Most music book publishers release their best books in the fall — roughly August to January, depending on the publishing house — and I had the opportunity just a few months ago to plod, trudge, or breeze through door-stopping memoirs […]
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Celtic Connections 2015, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Nearly half a century after it first appeared in 1968, Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks remains one of the most indispensable albums of the entire rock era. That said, it’s not really rock—more like a heady blend of jazz, folk, blues […]
Van Morrison – you either love him or hate him. Although, just maybe, there’s one Van Morrison song that, no matter how people feel about him, brings back memories of a certain time and place in their life whenever it […]
As Van Morrison strode onto the stage carrying his saxophone at Forest Hills Stadium in New York City June 19, numerous memories came to my mind. There were thoughts of many incredible concerts I saw Morrison perform at other venues through […]
I’m focusing on Lester Bangs this week – one of our most trenchant, edgiest, provocative, often beguiling, cantankerous, unreasonable, off-kilter, and sometimes dead-wrong critics. Yet, rock writing and criticism died with Lester Bangs when he died in 1982. Look around […]
Van Morrison gets more mileage out of retreads than most artists can wring out of a new set of wheels. To rub it in a bit deeper, on his latest release, Duets:Re-Working the Catlogue, he selected a passel of tunes […]
Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, January 2015
The year 2014 marked the 17th anniversary of Jeff Buckley’s passing, the 20th anniversary of the release of Grace (his only fully realized studio album), and this November 17th brings what would’ve been his 48th birthday. For the most recent […]
Van Morrison is the kind of superlative singer who justifies the cliche about the artist who “could sing the phone book.” The songs on Keep It Simple are certainly better than names and numbers, though none of them rank with […]
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