Van Morrison - Keep It Simple
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Free Music Notes for Keep It Simple
Free Music Review: Back to the Mystic
Hit: 5 Stars
I had high hopes when Van signed with roots rock label Lost Highway. But after several lackluster records - including the dreadful "What's wrong with this picture" and the dull country record "Pay the devil" - Van has delivered the record I've been imagining. The material and his singing are strong, as are the arrangements and production, and the whole cd has a wonderful organic feel to it. There are a few vague references to "the myth" and "propaganda" (on "What's Wrong...", his paranoid musings made him sound mentally ill), but overall, these are Van's strongest batch of songs in a long while, maybe since "Into the Music." Makes a great companion piece with Dylan's "Modern Times."
Free Music Review: Best Van In YEARS!
Hit: 5 Stars
The Man is in great voice here. Terrific understated arrangements and some really good energy throughout. This is the record I have been hoping Van would make for 20 years. Great stuff. Free Music Review: vAN IS IN TOP FORM
Hit: 5 Stars
I've been a huge fan since Van was with Them. I saw him on his Pay The Devil tour. This is classic Van Morrison, no excuses...some of his best work. The cover portrait is lean and mean; an apt description of this CD. Free Music Review: Van Morrison in Goteborg, Sweden, April 26, 2008
Hit: 4 Stars
On Saturday, April 26, 2008, I attended Van Morrison's concert tour for the KEEP IT SIMPLE album in Goteborg, Sweden. Prompt, as always, the show began at 7:30pm with a cast of 11 musicians + a couple of female backing vocals. His performance was all business and was being recorded "Live", as evidenced by three separate stations manned by sound engineers. His mastery of the instruments chosen for the show, being his Tenor Sax and Pocket Harp, Guitar and Ukelele was performed with jazzman's precision, but more evident was his voice that has never abandoned him and has only improved with age.
The show was a bit slow at the start and he played a little more country than I would have preferred, but eventually he got things rollin' and got the Swedish crowd a-clappin' and their feet a-tappin'. He had brought together some great musicians for the album and tour band. Especially, a young woman who I believe her name was Sarah Jory? Am not certain of her name, as Van never noted anyone's name (not like him - unusual) and there was no program available. Anyway, she played Steel Guitar and Slide, on what appeared to be a "Resonator 0 Style" Guitar (you may remember the guitar featured on the cover of Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms album?). This young lady musician was everywhere, playing leads, singing vocals, and proved her varied talents by giving one heck-of-a demonstration of her rhythmic musical ability by performing "hand-clapping" on "That's Entrainment", which is barely heard on the album, but greatly enjoyed by myself and everyone in the live performance. [According to Webster, the word "ENTRAINMENT" (not, Entertainment) a verb, meaning: "To go, or put aboard a train." Beats me, what he's relating to here, but maybe somebody will post on [...] in the future].
A highlight of the show and the turning point in mood (at least for me) was when Van reintroduced an old favorite "Saint James Infirmary", which I haven't heard him play for years. It was an excellent arrangement and the band excelled in this old New Orelans standard. It got the blues a-flowin' from him and for the next 45-minutes it was all uphill.
Also, enjoyable was the inclusion into the band of an electric violin played by fiddler Tony Fitzgibbon; and, the Hammond B3 Organ of John Allair. That reminds me every time I hear a musician playing the B3; it brings back memories of the musician, known as "The B3 Beast" - Lee Michaels, who Van certainly remembers from his early San Francisco days. Nobody has yet to match, or even duplicate Lee on the B3, but I keep hoping somebody will appear, whereas, after 6-albums in 4-years, Lee disappeared in 1971, never to be heard from again.
Van the Man, took one bow returning to the stage to perform "Brown-Eyed Girl' and finished with "G-L-O-R-I-A", to an aroused standing hand-clapping and foot-stomping full house. Business like, the show ended at 9:00pm, and everything he had to say was said in that eventful and enjoyable performance.
All-in-all, this album is certainly worth the price. Regardless, of what the critics say, as they only sharpen their pencils to deliver venom at their favorite target, whereas, Van (at least these days) has chosen the high road and applies his five decades of proven talent, as songsmith the creation of lyrics and tune that will far outlast whatever his critics may write. Rave on John Donne! RAVE ON!
If you get the opportunity, be sure YOU don't miss Van's "Live Performance" of the KEEP IT SIMPLE tour.
MAY 15, 2008 - ADDED TO MY ORIGINAL REVIEW (ABOVE) OF APRIL 28, 2008
Earlier last month I wrote a review after attending Van's LIVE concert in Goteborg, Sweden for his "Keep It Simple" album. At that time I rated his new album with 4-Stars, but have up'd my rating after listening numerous times to a more deserved 5-Stars album! In fact, this is the best writing the 'master songsmith' has done since "Astral Weeks," and he may well be on the verge of delivering his best works ever!
Now for those that have complained about his "Blah, Blah, Blah" on the last track - "Behind The Ritual" - get a grip, as he's making jest of himself, as well as anyone who gets loose behind drinking from the "Nectar of the Gods", and enjoying conversation with good friends. If, you've been there then you'll understand the "Blah, Blah, Blah"? To prove my point, next time you're enjoying the company of good friends, pour yourself a glass of wine put "Behind the Ritual" on REPEAT. Believe me, when the evening is over and your friends have departed the song will be playing over n' over in your head for days to come. Maybe then you'll get it! Enjoy!
And as for those who hear Van the Man complaining in his songs about show biz record promoters and syndicators, then you probably not a real fan of the blues, or you'd be aware that John Lee Hooker often sang about these same "Predators and Leeches" of the recording industry, as does Morrison.
Rave on John Donne... RAVE ON!
Free Music Review: Too simple
Hit: 3 Stars
Ok for background listening, but certainly not up to his material of the past 15 years, let alone most of the past 40.