The incomparable Van Morrison returns to the U.S. and Canada this Summer for a limited tour in support of his acclaimed Lost Highway release Keep It Simple. Following its US release on April 1, Keep It Simple reached the highest-ever US chart position of any Morrison album by debuting at the #10 spot on The Billboard 200.

After a sold-out Spring tour that included stops in Austin, TX, Boston, Nashville and New York City, Morrison returns to our shores for a series of shows that will feature one of the most distinctive voices in all of music, backed by an incredible ensemble of musicians.

Keep It Simple is Morrison’s first album of new material in two years and features Van at his finest. The 12 new songs are rich with emotion, depth and beauty - not to mention the project’s unprecedented focus on the mighty ukelele. Keep It Simple is a testament to the true essence of Morrison’s extraordinary talents and an unparalleled career.

July 7 Toronto, Ont: Massey Hall
July 8 Chicago, IL:  Rosemont Theatre
July 9 Detroit, MI:  Fox Theatre
July 10 Philadelphia, PA:  Tower Theatre
July 11 Philadelphia, PA:  Tower Theatre

Classic lyric: 'And I shall drive my chariot/ Down your streets and cry/ Hey, it's me, I'm dynamite/And I don't know why.' (Sweet Thing, 1968)

ELVIS COSTELLO - # 14

He may have looked like a cartoon Buddy Holly, but the young Costello was bristling with emotional and political invective, and had the musical and lyrical dexterity to recast his hurt and anger in any genre he cared to choose. That one of his earliest songs, Alison, may still be his best is no slight on the riches that were to follow.

...to read about the other great 48 British songwriters, click here

» www.telegraph.co.uk

Eschewing all the formal production elements of his last few albums, legendary vocalist Van Morrison digs into his past, strips away what is unnecessary and creates a collection of self-penned songs that speaks volumes to who he is, and what has musically shaped one of the most emotive catalogues on modern music. Perhaps it’s the Irish in him – that love of true hearts and grand songs that allows the musical gallivanter to embrace jazz, country, gospel, soul, Celtic, blues, folk and Scottish music with equal ease. “Lover Come Back” and “Song of Home” each embrace their own brand of yearning, while “How Can A Poor Boy” and “School of Hard Knows” offer a more pungent urgency. But that is Morrison: the chameleon that takes a sentiment and extrapolates then expands on its essence without ever overdoing.

THREE STARS

“I’m not a legend in my own mind,” protests Van Morrison on “Don’t Go To Nightclubs Anymore.” Maybe not, but he’s certainly a legend in our minds. Following a brief foray into country music on his last album, Morrison is once again playing to his strengths as one of the greatest R&B singers the world has ever known.

The album’s title tells you all you nearly everything you need to know. This is the simple sound of Van Morrison surrounded, as usual, by brilliant musicians, sitting in a room and making music. The songs are simple too, but deceptively so. Giving this music its deep groove is no easy feat, but Morrison and friends (organist John Allair and guitar player John Plantania stand out), carry it off effortlessly.

Van Morrison still has the gift of being able to use music to transport the listener to a deeper place, and that gift is evident here on songs like “Lover Come Back,” the elegiac “End Of The Land,” and the closing, “Keep The Ritual.” Morrison invokes the spirit of Ray Charles on “No Thing,” and awakes memories of his blissful collaboration with The Bandon the album’s title track.

Legend? Yes indeed. Still a vital and inspiring musician? Without a doubt.

In A Word: Soulful

Grade: B+

VAN MORRISON reaches highest US career chart position with the April 1 release of KEEP IT SIMPLE in the USA and CANADA

New Album Hits #10 on BILLBOARD TOP 200 and in the CANADIAN CHARTS

The incomparable Van Morrison has hit another milestone in his illustrious career with his new album Keep It Simple. Following its release in the US on April 1, Keep It Simple has debuted at the #10 spot in The Billboard 200 Album Chart making it the highest ever US chart position of any Morrison album. This is quite a feat considering Morrison's 40+ years of making music that includes such landmark releases as Tupelo Honey (1971), Saint Dominic's Preview (1972), Wavelength (1978), Poetic Champions Compose (1987) Back On Top (1999) & Magic Time (2005), just to name a few

Keep It Simple is Van Morrison's first album of new material in over two years. The US press praise of the release has been full, USA Today said "exquisite and expressive as ever", whilst The Washington Post felt that "the ghosts of Ray Charles, Hank Williams, and John Lee Hooker drift throughout the album's 11 shuffling and waltzing tracks....the Celtic soul man is in exquisite voice". The San Jose Mercury News raved that Morrison has another winner on his hands with Keep It Simple, "a work that combines country, jazz, blues, folk and pop in ultimately appealing and fresh ways."

