New Album: Keep It Simple

Van Morrison's new album, Keep It Simple, comes out March 17,2008.

On Keep It Simple

Legendary singer/songwriter Van Morrison will release Keep It Simple, his second album on Lost Highway, on March 11. The self-produced collection is Van Morrison’s first studio release since 2006 and latest collection of personal reflections.

“It’s just a song about how everything’s gotten now so complex and how things have become so complicated and nothing’s easy to do anymore,” Morrison says of the disc’s title track. “So the song’s a kind of prayer – or what have you – let’s hope we can get back to something simple, otherwise, we’re screwed.”

The album is said to be one of Van Morrison’s most direct statements in recent memory, driven by guitar, harmonica and the singer/songwriter’s touching lyrics.

“It’s not going to be the same every time – you have to go through the ups and downs,” he continues. “It’s ups and downs, death and rebirth. It’s not going to be easy -- unless you want to be doing the same thing at the same level all the time. I’m not relying on what I did years ago. I’m not a greatest hits act. That’s the difference between me and most of what’s going on in pop music.”

The album is also said to touch upon gospel, Celtic soul, jazz and country, with a unified message of “soul and healing.”

“People don’t remember what you did, or what happened, or how you got here,” he says. “I didn’t get here the easy way. It’s people who don’t know me. They don’t actually look at what this guy’s actually been through. They see the big versions of what’s supposed to be me – but they don’t know my biography really. That’s what this whole record’s about.”

Van Morrison will preview his new material on the road throughout the winter and spring. After wrapping up his current European tour, Van Morrison will celebrate Keep it Simple’s release with a SXSW performance at The Austin Music Hall on March 11. A few days later, he will perform at Nashville, TN’s Ryman Auditorium on March 13, before heading across the pond for another round of dates.

First Album of All New Material in Two Years

Lost Highway Records NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 14 — on March 17, Lost Highway will proudly release KEEP IT SIMPLE, the new album from Van Morrison. KEEP IT SIMPLE is Morrison's first album of new material since 2005, and the first in several years in which he penned all 11 songs specifically for one album. In the interim the legendary artist had a year that may be unprecedented for any living artist, having released three separate collections of his hits, with the latest, "Still On Top" entering the UK charts at #2 and selling platinum, proving the ongoing appetite for his unrivaled work.

His music has always incorporated the widely varied influences he heard and absorbed since his childhood days on the streets of Belfast- long before the bands of his youth and his initial breakthrough with Them. On KEEP IT SIMPLE, Morrison honors all those varied influences - jazz, folk, blues, Celtic, country, soul and gospel - at times melding them all together at once in his own signature sound. "I felt I had something to say with these songs ... " explains Morrison. There is a definite theme that recurs throughout the album, especially in the title track.

In keeping with that idea, KEEP IT SIMPLE does not boast the big horns or string arrangements of some of Morrison's previous work. What it does feature are gorgeous songs rich with emotion, depth and beauty. As on the poignant "Soul," where Morrison repeats the chorus, as if to subtly remind us that, "Soul is a feeling, a feeling deep within. Soul is not the color of your skin." Morrison explains his approach with the track, "Entrainment" - "Entrainment is when you connect with the music ... Entrainment is really what I'm getting at in the music ... It's kind of when you're in the present moment - you're here - with no past or future."

Whether it's the easy country gospel of "Song of Home" or the bluesy swing of "How Can A Poor Boy," throughout KEEP IT SIMPLE Morrison exudes a wisdom gained through five decades of making groundbreaking music. Few artists have successfully recorded in as many genres of music as Van Morrison, and even fewer have remained as relevant for as long (only Ray Charles, with whom Van collaborated, comes to mind). Morrison has done so by constantly moving forward and never sitting still. On the heels of a series of "Best Of" releases, this record starts fresh with what could well be a record full of all new classics.