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

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (Mercury)

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds (Mercury)

Although comparisons are odious, you can hardly escape lining up this solo debut by Noel Gallagher (the brains of Oasis?) with that of brother Liam (the mouth?) whose recent album under the name... > Read more

The Lemon Twigs: Everything Harmony (Captured Tracks/digital outlets)

The Lemon Twigs: Everything Harmony (Captured Tracks/digital outlets)

To be frank, on the basis of two of their three previous albums we have heard, we've been seriously underwhelmed by the fashionable and hip Lemon Twigs, two gifted New York brothers who do have a... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

BOOK 'EM: Reid, all about it

BOOK 'EM: Reid, all about it

About a fortnight after I took over as editor of the Herald's Books pages in the early Nineties, I was approached by Terry Snow of the Listener offering me the Arts Editor job. It was tempting... > Read more

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Dayme Arocena

THE FAMOUS ELSEWHERE WORLD MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRE . . . Dayme Arocena

Singer, composer, arranger and bandleader, DaymĂ© Arocena was recently dubbed by The Guardian as “Cuba’s finest vocalist”. The young Afro-Cuban artist, mentored... > Read more