Belfast legend storms back into the limelight
Recent Irish shows have seen Van the Man re-engergised and rejuvenated, enthusiastically revisiting his vast back catalogue and, at times, displaying some hitherto missing-in-action onstage humour! His 35th studio album, his first in four years, is chock-full of that newfound energy, lyrically and musically – and all the better for it. With its heart in the rhythm ‘n’ blues he grew up with, along with his trademark horn-driven, soulful arrangements and honey-coated melodies, Born To Sing: Plan B, harks back to his ‘70s heyday. “Feeling good, singing the blues,” he croons with a hint of ironic self deprecation on the title-track, adding that, “It ain’t easy to keep on paying the dues.”
Though he never released a sub-par album, at times he has appeared to coast on certain songs. Not so here. First track ‘Open The Door To Your Heart’ is classic Van: all stabbing brass, shimmering organ, jangling guitars, and that voice, as transcendent, mystical and powerful as ever. ‘Down To Monte Carlo’ recalls his mantra-like ‘The Days Before Rock & Roll’, while ‘Close Enough For Jazz’ is, not surprisingly, the jazziest track here, its creeping rhythm not a million miles away from ‘Moondance’. Elsewhere ‘Mystic Of The East’ revisits a theme he has often explored in the past while ‘Pagan Heart’ is a John Lee Hooker-style blues.
He takes more than one swipe at the current state of world affairs on the oddly-titled ‘Educating Archie’, which finds him firing off at those “controlled by the media who took away your constitution.” And on the sublime ‘End Of The Rainbow’ he muses “every penny has got to be earned, everybody’s got to be at the coalface.”
With superb accompaniment from a stellar band, the performances and arrangements on Born To Sing: Plan B are close to perfection. His best album since 1995’s Days Like This.
This time last year, Van Morrison was lining up for an intimate concert on the tree-lined streets of Cypress Avenue in Belfast to celebrate his 70th birthday. This year, the soul sorcerer is preparing to release his 36th studio album.
Read More Keep Me Singing will be available as part of a CD/concert ticket bundle
Read More A bumper It's Too Late To Stop Now... box-set is due next month
Read More The Van is raising funds for the Southern Area Hospice Services
Read More Jazz legend is honoured at Buckingham Palace
Read More They're both celebrating the talent of 'Here Comes The Night' songwriter Bert Berns
Read More His estranged wife is taking a civil action against her neighbours.
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P.J. Proby and Chris Farlowe are among the musical guests as east Belfast’s finest gets in festive mood on – guess where? – Cyprus Avenue...
Read More Sony division's acquisition means 33 albums will be available digitally and from streaming sites from Friday
Read More Honoured for his services to music and tourism in Northern Ireland
Read More Two Warrenpoint shows for charity have just been confirmed.
Read More The Man will be honoured by his peers in New York
Read More Expect a liberal stroll through The Man's back catalogue!
Read More A subdued, sincere take on an 80s track featuring the guitar legend
Read More Van duets with the late Bobby Womack on 'Some Peace of Mind'
Read More The iconic musician opens up about his new Duets record
Read More Ticket details have been announced for what is sure to be Van Morrison's emotional return to Cyprus Avenue on August 31 as part of Belfast's EastSide Arts Festival.
Read More A spirited rendition of 'Real Real Gone' featuring Michael Bublé
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Roger Daltrey has enlisted Mr. Morrison's services for March's fundraisers.
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Forthcoming release will be on iconic record label
Read More Renowned author set to join Van The Man in conversation...
Read More Hot Press is delighted to bring you the exclusive announcement of Van Morrison bringing his Lit Up Inside show to the Dublin Olympia on December 10.
Read More Hot Press can exclusively reveal that Van Morrison is playing a unique 200-capacity gig on November 22 in The Great Hall in Downpatrick’s Downshire Estate, a venue chosen by The Man himself because of its amazing acoustics.
Read More Van Morrison has been confirmed as one of the star turns at this year’s Limerick Jazz Festival, which takes place from September 25-27 and, as part of the City of Culture celebrations, is pulling out all the stops programme-wise.
Read More Van Morrison has announced the October 21 publication of his Lit Up Inside lyric-book.
Read More There’s a healthy Irish contingent at this year’s Cambridge Folk Festival, which returns to Cherry Hinton Hall from July 31 – August 3.
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Belfast goes gig crazy from November 11 – 17, as the city hosts its annual Music Week.
Read More Local lad done extremely good Van Morrison is to be given the Freedom of the City on November 15 as part of this year’s Belfast Music Week.
Read More The Belfast Cowboys classic albums is re-released this September...
Read More Five-disc deluxe edition of the legendary 1969 album complete with unreleased takes and the lost track 'I Shall Sing'
Read More 'Lonely Avenue' was recorded during a Belfast show last autumn...
Read More Critics have hailed Van Morrison‘s new album as his finest in years. In a rare interview, Hot Press talks to him about the creative process – and why he’s as excited about music today as at any time in the past.
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East Belfast Arts Festival to host Van Morrison on September 8
Read More The live music extravaganza will take place in Wales this August.
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He'll be supported by his daughter Shana.
Read More Van Morrison is directing a documentary that will focus on his live 2009 version of his 1968 album Astral Weeks.
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A recording of Van's recent Hollywood gig will be released on his own label early next month.
Read More The reviews were all rave on Friday as Van Morrison performed Astral Weeks for the first time in its entirety at the 18,000-capacity Hollywood Bowl.
Read More Van Morrison has announced back to back Hollywood Bowl shows on November 7 and 8 at which he’ll perform his classic Astral Weeks album in its entirety.
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Van Morrison has spoken about his forthcoming album, his first new release in two years.