The US campaign kicked off with a sold out show at the Austin Music Hall. This was followed with Van's first-ever performance at the legendary South By Southwest Music conference in Austin, where delegates and industry figures queued around the block to get into the hall to hear the new album live. The SXSW excitement was followed by more sold out shows in Boston, New York City and Nashville. Radically, in an unprecedented move, Van Morrison played the entire album to these audiences ahead of the April 1 release date, which fuelled excitement around Keep It Simple and propelled its success in the US and Canada. No other music artist of Van Morrison's stature, has ever been brave enough to take this major step, and it has been rapturously received with his highest ever week one chart position.

» www.vanmorrison.com

For his debut on the Nashville-based Universal imprint Lost Highway the maestro of Belfast soul is… How can it be put without the cliche? We all know how tiresome the old “return to form” or “comeback” campaigns are when they are hoisted upon legendary artists. It’s the easy out to try to sell the record. It lets the critics and fans peel through the back catalog and figure out when the last time the artist has had a work so strong.

That’s the good news and bad news with Keep It Simple. What else can be said in this case? As much as we might try to resist it, this is a special album from the mercurial genius known as Van the Man. Often, his projects and performances have left his legions scratching heads and wondering what was up, surpassed in such acts over the years only by his old Woodstock neighbor Bob Dylan. The question: Why now is Van back so strong? Is there someone behind the scenes orchestrating some grand return?

Doubtful. Morrison has never kow-towed to demands or trends in music, so why now—in his 60s and on his 33rd solo album—would he start? There is no guru, no method, and no teacher to be found here. Ultimately, the proof of just who is in control and pulling the strings is right there in the credits: written, produced, played, and strongly sung by Morrison himself. As the album title might suggest, this is a collection of unfettered, uncomplicated blues and soul. It’s what Morrison has always excelled at, but often what made him special would get lost in weak material or careless execution. Here we have a set of songs immaculately played—with a sympathetic, crack band of pros—and recorded to sound more like Van’s heyday string of great albums. There’s not a track on Keep It Simple lacking in merit, from the warm gospel vibe of “The End of the Land” to the ambling country feel of “School of Hard Knocks” to the overall vintage Van-feel that pervades “That’s Entrainment,” “Song of Home,” and “Behind the Ritual.” Keep It Simple glows with a plainspoken, easy charm and incomparable delivery. Van Morrison doesn’t need to prove anything, but manages to here. “I’m not a legend in my own mind,” he proclaims on “Don’t Go to Nightclubs Anymore” but legends aren’t determined that way. Listening here, we clearly know what one is.

» artvoice.com

The Belfast Cowboy has become the bruised voice of experience - a graduate of the "School of Hard Knocks" who has given up his hard-living ways ("Don't Go to Nightclubs Anymore"). But his clear-eyed view of life and its disappointments comes with a sense of acceptance and understanding, rather than churlishness and self-pity, and he's still capable of joy and wonder ("That's Entrainment"). It's a mood that's reflected by the inviting warmth of the easygoing R&B grooves that dominate the album.

» www.philly.com

Lost Highway has released Keep It Simple, the new album from Van Morrison. Keep It Simple is Morrison’s first album of new material since 2005, and the first in several years in which he penned all 11 songs specifically for one album.

His music has always incorporated the widely varied influences he heard and absorbed since his childhood days on the streets of Belfast – long before the bands of his youth and his initial breakthrough with Them. On Keep It Simple, Morrison honors all those varied influences -- jazz, folk, blues, Celtic, country, soul, and gospel – at times melding them all together at once in his own signature sound.

Throughout Keep It Simple Morrison exudes wisdom gained through five decades of making ground-breaking music. Few artists have successfully recorded in as many genres of music as Van Morrison, and even fewer have remained as relevant for as long. Morrison has done so by constantly moving forward and never sitting still. On the heels of a series of “Best Of” releases, this record starts fresh with what could well be a record full of all new classics.

