Van Morrison: Moving On Skiffle (digital outlets)

 |   |  <1 min read

Van Morrison: Moving On Skiffle (digital outlets)

The master of Celtic soul from the late 60s into the 80s subsequently alienated his audience with decades of disappointing albums.

More recently his curmudgeonly, often spiteful, persona morphed into conspiracy nonsense and bizarre pronouncements about Covid restrictions, so it's hard for many to return to him with goodwill.

Van Morrison is best when reaching for the spiritual sky or relaxing into comfortable idioms. Skiffle of the 50s is safe home-ground for him although this mostly enjoyable 23 song collection is sometimes only skiffle by association.

No Other Baby is a bluesy, harmonica-coloured strut; Gypsy Davy the traditional Irish ballad with fiddle; there's the folk-gospel This Loving Light of Mine with boogie-woogie piano; Greenback Dollar and Hank Williams' Cold Cold Heart are relocated into early, vocal harmony rock'n'roll; Green Rocky Road gets a welcome, nine minute Celtic soul treatment . . .

He doesn't entirely relinquish his Covid position: Mama Don't Allow here becomes Govt Don't Allow with “government don't allow no freedom of speech round here, but I think it's just overreach”.

Although he might have profitably let himself off the leash more in places, Morrison – who recorded the live Skiffle Sessions with the genre's figureheads Lonnie Donegan and Chris Barber in 1998 – is here backed by women singers and a fine band, and this undemanding collection goes some way towards rehabilitation for the sheer delight he brings to a familiar style, which he actually does move on.

.

You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

R.E.M.: Collapse Into Now (Warners)

R.E.M.: Collapse Into Now (Warners)

Thirty years into a career and with this, their 15th studio album, it seems a bit rich for REM bassist Mike Mills to say this one is somehow different with really beautiful slow songs, some nice... > Read more

Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Barn (Reprise/digital outlets)

Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Barn (Reprise/digital outlets)

Last February Neil Young – who turned 76 in November – released a superb album Way Down in the Rust Bucket with the band Crazy Horse. It went past most. Hardly surprising... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2021: THE READERS' CHOICES

THE BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2021: THE READERS' CHOICES

Yep, a lousy year for many, especially those like us who endured a seemingly endless and dull second lockdown in Auckland. But we should count ourselves lucky. Very few of our fellow citizens... > Read more

Elsewhere Art . . . free jazz #2

Elsewhere Art . . . free jazz #2

This deliberately fractured and crowded collage was created to accompany a piece entitled 10 Rare Free Jazz Albums I'm Proud To Own, one my many recent columns where I look at what is on the... > Read more