has Begun

Big Hand For The Band
Paul Moran
Tony Fitzgibbon
David Hayes
Richie Buckley
Jay Berliner
Bobby Ruggiero
Richie Buckley
Michael Graham
Terry Adams
Rick Schlosser

Checking in with Van Morrison
Baltimore Sun
Few singer/songwriters have had a greater impact on music than Van Morrison.

Morrison has written some of the most important songs and albums of the 20th century. Ever the recluse, Morrison gives few interviews and rarely interacts with audiences at concerts. Instead, he lets the music speak for itself.

For Morrison, music isn't real unless it can be played live. He looks with disdain on some of his biggest hits, such as "Brown Eyed Girl," which he has called a "throwaway." Due to bad contracts, he didn't gain control of his career until the late '70s, he has said.

Tonight, the 64-year-old Irishman will perform at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall (you can buy tickets here). Here is an e-mail interview with Morrison ...

Question: Van, You've said when you play live, everything hinges on your voice. The players follow your voice. Do you follow your voice too? Do you guide it? Does it guide you?

Answer: I GUIDE IT - THAT IS THE ONLY WAY IT CAN BE DONE

What's it like to be in the moment, when you're performing and nothing's on your mind, and it's just you and the music?

ITS ALL ABOUT FOCUS - NOT THINKING OR PRECONCEIVING -- BEING IN THE PRSENT TIME IS THE ONLY WAY TO DO WHAT I DO ...

With time, has it become easier for you to get your feelings and emotions across in your singing? Or does the challenge remain the same?

ITS NEVER THE SAME - ITS IMPOSSIBLE TO KNOW - EACH DELIVERY IS DIFFERENT DEPENDING ON THE AUDIENCE THE SCENE ---

You've said Leadbelly, Rory McEwan, Ray Charles and John Lee Hooker were a few musicians who you got into right off the bat. These guys had soul, which is almost impossible to describe. But when you think of these artists and some of your other favorite singers, what qualities in their voices and performances drew you to them?

EACH HAS TO HAVE A QUALITY OF TRANSCNDENCE TO GET MY ATTENTION - THOSE THAT DO CAN HOLD MY ATTENTION...

What goes through your mind when you hear one of your own albums, like "Into the Music?" Are you critical of yourself? Can you step back and enjoy it? Or do you ever go back into your own catalog at all, just to sit and listen?

BASICALLY I ONLY RE LISTEN IF I AM THINKING OF REWORKING MATERIAL FOR A LIVE SETI AM NOT PARTICULARLY CRITICAL OF IT BECAUSE I PUT OUT WHAT I WANT THE WAY I WANT IT - AT *THAT TIME* - I MAY LISTEN TO REWORK SOMETHING OR TRY SOMETHING ELSE LIVE BUT THERE IS NO NEED TO BE CRITICAL OF A WORK THAT WAS PUT OUT THE WAY I PROBABLY WANTED IT AT THE TIME FOR WHATEVER REASON...

Do the saxophone, guitar and piano appeal to you in different ways? Can you discover things on one that you wouldn't have found on another?

EACH INSTRUMENT IS ITS OWN PERSONALITY WITH ITS OWN VOICE SO OF COURSE YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE DIFFERENT APPEALS - ONE DOES THINGS THE OTHER DOESN'T ONE CONVEYS AN EMOTION OR A MOOD THE OTHER MAY NOT DO IN THE SAME WAY- DEPENDS ON WHAT THE COMPOSITION IS

I'm sure it can be hard to answer a question like this objectively, but how have you grown as a songwriter and a singer in the past couple decades?

THE ANSWER TO THAT IS WITH THE BEHOLDER - WHAT DO YOU THINK?
-Sam Sessa

25-Oct-09 Wamu Theater, New York Concert Review
Here's Dan's review:
If Van's Waterbury show was "loud, fast and out of control," as Art Siegel colorfully put it, then last night's show at the Wamu Theater at Madison Square Garden was silky, sensual and saturated with carnal and spiritual knowledge. I was too conquered in a theater seat to keep a formal setlist, but there were no major variations from his recent Denver and Las Vegas non-Astral Weeks gigs. Still, many of what are now becoming those same old songs left lasting impressions. All in the Game build in a slow, steady burn before exploding down by the pylons. Van let out an ecstatic scream during the finale, true squealin feelin. Philosopher's Stone continues to excel, the audience lifted into the song's upward spiral. The audience always roars when Van's vocal re-enters after the harmonica sunburst. Another devotional In the Garden, pure trancelike healing power, summoning down the holy guardian angel with a voice like soothing balm before hitting the chorus hard,
washing over the audience like a warm wave. A giddily lustful Help Me was one of my personal favs. Van at the start singing softly and cooing a creamy blues before bringing it up into harmonica heaven again. "I'm not tired,
but this old man feels like lying down!" Morrison declared.

