For Van Morrison, any past tense, musically speaking, seems better… And this time he goes to the lost paradise of his childhood, to pay homage to some twenty songs that he listened to over and over again at the Atlantic Records record store in his native Belfast. In “Moving On Skiffle” We find twenty-three classics that ooze the freedom and philosophy of life to which Mr. Morrison has accustomed us, with direct takes, his own arrangements and some house-mark lyrical twists.
Skiffle is a musical genre that is characterized by a very basic instrumentation, marked by the poverty of its performers, where you could find anything from a washboard, to tin jugs, combs, broomsticks with taut strings or mouth harps, in addition to acoustic guitars and banjos in the center of the hurricane, with violins sometimes seasoning the formula. A style that intertwined and fused American roots that went from folk, to blues, through jazz and country. It is believed that its origin took place at the beginning of the 20th century in the United States and that its creators were African-Americans. It resonated along the Mississippi, reaching great popularity in Memphis, where it was very common to see skiffle groups in the streets, playing their songs and passing the cap at the end of each performance. It had its golden age in the twenties and thirties, spreading through many states with the great black migration, until it began to decline little by little. In the fifties it was reborn with force in the United Kingdom, and it was precisely in that decade when a very young Van Morrison he was beginning to draw on American roots that ranged from folk to blues to jazz: from Jelly Roll Morton to Leadbelly, with Louisiana running through his veins and Lonnie Donegan as skiffle’s first beacon on this side of the ocean.
Thus, with the intact spirit of the genre throbbing throughout the grooves, filtered by his immortal voice (grunts and roars included), Van energetically rejuvenates each of the tracks, very often approaching jazz, adding gospel choirs, keyboards lights and a sax and harmonica that fan the flame. All with an extra elegance, warmth and punch within the reach of few. Of the “Freight Train” that catches us in the middle of the road and in which we get on without thinking twice, to the sophisticated “Careless Love” which follows, brimming with pure Dixieland, with Morrison blowing beautifully.
With these wickers it is impossible for Van Morrison delivers us a bad record and, to top it off, surrounds himself with an all-star cast of returning musicians, weaving together brilliant arrangements: Dave Keary (guitars), Pete Hurley (bass), Colin Griffin (drums) and Sticky Wicket. (washboard), plus folksy Seth Lakeman, who plays violin on several tracks, including the twilight close of the album, “Green Rocky Road”in the magical and addictive swing “Come On In” or in the festive “Sail Away Ladies”one of the songs that shines the most from the mythical The Vipers Skiffle Group , of which he also revisits a “Streamline Train” that accelerates the pulsations of the deadest of the dead, with Van to the Open Grave, a devilish Hammond, a smoking washboard in charge and some choirs that safeguard all the essences of the time.
There’s time for possession funk with “I’m Movin’ On” (again flares to the sax) and snatch the melancholy that Neil Young breathed into “Oh Lonesome Me”, giving him back the sunny country gallop of Don Gibson, with Van burning the ships with each phrase and resplendent choruses. Following the most authentic American breeze, two Hank Williams classics that he makes his own under the velvety sound atmosphere of this “Moving On Skiffle”rocking to the last star that hangs in the sky: “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and a playful “Cold Cold Heart” brimming with swing and class on all fours.
After two post-pandemic albums where he exuded some political bad slime, Van Morrison He once again shows that his love for music is infinite and he transmits it like no one else. He is seventy-seven years old and he is still the king, the voice to beat. He long live the Lion of Belfast.