Shana Morrison Concert Schedule

Shana Morrison's latest album is Joyride

26-May-12 David Girard Vineyards Placerville, CA, USA
01-Jun-12 Friday Night Live Cloverdale, CA, USA
29-Jun-12 The Fret House Covina, CA, USA
30-Jun-12 Dark 30 House Concert Lakeside, CA, USA 
01-Jul-12 Muldoon's Newport Beach, CA, USA
04-Aug-12 Frog Tooth's Vineyards Copperopolis, CA, USA

Van Photo Of The Day

Review of Van's 21-Nov-68 gig at New York City's 'The Scene'. The same month 'Astral Weeks' was released.

03-May-2012 Millennium Forum, Derry, Northern Ireland

Petra sent in her review
Van is back on top. If any more evidence was needed – the two gigs in Northern Ireland’s City of Derry made it very clear. The good thing – his voice and performance are not only superb these days, but it was very obvious he is still enjoying to be on stage, after all these years. While the first concert on Wednesday was a well received tribute to the Derry Jazz Festival with many jazzy tunes, Van took us way way back into his 40+ years of musical career on Thursday. For sure, Martin McGinley’s review in the Derry Journal did justice to the first gig – albeit a jazz dominated set list might not be everybody’s cup of tea. But it is fair enough to say that Van was the headliner of a Jazz Festival and it was a stunning high precision gig leaving us in awe and wonder. 

On Thursday, Van played again a lot of saxophone right from the start, with us trying to figure out what was the title of the instrumental. ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, like the night before, fitted seamlessly into the Jazz Festival, as it was a lovely swinging version and not the pop standard anymore. ‘Higher Than The World’ and ‘Fair Play’ were beautiful and gentle -dreamlike songs with Van lingering on the word ‘Geronimo’ for a while as if he liked to taste the name on his tongue. ‘That’s Life’ saw Van laughing at himself when he sang ‘ .. and I roll myself up in a big ball’.

‘Not Feeling It Anymore’ is a title I more or less ignored on the 1991 album ‘Hymns To The Silence’ considering it a bit trivial. But lately it has come to sparkle and shine in concerts – maybe because Van makes it sound so personal ? Actually, there’s a lot of feeling in Van’s singing here – so we better don’t believe him …

A major tour de force these days is his ‘All In The Game’ medley. The words ‘… meet me down by the pylons’ have become ‘ … meet me down by the river – river of no return’. With the song fading out, he repeated the words ‘No Plan B’ for hours and hours and hours – at least it seemed so. After some time I got worried he would not get out of this line anymore – the musicians had to play the same notes over and over again and also looked a bit concerned at some point. A good piece of torture for singer, band and audience – brilliant and a bit freaked out. 

One surprise for me was Van asking for requests. Just to make it clear: It was Van. Asking the audience if they liked to hear a special song ... Did that ever happen before ? Out of the song titles hailing from all directions of the audience he chose to play ‘Little Village’ – a beautiful laid-back version. 

‘Precious Time’ was a bit negligible for me, but it reminded us indeed of elapsing time for the show – how many songs would there be left for us tonight ? ‘St. James Infirmary’ was a sublime New Orleans Jazz standard and made clear one more time that Van’s current band is very tight and brilliant these days. Interaction between Van and his horn section was breathtaking -  it certainly takes a lot of rehearsals before such precision is achieved. 

My personal highlight of the night was a beautiful, subtle ‘Ballerina’ making Van laugh aloud when he jokingly slapped his own face while singing ‘and the light is on the left side of your head’. When - ever - did we see Van so relaxed and in good spirits ?

‘Help Me’ with the nightshirt scenario is always a sure indicator that the show will be over soon. And so it was. Not before the band members were given one more opportunity to show their superb skills in laying down stunning solos, including Van himself playing his harp while leaving the stage. Only to come back to do one last song.

‘Gloria’ was the compulsive encore, a high energy version with Van quitting the scene long before the song was over. And actually, the band got started for good once The Man was gone. They turned it up - a little bit higher - and got going as if there was no tomorrow, making clear that not only Van was enjoying himself, but his great band members were, too. 

Two flawless and superb high precision gigs in Derry – although some of us may have wished to hear more of their favorite songs …
-Petra Söllner

Setlist 
Instrumental 
Brown Eyed Girl
Higher Than The World 
Fair Play
That's Life 
Not Feeling It Anymore 
All In The Game/Burning Ground/No Plan B 
Moondance
Days Like This 
Little Village 
Precious Time
St.James Infirmary 
Ballerina
Help Me
Gloria

02-May-2012 Millennium Forum, Derry, Northern Ireland

Derry Journal (source)

An unforgettable stroll along Cyprus Avenue It was the night the Bard of Belfast jazzed it up in Derry – and looked suspiciously like he was enjoying himself. 

For Van Morrison, headlining at the Montreaux festival in a matter of weeks, this visit to the Millennium Forum was up close and personal. Famously truculent, he seemed to respond to the warm reception from the Derry crowd and delivered a superb set which drew the best from himself and a classy seven-piece backing band. 

Van the Man, who made a historic return to Belfast from the States many years ago and didn’t so much as mutter ‘hello’ to his home town crowd, even gave a full-scale introduction to a brilliant version of the classic ‘St James Infirmary’.

 “Since this is a jazz festival we’d like to do a jazz number,” he said. “It seems this started out as ‘The Bard of Armagh’ and ended up like this.”

There was a jazzy feel to this set, opening the City of Derry Jazz Festival, with Van taking some fine solos himself on sax. But at the very end he ramped it up on harmonica and it was the encore ‘Gloria’ which brought the crowd to their feet. 

There were lots of highlights en route. It’s clear that Van is still meticulous about delivery, and this was a finely-crafted and fast-moving show which he drove along and directed from centre-stage. The band gave great opportunities for colour, most of them offering options on at least two instruments, and Van made the most of them with superb arrangements which included some virtuosic breaks. 

As Percy always says, ‘light and shade, light and shade’, and here we had the Caravaggio of the music business at work. 

Sound and lighting were first-class throughout. 

As the years take their toll, there’s always that question mark approaching gigs with singers who are older than you are. Joni Mitchell admits her voice isn’t what it used to be, Dylan’s may never have been. Van Morrison ripping into ‘Georgia’ was Muhammad Ali bouncing off the ropes to send George Foreman spinning towards a career in kitchen appliances. 

Van took the crowd on an emotional musical mystery tour – from the love poem ‘Who can I turn to’ to the days of ‘Moondance’; from the dark suits recalling the showband era to the early days of the blues and the fervour of the southern Gospel halls. 

The man himself is a study on stage, the missing Blues Brother in that hat and dark glasses, the fan of Spike Milligan who’s known as a Mr Grumpy, the son of a dispirited Harland and Wolff electrician who’s one of the world’s best-known chanters. To see him in such good form at close quarters – as his mama says, rejoice that there are days like this. 

-Martin McGinley

Setlist
So Complicated 
Brown Eyed Girl 
That's Life 
Who Can I Turn To 
Higher Than The World 
Days Like This 
Wavelength 
All In The Game
Not Feeling It Anymore 
Moondance 
Haunts Of Ancient Peace 
Sticks And Stones 
Georgia  
St James Infirmary 
Ballerina 
Help Me 
Gloria