The final 20 minutes of the gig saw Van reaching for the stars, the ones that shine in his eyes and the ones that glitter in his memories. On Hyndford Street was a tour de force last night, a masterpiece of contemplative solace,
winding on and on down through the decades of a singer's life. With the band providing another gorgeous backdrop, Van kept boring deeper and deeper until he was bent over humming, bleating, the emotion spilling over. Morrison did not recite the lyrics. He sang them with as much beauty and meaning as he knew how and created another time and place. A storming Gloria propelled the audience back into the world on 7th Avenue. Van seems as pleased as ever with the band, which just gets better and better. At one point in the show, as Jay Berliner spun his magic, Van just smiled and watched him: saying that's right, yeah, that's good.

Setlist
Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
Brown Eyed Girl
Fair Play
The Mystery
All in the Game
Moondance
Philosopher's Stone
Little Village
Help Me>Early in the Morning
Have I Told You Lately
In the Garden
On Hynford Street
And the Healing Has Begun
Gloria

Big Hand For The Band
Paul Moran
Tony Fitzgibbon
David Hayes
Richie Buckley
Jay Berliner
Bobby Ruggiero
Richie Buckley
Michael Graham
Terry Adams
Rick Schlosser

24-Oct-09 Palace Theatre, Waterbury Concert Review
Hartford Courant
Van Morrison celebrated forty years since the release of his classic "Astral Weeks" last November with concerts that covered the album in its entirety, a carefully crafted rethinking of its nuanced nature that has been the backbone of his live schedule since. His stop Saturday night at Waterbury's Palace Theater, the first of his two Connecticut shows this week, was a glorious trek through that record, and showcased vitality that remain as undimmed as Morrison's own.

Sporting his trademark fedora and mirror sunglasses, the 64-year-old Northern Ireland native ambled forth without ceremony, settling in front of a piano to the left of the stage as he opened with a song of considerably more recent vintage, 1982's "Northern Muse (On Solid Ground)." Accompanied by a flexible eight-piece band, he made a soulful ascent of the tune, a musical pleasantry for which his voice, at once husky and melodic, served as a signature.

After ladling a flowing piano line across the organic rock of "Brown Eyed Girl," Morrison headed to center stage to spend the remainder of the show on acoustic guitar, a golden monogram of his initials attached to his microphone stand the showiest thing onstage in a program that made powerful use of subtlety. His tone was rough but his manner all fond caress as he forged entrancing atmosphere while building "In the Garden" from sparse to rousing and back again.

The "Astral Weeks" portion of the show diverged slightly from the original album's sequencing, which suited a performance that kept the original disc's songs recognizable while refreshing them along the way. Morrison's splendidly imprecise diction loaded character into every turn, a loose affiliation of growled syllables that danced with the flamenco guitar traces in "Beside You," and forged a hypnotic centerpiece as a tune from the original was expanded into the stunning meditation "Slim Slow Slider (I Start Breaking Down)."

With a flute and two cellos lining a breezy bound through "Sweet Thing," Morrison alternately blew and sang through his harmonica, in the latter case giving his voice enticing sizzle around its edges. His cadence came in broad strokes that nonetheless sported finesse as he navigated "Ballerina," and stood as a stout counterpoint to accompanying violin as he offered "Madame George" as a lengthy near-trance.

After completing the album, Morrison closed his set on electric guitar with his 1979 tune "And the Healing has Begun," luxuriating in its drama as he exhaled his way through its latter passages, and walked offstage while playing it to a close. The show snuck past the 90 minute mark when he returned for a single song encore, a throbbing offering of the old school garage rock number "Gloria" that came forth in more straightforward fashion than anything else on his dance card.

Van Morrison's show Saturday included the following songs: "Northern Muse (Solid Ground)," "Brown Eyed Girl," "Fair Play," "The Mystery," "In the Garden," "Astral Weeks," "Beside You," "Slim Slow Slider (I Start Breaking Down)," "Sweet Thing," "Cyprus Avenue," "The Way Young Lovers Do," "Ballerina," "Madame George," "And the Healing has Begun," (Encore) "Gloria."
-THOMAS KINTNER

Here's Dan's Review:
What an absolutely beautiful theater in the heart of downtown Waterbury. The stage lighting at The Palace last night was as inviting as I have ever seen for Van, and the sound system was clean and clear. It was another superior show with Morrison chomping at the bit from the start, imploring the band to "come on!" only seconds into Northern Muse. And the band responded. Another powerful excursion through the County Down as the Muse moved through the fair, she moved through the town. Van stayed at the piano for Brown Eyed Girl, very cool, pop song in classical mode. Van's still sticking with what has become the standard setlist when it comes to the Astral Weeks gigs. I thought he would mix it up more, but when the songs sound this good, it's hard to quibble. Van only did 5 songs tonight before going into Astral Weeks, instead of his usual 6 or sometimes 7. The In the Garden was filled with vocal leaps and was played powerfully straight through.

