Van Morrison Moving on Skiffle

What does it sound like?:

I wasn’t going to post anything about Moving On Skiffle. @jaygee and @retropath2 have written superbly about the concerts featuring the music on the record, and the record itself, on an earlier thread and anyway I’ve inflicted enough verbiage about Van Morrison on you all over the years. But the thing is, I’m enjoying this album immensely, and that isn’t anything I expected to say anytime soon about a new Van Morrison record. So indulge me whilst I add my two penn’orth.

Moving on Skiffle isn’t actually a skiffle record at all. It does feature Alan ‘Sticky’ Wicket on washboard but other than that it’s Morrison’s regular house band and backing vocalists, joined on a few tracks by Seth Lakeman on violin. And whilst many of these songs were skiffle staples, really this is a wide bunch of folk, blues and country songs that Morrison will have known and perhaps played in the early days, many no doubt from his father’s record collection.

Generally the songs are delivered fairly straight – these aren’t radical, if you will, reimaginings. Some work better than others. I am not sure Morrison brings much to country songs like Don Gibson’s Oh Lonesome Me or Hank Williams’ Cold Cold Heart. But the blues have been meat and drink to Van Morrison since the beginning, and he delivers songs like When the Evening Sun Goes Down, Travellin’ Blues and Worried Man Blues with real energy and commitment. And that is what makes this record work – Morrison and his band really go for it; there is a joy in the performances that is infectious. Careless Love has a jaunty breeziness, even as Van sings of shooting his unfaithful lover with his .38 and standing over her body until she’s dead. Gypsy Davy recalls the uplifting vibe of Star of the County Down and Marie’s Wedding on Irish Heartbeat. This Lovin’ Light of Mine has an irresistible gospel drive. No wonder @jaygee reports the gig so positively – if this recording is anything to go by it must indeed have been fantastic.

The band are on point throughout, but Dave Keary on guitar, Richard Dunn on keyboards and Stuart McIlroy on piano deserve particular mention, with spot on economical solos throughout. And whilst those allergic to Bryan Kennedy’s call and response vocals on several Morrison albums may wish to avert their ears, I love the backing vocals too, usually in trios from five of Van’s regular and mostly Northern Irish based backing singers. They add real colour. Morrison’s own voice is in astonishing shape. His range is obviously more narrow than it once was, but it suits this material perfectly and he hits the notes throughout.

It can’t be denied that part of the pleasure of this record lies in the fact that it is nothing like his awful previous records, both lyrically and in overall mood. Van’s anti lockdown and anti government paranoia does make one appearance when he changes Mama Don’t Allow to Gov Dont Allow – but even here the jaunty musical tone overrides the lyrics in which the most he can find to complain about is that ‘Gov don’t allow skiffle round here’. Morrison’s tongue is firmly in his cheek as he then sticks it to the man by giving Sticky Wicket his one washboard solo on the album.

The record shares with skiffle a lack of range of pace and tone, and by track 22 it has become a little exhausting. But then, on the final track he and the band finally slow things down with a 9 minute performance of Green Rocky Way. Morrison’s vocal is gorgeous, and Seth Lakeman’s fiddle weaves its atmospheric way around it. And towards the end, Van brings it on home as he improvises away from the original song to sing of the church and the mountainside, the cold crystal stream, and the Sunday church bell chime, and suddenly we’re in East Belfast, and Marin County, and Avalon and all those real and mythic landscapes that are at the heart of Van Morrisons greatest work. It’s a magnificent finish to an unpretentiously terrific record.

What does it all *mean*?

Any good covers record should take you to original and earlier versions of the songs. This one does exactly that, and what riches I have discovered. Elizabeth Cotton, Leadbelly, Ray Charles, Odetta, Mississippi Fred McDowell,The Kingston Trio and more. But there’s one singer who, if he appears on any playlist, blows everyone else out of the water. The Greatest of All Time? It’s Sam Cooke. It’s always Sam Cooke.

Goes well with…

Being turned up to 11 on the car stereo as you drive down the motorway bellowing along tunelessly at the top of your voice. Or maybe that’s just me.

Release Date:

Out now

Might suit people who like…

Good time blues, country and rock and roll played live with no frills but plenty of spirit

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