Kate and Anna McGarrigle with Linda Ronstadt: Heart Like a Wheel (1984)

Van Morrison, Keep It Simple, Revisited.

There wasn’t anything on the telly worth watching for me last night, so I was listening to music. I haven’t played much Van Morrison recently and didn’t buy two of his last three albums, but I still think he has the finest back catalogue of anyone in popular music. I put on Keep It Simple from 2008. This is what I said about it at the time it was released.....‘My copy of Keep It Simple arrived and I eagerly opened the package. The cover of the CD was blue showing that it’s a blues influenced album like Veedon Fleece is a green showing Irish influence. The album opens with How Can A Poor Boy which I thought was a bit boring in the same way that Going Down Geneva was quite a disappointing opening track on the Back On Top album. The religious imagery reminded me a bit of They Sold Me Out on Magic Time. School Of Hard Knocks I didn't care for either although the song is livened up by the guitar of Mick Green. 

The next track Entrainment is a vast improvement. The band was stripped back to just four with Van playing ukulele, an instrument mostly associated in Britain with George Formby who partially inspired Van's song Cleaning Windows. Van said of the track, "Entrainment is when you connect with the music. Entrainment is really what I'm getting at in the music. It's kind of when you're in the present moment - you're here - with no past or future." Don't Go To Night Clubs Any More is derived from Duke Ellington's Don't Get Out Much Any More Van doffed his hat to Duke in another song in recent years when he mentioned It Don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. Mose Allison and Georgie Fame get a mention and John Allair plays some great organ. 

Lover Come Back is much better with a sort of 50's feel to it, reminding me a bit of some of the songs on The Healing Game. The intro sounds quite haunting. Cindy Cashdollar plays on this track as opposed to Sarah Jory on steel guitar which suggests to me that the album was recorded in various locations when Van had spare time between gigs. The clickity clack of the train is reminiscent of the clicking clacking of the high heeled shoes, harking back to Astral Weeks again. The title track Keep It Simple is great. It is stripped down to keep it simple with just five players including Van on his ukelele and Geriant Watkins on accordion. When Van sings 'You gotta keep it simple and that's that' reminds me of when he used to say ‘It ain't why it just is'. I also really liked End Of The Land which featured some nice organ and guitar and is quite Dylanesque. I wish this song was longer. I thought maybe in concert he would stretch it out a bit but it never happened. Van's songs always grow and take on new life when sung live. Little Village was a good example of this. I'm still not sure if I like Song Of Home. This featured Sarah on Banjo, and the lyrics are quite banal. It is quite catchy though. No Thing is my least favourite song on the album. Soul in contrast is very positive and uplifting. 

The best is saved till last, Behind The Ritual is a Van classic. (See video below) I did wonder where Van met Sally in the alley and a friend of mine told me that Sneaking Sally Through The Alley is an Allan Toussaint song that Lee Dorsey recorded. When Van says that behind the ritual of the drinking there is the spiritual reminds me of going to the pub with my friends for happy hour and we sit out the back and talk a lot of old nonsense and blah blah blah. In the lyrics Van sings, ‘Spin and turning in the alley, spin and turning in the alley. Like a Whirling Dervish in the alley, drinking that wine’. Dervishes are part of a peaceful Islamic sect called the Sufis. You might have heard of the great Sufi poet Rumi. He wrote poems about drinking wine which are often understood as an allegory of a Sufi yearning for union with God.  Perhaps Van read Rumi and that’s what he means by ‘Behind the ritual is the spiritual’.  Whatever Van meant, I think Behind The Ritual is one of his best songs of this millennium and although Keep It Simple isn’t one of his greatest albums by any means I think it stands up very well indeed against some of his more recent offerings. 

                                        

Van Morrison Behind The Ritual. (Live at St Luke's)

Listening To Molly.