The Astral Weeks set continues to reveal how hardy these songs continue to be. The band was also digging in deep tonight, and the music had a rich fullness that filled the ornate dome. The songs continue to reveal new plot lines and emotions. Slim SLow Slider and railway carriage charms getting Van through the day. Lots of sweet thing champagne eyes and harmonica vibrations in perfect harmony. Set closer was a long, glistening version of And the Healing Has Begun. Multiple peaks scaled and sun-dappled valleys explored. A thunderous Gloria to close the gig, skittering violin and rock solid rhythm. A woman sitting two seats from me kept saying at regular intervals during the show: This is so good. This is so good. This is so good.


Newtown Bee
WATERBURY — Anyone who queued up to slap down the $350 single ticket cost to get up close to the quirky yet sublime Van Morrison at Waterbury's Palace Theater last Saturday thinking they would be singing along to his many radio-friendly tunes was probably venomous by the end of the show.

After all, he only performed two of his greatest hits, starting with what could only be described as a schmaltzy, throw-away take on "Brown Eyed Girl," which he quickly and unceremoniously dispensed in the first ten minutes of his 92-minute set.

But true fans, who know that Morrison likes to mine the depths of his amazingly prolific 30-plus album catalog, had to be transfixed by a man and a sound Morrison managed to evoke from a spectacularly tight ensemble featuring bass, guitar, drums, keyboards, flute, sax, trumpet, mandolin, violin and two cellos.

While "Van the Man" was on mission to showcase his critically acclaimed Astral Weeks, celebrating the 40th anniversary of its release, every note from the strains of the show's opening number, "Northern Muse (Solid Ground)," through the re-ordered sequence of material from the aforementioned groundbreaking 1968 effort and into the encore was delivered with such cleverly crafted nuance that the entire set could have been considered a rabid fan's musical gift from the heavens.

The sweet clarity of a young Van Morrison's tenor back in the late '60s and early '70s, like that bottle of fine wine, has mellowed, taking on the still tasty, yet world-weary growl of a veteran bluesman. And his presence, with dark suit, huge mirrored aviator sunglasses and dark fedora offsetting his brilliant white acoustic guitar, only enhanced his eccentric posturing.

It was fascinating to watch as Morrison occasionally backed well off the microphone and sing to the band, or maybe to himself, and the musicians surrounding him would ratchet down to almost a whisper so the audience could hear every throaty mumble of his jazzy scat. These interludes were amplified well in the vintage theater, where every tick of the drumstick on the high-hat, and every breathy draw of the bow across the cello's strings were clearly audible all the way to the balcony's last row.

Besides the re-ordered and invigorated treatment of the Astral Weeks, Morrison proved to the crowd early on that this would be a night to remember, pulling out "Fair Play," from his 1974 project Veedon Fleece, as he transitioned from grand piano to guitar.

The Astral Weeks portion of the show came with the band launching into the hypnotic title track. Following up with "Beside You," which included beautiful Spanish guitar underpinning from Jay Berliner, Morrison continued leading the crowd through this litany of stories, stopping only once ahead of "Slim Slow Slider (I Start Breaking Down)," to tell the audience, "Any reference to any living person is fiction..."

Morrison shed his guitar momentarily on "Sweet Thing," grabbing a harmonica and alternating between singing directly into the mic, and through the distorting reeds of the harp. A jangling harpsichord drove the band down "Cyprus Avenue," and the high notes of "Ballerina," failed to challenge Morrison's 64-year-old vocal chords.

Wrapping up this portion of the show, Morrison finally let the entire band bring on a joyful burst of sound at the end of "Madame George."

Switching to a vintage Les Paul guitar, the artist briefly returned to his catalog for "And the Healing Has Begun," before shuffling off stage into the wings trailing a jazzy solo as the house erupted in a standing ovation.

He closed the show with "greatest hit" number two, a rousing "Gloria," which served as a clever cover to bail out of the venue and get his limo on the road several minutes before the band wrapped up and the audience realized he had left the building.

As folks began filing out into the misty night a few minutes later, it was clear that few were disappointed by the musical magic they had just witnessed courtesy of one of the true masters of his craft.

Morrison didn't use this venue as a marketing showcase to trudge out the repackaging of an "anniversary" album in concert, but as a lyrical and tonal envelope in which to deliver an astral gift to satisfy the thirst of everyone willing to just sit back and drink it all in.
-John Voket

Setlist
Northern Muse (Solid Ground)
Brown Eyed Girl
Fair Play
The Mystery
In the Garden
Astral Weeks
Beside You
Slim Slow Slider
Sweet Thing
Cyprus Avenue
Way Young Lovers Do
Ballerina
Madame George
And the Healing Has Begun
Gloria

Big Hand For The Band
Paul Moran
Tony Fitzgibbon
David Hayes
Richie Buckley
Jay Berliner
Bobby Ruggiero
Richie Buckley
Michael Graham
Terry Adams
Rick Schlosser