04-September-2022
Koussevitzky Music Shed
Lenox, USA

Boston Globe (Source)

LENOX — On Sunday night, Van Morrison had the yips. Like, the literal yips. Leading his unimpeachable nine-piece band on the stage of the music shed at Tanglewood, midway through the set he punctuated a cover of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Early in the Morning” with a staccato vocal that consisted solely of several “yips.” 

At 77, the Belfast native can still wring some real elation out of his instrument — his voice. At Tanglewood, his peak moments often came not in the lyrical gold of his own catalog but the wordless pleasure he takes in bopping the old songs that still make him tick. “Shoo bop shoo bop,” he sang on “Travellin’ Light,” a song with lyrics that Johnny Mercer wrote for Billie Holiday in 1942. 

“A-a-a-a-a-a-h!” he blurted a little later, emulating the wobble of the Hammond B-3 organ as he directed his gaze at his keyboardist. Those seem to be the moments that keep Morrison onstage. Most singers would have a hard time suppressing their joy when they hit on an inspiration. Opening act James Hunter certainly grinned broadly when he returned to the stage to sing with the headliner, duetting on Sam Cooke’s “Somebody Have Mercy.” 

But Morrison keeps his emotions under his natty hat. Inscrutable behind his aviator shades, he led his band with an iron fist, punching it in the direction of a soloist when their turn arrived. Once or twice he made a little bursting motion for rhythmic emphasis. His disdain for playing the hits has been well documented. On Sunday, the band played “Jackie Wilson Said” — ting a ling a ling, ting a ling a ling — and sent the sold-out crowd home with what they came for, an obligatory “Brown Eyed Girl” and an incessant “Gloria.” 

But those weren’t the tunes that got him through the night. He opened with “Dangerous,” a recent grievance song (“Somebody said I was dangerous/I must be gettin’ close to the truth”) and another COVID-era original, “Thank God for the Blues.” “Days Like This” felt tossed off, but it put Morrison’s saxophone in his hands, clearing the way for him and the band to segue into a swinging version of “Have I Told You Lately.” The lounge-y arrangements of that and “You’re Driving Me Crazy,” another old standard (1930!), let him stand apart from the band as surely as his white suit contrasted with their all-black wardrobe. 

The latter was the title song of Morrison’s 2018 collaboration with the organist Joey DeFrancesco. Standing at his golden microphone, Morrison paid tribute to the keyboardist, who died in August at age 51. 

As standoffish as he can seem, paying tribute suits him. He sang through his harmonica on “Baby Please Don’t Go,” the blues traditional that gave Morrison his first hit with his youthful band Them. Then he mashed that one up with “Got My Mojo Working.” But the high point might have come halfway through the set, when Morrison doubled down on the Labor Day weekend theme with “I’ve Been Working,” his own song from the 1970 album “His Band and the Street Choir.” 

How many times in a row can he bang on the word “woman,” or the ad-lib “all right”? The answer is, as many times as he’s feeling it. It’s his job. He’s very good at it. If it thrills him, he’s not about to let on. 

-James Sullivan

Setlist

Dangerous

Thank God For The Blues 

Keep Mediocrity At Bay 

Stage Name 

Days Like This

Have I Told You Lately (w/Elle Cato)

Baby Please Don't Go/Got My Mojo Working 

Think Twice Before You Go

Somebody Have Mercy (w/James Hunter)

Dweller On The Threshold 

I've Been Working 

You're Driving Me Crazy (For Joey DeFrancesco) 

Raincheck  

Laughing & Clowning 

Early In The Morning (Just About The Break of Day) 

Travelin' Light 

Jackie Wilson Said 

Down To Joy 

Help Me (w/James Hunter) 

Brown Eyed Girl 

Gloria (w/James Hunter)

Big Hand for The Band!

Chris White (Saxophone)

Matt Holland (Trumpet)
Dave Keary (Guitar)

John Platania (Guitar)
David Hayes (Bass)
Teena Lyle (Percussion)

Brian Byrne (Organ)
Elle Cato (Vocals) 

Bobby Ruggiero (Drums)