Name: Moving On Skiffle
Brand: Van Morrison

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

244819236

Colour

Blue

Colour details

Sky Blue

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2023-03-10

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Universal

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0602448192363

Total Cap

1 / Blue / LP

4819141

Extended format: No

0602448191410

CDx2

4819228

Black

0602448192288

Black LPx2

Artist

Van Morrison

Genre GB

Classic

Label GB

Exile

Van Morrison, born on August 31, 1945 in Belfast, is a Grammy Award-winning Northern Irish singer, songwriter, author, poet and multi-instrumentalist. He has been a professional musician since the late 1950s and is known for his skills on various instruments including guitar, harmonica, keyboards, drums and saxophone.

Starting his career as the lead singer of the Northern Irish band Them, Morrison gained fame with their hit song "Gloria" in 1964. Later on, he embarked on a successful solo career which earned him numerous accolades.

Morrison's contributions to music have been recognized by institutions such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He has also been ranked among the greatest artists of all time by VH1 and Rolling Stone Magazine. His talent as a songwriter was acknowledged by Paste Magazine while Q Magazine praised his singing abilities.

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It should come as no surprise that Van Morrison has made an album inspired by skiffle. Van Morrison’s love of skiffle dates back to his childhood. He would hang out at the famed Belfast record store Atlantic Records, where he’d hear early 20th century folk, blues and jazz from the likes of Lead Belly and Jelly Roll Morton. So when he heard Lonnie Donegan’s take on ‘Rock Island Line’ he intuitively understood the music he was creating. Before long, Van Morrison was playing with a skiffle band in school. 

Moving On Skiffle finds him taking a homemade style that exploded across Britain in the mid-1950s and infusing it with a level of sophistication and soulfulness that it didn’t always possess the first time around. The 23-track album goes to the heart of the music Van Morrison has inhabited ever since he was six years old, hanging out in the smoky confines of Belfast’s Atlantic Records. It also contains songs that underline, in their messages on the importance of freedom and living on your own terms, his lifetime philosophy. &nbsp;

For the most part, Van Morrison plays these timeless songs straight. Several of them feature his own arrangements, while select others feature his own characteristic lyrical twists. The ever-rebellious Morrison has changed the title of ‘Mama Don’t Allow’, recorded by both the Memphis Jug Band and the Chicago blues man Tampa Red in the late 1920s, to ‘Gov Don’t Allow’, a nod to his fight against the rise of government interference in our daily lives. And the gospel standard ‘This Little Light of Mine’, a key anthem of the Civil Rights movement in ‘60s America, is transformed into the rollicking, upbeat ‘This Loving Light of Mine’.

Opening track ‘Freight Train’ is an immediate highlight, a song which was originally written by Elizabeth Cotten and then recorded by both Peggy Seeger and Chas McDevitt. Van Morrison has given it as a sophisticated jazz arrangement complete with rollicking organ, close harmony vocals and some new words. Elsewhere, ‘Wish I Was An Apple On A True’ is given  wonderful warmth, completed by jaunty washboard and treacle-rich vocal harmonies. ‘Gypsy Davey’ remains timeless, while Van Morrison’s powerful vocal and impassioned sax complement the bluesy guitar on ‘Greenback Dollar’. The album closes with ‘Green Rocky Road’, a plaintive folk gem and an ode to the troubadour life that was made famous by Fred Neil and Dave Van Ronk, and featured in the film ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’. 

 Key contributors on the album include Dave Keary (guitars), Pete Hurley (bass), Colin Griffin (drums) and Sticky Wicket (washboard). Current Brit folk favourite Seth Lakeman also contributes fiddle to five songs.

Moving On Skiffle

Music GB