Keep Me Singing

Van Morrison

Caroline, 2016

Fifty years and 36 albums on, it wouldn’t be wrong to refer to Van Morrison as a lion in Winter, but you’d be wrong to count him out. With a sense of remarkable ease, Van Mo has pulled a quietly beautiful album out from that place where his best songs dwell. Aching with love, loss, and sincere yearning, the music is always soulful.

“Everytime I see A River” unfolds slowly, lamenting nostalgically. “Too Late” gets the elegant Countrypolitan treatment. “Out in the Cold Again,” (and much of the album), plays like after hours musings once the club has closed and band feels like playing a few more.

“The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword” has a spring in it’s step, and it struts briskly, with determination. His staid, comforting voice occasionally boils over. Covering “Share Your Love With Me,” his emotions get away from him ,momentarily, and throughout the song is filled out with horns warmly accentuating his pleas.

“Look Beyond the Hill,” is playful and sly, meandering the way a great Mancini number does.

It’s hard not to like this disc. It sounds and feels like catching up with an old friend and some of the stories,maybe you think you’ve heard before, but it’s o-k, you like hanging out just the same. And the new stories, well, they bear repeating as well.