At a young age when most people are mapping out their futures, Van Morrison had already been entertaining Belfast audiences for half a dozen years and was in the process of influencing generations of musicians with his groundbreaking blues-rock band Them. And now at an age when most men are contemplating their options for a quiet retirement, Morrison is looking back on a lifetime of important musical achievements (last year saw the release of an unbelievable three separate hits collections from the Irish superstar) and still looking ahead to new challenges and establishing new parameters to amaze and guide his peers.

At first blush, Keep It Simple, Morrison's latest, doesn't seem to venture into new territory as he accentuates the bluesy groove that's underpinned his sound across five decades. More focused listening reveals the sinewy and transcendent soul that has informed the heart of Morrison's genius and constitutes the elemental reason his appeal has never waned through dozens of hits and any number of phases and style shifts. The spartan arrangements and lyrical directness of blues-drenched tracks like "How Can a Poor Boy?," "School of Hard Knocks" and the swinging melancholy of "Don't Go to Nightclubs Anymore" are compelling evidence that Morrison's estimable songwriting and performing gifts remain as potent and moving as the days when he set his earliest and most high-profile benchmarks. The cover of Keep It Simple features a shot of Morrison looking timeless and immutable, like he should be the fifth chiseled face on Mt. Rushmore.

» www.freetimes.com

» www.boston.com

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Van Morrison walked onto the stage at 7 sharp on Wednesday night, wearing a gray suit, silver-frame sunglasses and fedora. A saxophone hung from his neck. Surrounding him, a 10-piece band launched into a blues vamp that blared through La Zona Rosa, a concrete-block club on the edge of downtown Austin, Texas.

It was the first night of the South by Southwest music festival, and among the scores of obscure and up-and-coming bands vying for attention; veterans like Mr. Morrison were on hand to promote new releases. Later Wednesday night, R.E.M. performing behind a barbeque restaurant nearby. (Mr. Morrison’s show was one of a handful in the U.S., including one in Boston tonight and another in New York tomorrow, before a short tour through Europe.)

In contrast to the mood of raucous self-promotion pervading the city, Mr. Morrison, 62 years old, sand about self reliance and bruises accrued through a lifetime—to a diving beat. In “School of Hard Knocks,” an ambling blues number, he sang, “I got shipwrecked and stranded on the rocks. Everybody left me high and dry.”

Mr. Morrison has put out nearly 40 albums since his first solo effort in 1967, the year he released the hit “Brown Eyed Girl.” Previous to that, he led the raw-edged British Invasion act Them, which recorded Mr. Morrison’s iconic “Gloria.”

His latest album, “Keep It Simple,” to be released April 1, features spare musical arrangements, colored by subtle country and soul influences. Throughout the 11 original songs, Mr. Morrison stabs at his own myth, “I’m not a legend in my own mind,” he sings on “Don’t Go to Nightclubs Anymore.”

On stage Wednesday, he led his band for an hour, pointing to the players to launch them into solos. He took some himself on saxophone and a small guitar. His voice was strong and carried his trademark ring, but he didn’t smile and barely spoke to the audience. During his last number, an extended jam called “Behind the Ritual,” he struck a nostalgic note as he sang, “Talking that jive, drinking that wine, in the days gone by.”

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» news.bbc.co.uk

It is his 37th (!) album and it is damn good. Actually you could stop writing at this point, but there is much more to say. As Morrison himself said: “I felt I had something to say with these songs…” 11 pieces of music and the old curmudgeon growls again across the complete genre garden. The first track already “How Can A Poor Boy” has the weight of a Van Morrison blues. The basses are buzzing pleasantly in the pit of the stomach, just shortly interrupted by the whining of the harp. John Lee Hooker in blues heaven certainly is proud of this song.

This beginning makes me sink comfortably into the seat behind the wheel, my son next to me, we are on our way to a sax concert. “Daddy, who is this guy, who slurs through this song?” he asks me. “His name is Van Morrison and this is his new CD.” ­ “He sounds cool,” junior says and looks into the darkness. “Mhm, that’s blues”, I reply “and that’s what he is especially good at. “This time all 11 pieces are Morrison originals and he works his way through blues, rock and country. Very clean sound, few synthetics, earthy, dirty, good!