Read More Foy Vance, Bap Kennedy, The Four Of Us, The Winding Stair and Tom McShane are among the artists set to re-interpret Van Morrisson's classic album Astral Weeks at a special event next month.
Read More Van Morrison has led the tributes to veteran jazzman George Melly who succumbed last week to vascular dementia and lung cancer.
Read More Irish living legend Van Morrison is to join UK living legends the Rolling Stones on their European tour.
Read More The legendary Van Morrison is to release a new compilation album, featuring unreleased collaborations with the likes of Tom Jones.
Read More Van Morrison fanatics – and there are plenty around – will want to grab hold of tickets for the June 9 show he’s playing at High Lodge, Thetford Forest nr. Brandon in Suffolk.
Read More Van Morrison was the worthy recipient of a Tiffany & co-designed award to honour his musical contribution to film.
Read More Van Morrison is Los Angeles bound on February 22 for a star-studded Hollywood shindig that’ll see him presented with the US-Ireland Alliance Award by Al Pacino.
Read More Van Morrison is to be honoured with a prestigious accolade ahead of the Oscars next year.
Read More Hotpress.com can exclusively reveal that Van Morrison has bought Dublin’s Windmill Lane Studios.
Read More At last, the Belfast Cowboy lives up to his name by recording a straight-up country album.
Read More Kenny Rogers and Van Morrison are the headline attractions at Midlands, a two-day country festival taking place on July 29 and 30 in Ballinlough Castle, County Meath.
Read More As his 60th birthday approaches, Van Morrison remains a singular presence in music
Read More In what they’re promising will be a regular ocurrence, the www.vanmorrison.com website is offering fans the chance to hear exclusive tracks.
Read More Plagued by less than favourable unofficial biographers, Van Morrison is going to "dispel the myths" by writing an autobiography
Read More It is one of the perverse facets of contemporary music that there is a constant demand that artists have to re-invent themselves. I’m all for it if it’s what a band or a performer either needs or wants to do, in order to give renewed sparkle to the muse. But it isn’t something that we ask of poets or writers. Would we want or expect John McGahern to produce a sci-fi thriller set in an imaginary bog landscape five hundred years into the future?
Read More 'Van Morrison: No Surrender' is billed as the ultimate chronicle of the life of the famous Ulsterman
Read More Having parted ways with Blue Note Records, Van Morrison's next album will be released on Polydor in May
Read More Van Morrison has been unveiled as the headliner of the 2005 Derry Jazz & Big Band Festival.
Read More "Astral Weeks came out of this desire to break out of this rigidity, you know, to extend the lines, and chop it up and move beyond this 1,2,3,4, beats to the bar. "
Read More Van Morrison will be honoured with BMI Icon staus at an awards ceremony in London next week
Read More Van Morrison gets the, if you will, rockumentary treatment on January 21 courtesy of that other Belfast boy and former Hot Press scribe Stuart Bailie.
Read More Van Morrison will be performing alongside Brian May and Mark Knopfler (among others), at the Lonnie Donegan tribute concert next June
Read More The High Court has ordered Van Morrison to pay £40,000 in damages for breach of contract with an English publican
Read More The High Court has ordered Van Morrison to pay £40,000 to an English publican after pulling out of a one-off gig in 2002
Read More It’s the title of his new album, his first on the legendary jazz label, Blue Note. it’s also an apt introduction to an interview in which Van Morrison talks freely about his work, his background in Belfast, his brushes with the music industry – and about what made him what he is.
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Van Morrison heads a stellar bill of songwriting talent for the first of several huge outdoor dates at Killyleagh Castle, Co Down
Read More Irish legend accepts full apology and retraction two years after initial accusations
Read More Dublin's Apollo Gallery stages an exhibition by artist William Mulhall, whose repertoire includes sketches of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison
Read More What we find is an artist on top of his game, treating us to a thoroughly competent and engaging exposition of what he can do
Read More A week after one famous rock grump departs these shores and another, homegrown one appears over the horizon..
Read More Van Morrison and Linda Gail Lewis What next for Van Morrison? Already this year he's gone back to his skiffle roots with The Skiffle Sessions, hauling on board for that project the great Lonnie Donegan. And now Van-the-man returns to a time when he was Van-the-boy, digging the kind of pure country music made by Hank Williams and the frenetic rock 'n' roll sounds fashioned by Jerry Lee Lewis.
Read More You look up 'skiffle' in the Chambers 20th Century Dictionary and it says "a strongly accented jazz type of folk music, played by guitar, drums and often unconventional instruments etc. popular about 1957".
Read More There's this idea abroad that Van Morrison has been working the same groove too often over the past few years. The purpose of this paragraph is simply to state that this is a misapprehension.
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Hymns To The Silence, seeking higher planes, sometimes soars, occasionally strikes a flat note, but always repairs its errors with an offering pitch-perfect and ravishingly beautiful to the ear.
Read More No disco, no party, no foolin’ around – here we find Van Morrison by turns enraptured and embittered, on an album that is never less than engrossing and which is occasionally sublime.
Read More It is because we’ve been force fed dogma all our lives that there is such a reaction against organised religion among young people in Ireland.
Read More "Hey Jimmy, I want to go home! Hey Jimmy, I been away too long…" And you feel like shouting yeah to the way he sings it, to the way the voice reaches into your soul like only the most expressive instrument can, like Muddy Waters' slide, or Charlie Parker's sax, or Mavis Staples' voice… but you know what he's talking about as well.
Read More The over of Van Morrison's new LP immediately brings to mind a controversial poem of William Wordsworth's called the Leech Gatherer, later retitled 'Resolution and Independence'.
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