Van Morrison
Keep Me Singing
(Caroline International)

Legend Van Morrison has just released his 36^th studio album, Keep Me Singing. Solid songwriting, strings rising up and around Morrison’s still-expressive voice, organ, harmonies, and a lush production of easy-to-listen-to tunes inform this album. The first tune, “Let It Rhyme,” has a soft rimshot moving us along as double harmonies come up. “Memory Lane” is a sweet acoustic guitar-and-strings ballad mix, seeing Van the Man wondering about all that has gone before. He covers “Share Your Love With Me” with a nice swing. “In Tiburn” is a jazz nod to all that happened in San Francisco years ago, Mr. M. name dropping along the way. “Too Late” is the most upbeat mover here and ending the album with an organ, snare brush mover instrumental is “Caledonia Swing.” Van Morrison’s Keep Me Singing is another example of classic songwriting of a certain type, perfect singing (Morrison’s voice sounds just about as good as it always did), and fine production. Masterful stuff from a master.