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VAN MORRISON

Van Morrison

Moving On Skiffle

    It should come as no surprise that Van Morrison has made an album inspired by skiffle. Van Morrison’s love of skiffle dates back to his childhood. He would hang out at the famed Belfast record store Atlantic Records, where he’d hear early 20th century folk, blues and jazz from the likes of Lead Belly and Jelly Roll Morton. So when he heard Lonnie Donegan’s take on ‘Rock Island Line’ he intuitively understood the music he was creating. Before long, Van Morrison was playing with a skiffle band in school. Several decades on, Van Morrison now revisits his love of the genre with his new album ‘Moving On Skiffle’, which will be released on 10th March 2023.

    ‘Moving On Skiffle’ finds him taking a homemade style that exploded across Britain in the mid-1950s and infusing it with a level of sophistication and soulfulness that it didn’t always possess the first time around. The 23-track album goes to the heart of the music Van Morrison has inhabited ever since he was six years old, hanging out in the smoky confines of Belfast’s Atlantic Records. It also contains songs that underline, in their messages on the importance of freedom and living on your own terms, his lifetime philosophy. 

    TRACK LISTING

    Freight Train
    Careless Love
    Sail Away Ladies
    Streamline Train
    Take This Hammer
    No Other Baby
    Gypsy Davy
    This Loving Light Of Mine
    In The Evening When The Sun Goes Down
    Yonder Comes A Sucker
    Travelin’ Blues
    Gov Don’t Allow
    Come On In
    Streamlined Cannonball
    Greenback Dollar
    Oh Lonesome Me
    I Wish I Was An Apple On A Tree
    I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
    I’m Movin’ On
    Cold Cold Heart
    Worried Man Blues
    Cotton Fields
    Green Rocky Road

    Van Morrison

    Moondance

      It's unusual for a decade-defining record to come out in that decade's first year, but that was clearly the case with "Moondance". While it would have been one of the finest albums of any decade, it clearly marked a turning point both for Van Morrison and for rock as a whole. Coming after 1968's expansive, acoustic, jazz-inflected "Astral Weeks", "Moondance" marks a complete about-face; instead of looking inward to the depths of his soul, Van turned his gaze towards sunnier climes, offering up a seamless disc of tightly composed and arranged tunes brimming with warmth and energy. Here the R&B influence that had been part of Morrison's toolkit since his days fronting Them truly came to the fore at last. "Crazy Love", "Caravan", and "Brand New Day" could have been covered by any great soul singer, even as they redefined 'soul' through the filter of Morrison's eclectic sensibilities. An openhearted record full of truly inspirational moments, "Moondance" is Van at the absolute top of his game, setting the pace for everyone else to follow. Nearly every song here is a stone-cold classic, and "Moondance" has become embedded in the collective pop consciousness as one of the most important touchstones of its time.


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