There is something for every taste. “Lover Come Back” wraps you wonderfully, ballad like. “End Of The Land” sounds a bit like a remake of “Days Like This” and you are about to sing along with the chorus when you suddenly realize that it is a new song. Is he running out of ideas? No, with somebody who will be 63 this year and has released 37 albums, it is possible that one or the other hook sounds familiar. The country track “Song Of Home” loosens up and clears the head for the two last really well done songs “Soul” and “Behind The Ritual” . They are tasty morsels, garnished with two sax soli and beautiful Van Morrison humming.

That he only sings blah blah blah towards the end of the last song reflects the title of the album and his intention: “Everything's gotten now so complex and things have become so complicated and nothing's easy to do anymore". “Keep It Simple” is the answer to it: Just damn good music!

» www.be24.at

There’s a reason they call Van Morrison the Belfast Cowboy.

Now with Morrison’s latest album Pay The Devil, that good reason has resulted in a great new album. From the start, the deeply soulful sounds of the American South helped inspire Morrison to one of the most enduring and consistently impressive careers in music history. For forty-years, he’s drawn upon the greats of Rhythm & Blues to create his own distinctive and influential blend of soul and Celtic influences. On Pay The Devil, Morrison explores his inner cowboy more than ever before -- recording a compelling mix of his favorite country compositions as well as a few equally strong originals that more than earn their place among such distinguished company. Morrison has taken some enduring, endlessly relevant songs of the south and somehow made them all his own.

Those who have been following Van Morrison for years might praise him for his remarkable range in taking this turn down a country road. Recent years have seen Morrison cover the musical waterfront with recordings that touch upon traditional Irish music, jazz, skiffle and other musical forms that move him.  But the secret of Morrison’s ongoing artistic success is that he has never followed fashion in the slightest. Rather he continues to be a working musician who simply follows his own soulful muse wherever it may lead him. This dogged individuality has been true of Van Morrison straight down the line – from his days leading the Irish group Them back in the Sixties, to his early solo days of “Brown Eye Girl” and “T.B. Sheets” to such late Sixties and Seventies masterpieces as Astral Weeks (1968), Moondance  (1970) and Tupelo Honey (1971) to more recent classic albums like Irish Heartbeat (Morrison’s stunning 1988 collaboration with the Chieftains), Avalon Sunset (1989), Enlightenment (1990), The Healing Game (1997) and Magic Time (2005).

The outstanding, plainspoken songs on Pay The Devil range from the familiar, like Morrison’s impressive take on Hank Williams’ “Your Cheating Heart” and Webb Pierce’s “There Stands The Glass” to somewhat less familiar Country & Western gems. It is a true tribute to Morrison’s genius as a vocal stylist that he can take a song as often covered as “Half As Much” -- recorded over the years by everyone from Hank Williams to Patsy Cline and Emmylou Harris – and manage to make it feel new all over again.  He does so by clearly connecting with country’s timeless themes of love and loss and life, sin and salvation. Through it all, Morrison proves to be one hell of a fine, subtle straight-ahead country singer in the grand tradition of George Jones. Indeed, one of Pay The Devil’s many highlights is Morrison’s take on “Things Have Gone To Pieces,” a dark gem written by Leon Payne that Jones made famous.  Then there’s “What Am I Living For?” -- an old Chuck Willis number.  Listen to how Morrison delivers Rodney Crowell’s early masterpiece “Til I Gain Control Again” -- one of the more recent copyrights included here and a standout effort on an album full of them.

Yet even among such high standards, Morrison’s originals here are among the highlights – including  “Playhouse” a sly, infectious song that one wishes the Genius of Soul had lived to record, and the title track – a reflection on making the devil’s music and a fine reminder that “one man’s meat is another man’s poison”

To listen to Pay The Devil, one might naturally assume that  Morrison has traveled to Nashville and handed himself over to Music City’s finest players and producers. Remarkably, Morrison has done nothing of the sort – recording Pay The Devil in Ireland with the same wonderful musicians who have been playing with him for years now with exceptional results. Even more remarkably, it turns out that Morrison has never even been to Nashville before. Regardless of that, he has made a classic album that sounds like Nashville at its finest and stands as tall as anything that’s come out of the town in recent years. Pay The Devil is not just great country music, it’s great music – whatever country you happen to come from. We’ve come to expect no less from Morrison.

Finally, the Belfast Cowboy has come home.