One of my New Year resolutions has already fallen by the wayside on day 2!. I don’t feel guilty about it though. I said I would go for a walk every single day to try and get fit, but yesterday afternoon the weather was so bad it was impossible to go out. Storm Henk was battering Britain. The wind was gusting at about 50MPH, so there was no way I was venturing out. I had a nice afternoon safe and sound playing music in my kitchen. I was listening to an album called Crooked Tree by Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway. I bought this album recently because some of my Facebook friends had spoken highly of Molly. Also, I saw that she is playing in Bath next week on a double bill with Tommy Emmanuel so I bought myself a ticket for that, and thought I better get myself an album to get acquainted with her music.

If you haven’t heard of Molly before, she is aged 30, an American vocalist, songwriter, banjo player, guitarist, recording artist, and teacher in the bluegrass tradition. She is noted for her flatpicking, clawhammer, and crosspicking guitar prowess. In 2017, Molly was the first woman to win the International Bluegrass Music Association's Guitar Player of the Year award. In 2018 she won the award again, along with being named the Americana Music Association's Instrumentalist of the Year. In 2023, Molly won the Best Bluegrass Album for Crooked Tree and also received a nomination for the all-genre Best New Artist award at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards. Released on April 1, 2022, it is Molly's first album for Nonesuch Records and the first to feature her band Golden Highway. The album was co-produced by Molly and dobro player Jerry Douglas and includes collaborations with Margo Price, Billy Strings, Old Crow Medicine Show, Sierra Hull, Dan Tyminski and Gillian Welch. It was preceded by the single She'll Change, which was released on November 17, 2021. (Thanks to Wikipedia for that info)

I have listened to the album a few times now and enjoyed it more with every playing. It is a grower! This would be great music for the summer outdoor festivals, it is so lively and infectious. At first I thought San Francisco Blues was my favourite song, but now I like all of it. The title track is about celebrating people’s individuality and differences. Songs like She’ll Change, Side Saddle and Goodbye Girl are concerned with female power in a male dominated world. Her band are all very gifted musicians (See video below). I’m not sure if Golden Highway will be with Molly in Bath next week, but I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll see if I can get a signed copy of her new album City of Gold and I’ll tell you all about the concert afterwards. Cheers.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway - Crooked Tree (Live)

A Brand New Start.

Happy New Year to anyone who reads this. The beginning of another year, full of good intentions. I am determined to put something on my blog page every day this year, even if it’s only a paragraph or a video. I wonder how long that will last for? I went to the pub on New Years Eve and then went home to watch Jools Holland’s annual Hootenanny. I polished off the last of the wine in my house while watching it. There will be no more alcohol or pubs for me until February. I didn’t think the show was all that great. It was mainly older artists like Rod Stewart, Paul Jones, and P.P. Arnold. I did enjoy Joss Stone and The Mary Wallopers who I saw at Glastonbury back in the summer. The highlight of the show for me was a young Irish Blues guitarist and singer called Muireann Bradley. (See video below) She was like a breath of fresh air among all the older types. I was so impressed I ordered her CD, so look out for a review of that in the near future.

The skies were dark and rainy on New Years Day and I had a hangover, but one of my resolutions was to go for a walk every day whatever the weather, so I made the supreme effort, put on my raincoat and went out in the drizzle. I only got as far as Lidl and found it was closed because of the holiday. I wasn’t all that bothered because I wasn’t desperate for anything. I was only out for about twenty minutes, but the fresh air did me good. I’ll try and walk a bit further today even though the weather is still windy and rainy. I was pleased that my team Peterborough United beat Derby County 3-2 yesterday in a dramatic exciting game. Last night I listened to the Cerys Matthews Blues Show on BBC Radio 2. Her guests were the Van Morrison Alumni Band which feature former members of Van’s band such as Leo Green, Matt Holland and Alec Dankworth. I enjoyed it, especially The Healing Game and Into The Mystic/Caravan.

 After that I watched a film on BBC2 that I hadn’t seen before, In The Heat Of The Night with Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger. That was my New Year’s Day. I don’t know what the rest of today has in store, but I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. Cheers.

Happy New Year. Muireann Bradley - Candyman.