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Van Morrison gives it bluesy best as only he can in Keep It Simple

Van Morrison is a living legend, a rock god who stands on the shoulders of just about every performer on the planet.  His music has been the soundtrack of people’s lives for over four decades.  Morrison recordings have been legendary, from his first tapes with Them to his solo work.  Even though his later works have been ignored by most of radio, he still puts out wonderful albums.  The Healing Game and Magic Time are both recent recordings that won critics acclaim but did not receive on-air play. 

His latest is Keep it Simple which is basically what Van has done with this recording. “Keep It Simple” is the sixth track and states the precis of this music.  “They mocked me when I singing this song/Trying to get back to something more simple that we have/ They mocked me ‘cos I told it like it was.”

Starting with “How can a Poor Boy?” Van has stripped down his sound.  There are no fancy computerized keys or big brass band sounds backing his voice.  We get fiddle, harmonica and ukulele in the mix.  In so many ways, it does hark back to the before the days of Them.  “Poor Boy” is walking blues number with a Fender Rhodes feel in the organ and a dirty harp dancing over the blended vocals of Crawford Bell, Margo Buchnan and Stevie Lange.  It is just juke jointin’ funky and feels so live one expects to hear applause after the last notes. “Lover Come Back” (the fifth song) comes across with the same exact feel.  With a walking bass by David Hayes “No Thing” has that old, tried and true old-style R&B feel.

While “School of Hard Knocks” feels like it could have been off Hymns to the Silence, “End of the Land” is more in tune with something from The Healing Game. With its gospel tinge “Song of Home” easily could have been at home on Down the Road.  “That’s Entrainment” goes more along the school of Avalon Sunset with the great lyric of “You take my breath away/Oh you even on a cloudy day”

One will swear that “Don’t Go to Nightclubs Anymore” is a revived old blues tune rather than a new recording, but Van gives an old breath into a new tune.  It flows out like an old 45 rpm King Record from the record machine of fifty years ago.  The guitar just sizzles as it sparkles in the speakers.  And to understand this recording fully, one must see where Van has been going in the last decade, exploring both country and old R&B styles looking to find a new vein to mine. 

Some of the musicians from Magic Time show up on this recording—namely David Hayes (bass) and Liam Bradley (percussion/drums).  But by far the most important reoccurring voice is by vocalist Jerome Rimson.  The last two numbers “Soul” and “Behind the Ritual” have a sweet quality of the two blended voices that just brings shivers down to the toes.  “Soul” is also the only track with Van on sax, an instrument that he has mastered over the years.  When he sings, “Soul is a feeling, feeling deep within/Soul is not the color of your skin/Soul is the essence, essence from within/It is where everything begins” he makes us feel the pain and power.  This is old school soul in the voice and manners of a blue-eyed white devil who knows the plight of being down.  Simply put, it is an amazing turn of phrase and song. 

All in all, Keep it Simple is more of a Van Morrison fanatic buy than one for the casual listener.  While it is very typical Van, it is not very accessible Van.  Since I have over 20 Van Morrison CDs, I would be marked down as a fanatic.  This is yet another brilliant released that only the obsessed will wear out, noticing different musical aspects within the same song.

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