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VAN MORRISON

Moondance (Deluxe Edition)

deluxe black 3lp with Steven Wilson remix (2022) + bonus tracks - £52.99 | Buy
A deluxe reissue of Van Morrison's 1970 classic, with the original LP remixed by Steven Wilson.
VAN MORRISON

Accentuate The Positive

limited blue 2lp - £32.99 | Buy
2LP - £31.99 | Buy

CD - £13.99 | Buy
Our Kev has been champing at the bit to get this rock n roll oddysey into his shell-likes and, now that he has, he's grinning like the proverbial cheshire c...
VAN MORRISON

What’s It Gonna Take

limited grey 2lp in gatefold - 1 per customer - £27.99 | Buy
cd - £11.99 | Buy
the ever prolific van delivers a brand new set of inimitable scorchers.
VAN MORRISON

Latest Record Project Volume I

3lp - £33.99 | Buy
Van Morrison will release ‘Latest Record Project: Volume 1’ on May 7th on Exile/BMG.
Moving On Skiffle

VM-LP-BLUE

  1. Freight Train
  2. Careless Love
  3. Sail Away Ladies
  4. Streamline Train
  5. Take This Hammer
  6. No Other Baby
  7. Gypsy Davy
  8. This Loving Light Of Mine
  9. In The Evening When The Sun Goes Down
  10. Yonder Comes A Sucker
  11. Travelin’ Blues
  12. Gov Don’t Allow
  13. Come On In
  14. Streamlined Cannonball
  15. Greenback Dollar
  16. Oh Lonesome Me
  17. I Wish I Was An Apple On A Tree
  18. I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
  19. I’m Movin’ On
  20. Cold Cold Heart
  21. Worried Man Blues
  22. Cotton Fields
  23. Green Rocky Road

VAN MORRISON

Moving On Skiffle

Exile
  • 2lp

    Released: 10th Mar 2023

    £33.99
    Buy
  • 2cd

    Released: 10th Mar 2023

    £13.99
    out of stock

It should come as no surprise that Van Morrison has made an album inspired by skiffle.

Van Morrison’s love of skiffle dates back to his childhood. He would hang out at the famed Belfast record store Atlantic Records, where he’d hear early 20th century folk, blues and jazz from the likes of Lead Belly and Jelly Roll Morton. So when he heard Lonnie Donegan’s take on ‘Rock Island Line’ he intuitively understood the music he was creating. Before long, Van Morrison was playing with a skiffle band in school. Several decades on, Van Morrison now revisits his love of the genre with his new album ‘Moving On Skiffle’. ‘Moving On Skiffle’ finds him taking a homemade style that exploded across Britain in the mid-1950s and infusing it with a level of sophistication and soulfulness that it didn’t always possess the first time around. The 23-track album goes to the heart of the music Van Morrison has inhabited ever since he was six years old, hanging out in the smoky confines of Belfast’s Atlantic Records. It also contains songs that underline, in their messages on the importance of freedom and living on your own terms, his lifetime philosophy. Van Morrison says, “I was still in school when I performed with a skiffle band – a couple of guitars, washboard, tea-chest bass. I was already familiar with Lead Belly’s recordings so when I heard Lonnie Donegan’s version of ‘Rock Island Line’ I intuitively understood what he was creating, I knew that it was what I wanted to do. It was like an explosion. This record retranslates songs from that era. Chas McDevitt’s book is where to start when it comes to the history of skiffle. From the very beginning with Lead Belly and the jug bands laying the foundations through to Lonnie Donegan’s influence, and Chas McDevitt’s skiffle group, it’s all in there.” For the most part, Van Morrison plays these timeless songs straight. Several of them feature his own arrangements, while select others feature his own characteristic lyrical twists. The ever-rebellious Morrison has changed the title of ‘Mama Don’t Allow’, recorded by both the Memphis Jug Band and the Chicago blues man Tampa Red in the late 1920s, to ‘Gov Don’t Allow’, a nod to his fight against the rise of government interference in our daily lives. And the gospel standard ‘This Little Light of Mine’, a key anthem of the Civil Rights movement in ‘60s America, is transformed into the rollicking, upbeat ‘This Loving Light of Mine’. Opening track ‘Freight Train’ is an immediate highlight, a song which was originally written by Elizabeth Cotten and then recorded by both Peggy Seeger and Chas McDevitt. Van Morrison has given it as a sophisticated jazz arrangement complete with rollicking organ, close harmony vocals and some new words. Elsewhere, ‘Wish I Was An Apple On A True’ is given wonderful warmth, completed by jaunty washboard and treacle-rich vocal harmonies. ‘Gypsy Davey’ remains timeless, while Van Morrison’s powerful vocal and impassioned sax complement the bluesy guitar on ‘Greenback Dollar’. The album closes with ‘Green Rocky Road’, a plaintive folk gem and an ode to the troubadour life that was made famous by Fred Neil and Dave Van Ronk, and featured in the film ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’. Key contributors on the album include Dave Keary (guitars), Pete Hurley (bass), Colin Griffin (drums) and Sticky Wicket (washboard). Current Brit folk favourite Seth Lakeman also contributes fiddle to five songs.