Reviews
 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
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InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
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Van Morrison
I don’t want to talk to the Van fans here. There are plenty of us, and we all already know that we want to own this CD. It’s the people who don’t know this that I want to talk to. I figure that there are literally millions of music fans who write Van off as the guy who recorded “Moondance” and “Brown Eyed Girl”. Just to let you know, that’s like saying Dylan is the guy who wrote “Blowin’ in the Wind”, or Muddy Waters is the guy who sang “Got My Mojo Workin’.” Goddamn, you gotta pay attention to a guy like this, especially when he creates a great album.
“Stranded” and “Celtic New Year” kick off the disk and both are as hypnotically beautiful as anything I’ve ever heard in my life. A long time ago, Van figured out how to channel his muse in a way that is so pure and simple that it defies category. Little did we know at the time that “Astral Weeks” was only the first installment in a search for transcendence that would last Mr. Morrison (and through gracious good luck, us as well) a lifetime. “Magic Time” combines his obsession with music as therapy for the soul with his deep understanding of ‘soul’ music (both the blues and the Celtic variety). He does both with a pure authority that, at its best, is unfettered by self-consciousness. We’re talking about a man who can sing a standard blues progression and call it “Keep Mediocrity at Bay”, then follow it with a blast of swinging blues that suggests Los Lobos on a really good day, called “Evening Train.”
Sometimes, he aims wide and misses – “This Love is Mine” has the swagger of bad rat-pack swing, while “I’m Confessin’” has the same rat-pack vibe with an after-hours feel. I’d advise skipping these tracks if you want to maintain the mood, especially the latter, since it casts Van in the truly unflattering role of something resembling a strip show barker. The fact is, his is a restless soul, and he keeps challenging himself in a way that renders his misses simultaneously forgivable and weirdly fascinating. What matters is that he is willing to try, and his degree of artistic success surpasses virtually all of the competition, bare none.
So what if Van Morrison has released what seems like 100 albums so far? Who else has produced such a predictably good lifetime of material? And if you never bought a Van Morrison album before, I can tell you with some confidence that right now is as good a time to catch on as ever. If you do, then welcome to the club.
Grade: 
 
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