Customer Reviews

Down the Road

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The last time Van Morrison cut an album of original material, "Back on Top" (1999), he appeared to be letting the production overwhelm the songs. Moving (once again) away from the soulful R&B inspired music that he'd rediscovered on 1997's "The Healing Game", it appeared that Van was drifting back into soft (and soft-headed) overly-lush musical arrangements more appropriate for lite-jazz stations or retirement parties.

This new compilation shows Van back in stride - "Down the Road" is perhaps his best return to form since "Hymns to the Silence" (1991). As on that great double album, Van taps into and invokes the musical hertiage that has powered his finest efforts over the past 30 years - the title track, a mid-tempo re-write of "Real Real Gone", "Hey Mr. DJ" which evokes the best of Sam Cooke, "PJ Proby", "The Beauty of the Days Gone By" and the final track "Fast Train" all reflect his continuing fascination with the soulful side of R&B and demonstrate his ability to construct tight compelling arrangements that add depth to traditional bluesy melodic structures. His rendition of Carmichel's "Georgia on My Mind" recalls his "Just a Close Walk with Thee" on "Silence" - Van wraps his growling voice around this standard and brings out all the yearning he can muster. It's an amazing performance.

The high points on "Down the Road" probably aren't as high as those on "The Healing Game": three tracks off that album - "Rough God Goes Riding", "Piper At the Gates of Dawn", and the title track stand as three of the finest songs he's ever done. However, "Down the Road" avoids the lows of that album too - there's no misfires here, nothing you want to skip over. At first, Van appears to be simply retreading many of the old sounds and riffs he's done before - "Choppin' Wood" and "All Work and No Play" sound like bar-band standards - but the album has a cumulative power that resolves even the more derivative tracks into a cohesive whole. The beauty of some of the final tracks - "Only a Dream", "Man Has to Struggle", and "Fast Train" especially - demonstrate Van's unwillingness to allow his style to become formulaic.

All in all, a lively and lovely album - a revealing meditation on the unrecoverable past and the uncertainities of the future but without the moodiness that has characterized his earlier statements on this theme. Definitely recommended - especially for those long cross-country road trips you'll be taking this summer.

Ya'll know how there are people called Deadheads? Well, I am a Van Man. I'm just about as obsessive about Van Morrison as those Deadheads are about whatever the name of that group is.So I hold Van Morrison's recorded output to a higher standard than the casual fan would or should. They're probably not many casual Van fans anyway so I'll cut to the quick here and just say that it's Mr. Morrison's best offering since "Hymns For The Silence".I played it the first time and dug the obvious Van fan stuff like "Hey Mr. DJ",and "Choppin' Wood" (a lovely tribute to his hard working dad), but as usual with Van ,it's the oddball,slightly skewed stuff that sticks. On this CD the standout cuts all share the same iconaclastic terrain that Van has been mining throughout his career, whenever, seemingly , he feels like it. "Whatever Happened To P.J. Proby", "Fast Train","Down The Road", and a stone knockout version of "Georgia On My Mind" are just a sampling of some of the best stuff this reluctant master has released in a decade. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm A Van Man ya'll!Oh and P.S all you other Van trainspotters out there. This one has the great, 70's, Marin County, Van Morrison Band alumni David Hayes on bass, and John Allair on Hammond B-3 on half the tracks. Ruff! Go fetch it!

I've read about half of the reviews of this CD that are posted here and I have listened to the CD at least 50 times. I don't understand those who dismiss Down the Road because it is not Moondance or Astral Weeks. Of course it isn't, but can't those critics hear that the spirit of those long ago days still haunts Van Morrison's soul?
Personally, I think that this is Van's best, most well-rounded album since Too Long In Exile. It has all the joyful bounce of Street Choir and Moondance as well as a taste of his introspective mid-period moods.
My favorites are Talk is Cheap, Choppin' Wood (OK, the background vocals are obnoxious but its still a great song), the maligned All Work and No Play (its those background vocals again), the soulful Whatever Happened To PJ Proby, Only A Dream, and Evening Shadows.
That last merits special mention. Originally written as an instrumental by 50s soft-jazz pioneer Acker Bilk, Van adds lyrics to Evening Shadows which really fit the music then brings Bilk aboard to do a clarinet solo on his own music brought to life! Tremendous!
About the only song I don't care for is Van's rendition of Georgia On My Mind, but then that song has never been a favorite anyhow.
I'm with the reviewer who said he did not care if Van broke no new ground. He has given the world forty years of wonderful music and its hard to see what new ground he could possibly break. I highly recommend Down the Road to one and all.

Van continues to amaze after all these years! This album compares favorably with the great Healing Game and the superb
Back On Top of recent years. In fact, this album arguably has some of Van's best songs of the past decade. Note the title track, "Choppin' Wood", "Steal My Heart Away", "Only A Dream",
and the amazing "Fast Train", which reminds one of the classic
"The Waiting Game", especially the harmonica intro. If that were not enough, listen to the exquisite rendition of "Georgia On My Mind".
Some of the tracks here evoke some of Van's earlier 80's and 90's work, especially "Only A Dream", a gem in itself. The
beautiful piano and sax work here is welcome return to the jazzier side of Morrison. And the lilting "That's What Makes the Irish Heart Beat" is evocative of the early 70's Tupelo Honey and Hard Nose the Highway, with a country and western feel. Beautiful!
In "The Beauty of the Days Gone By", Van sings, "...lift your glass and raise it high/to the beauty of the days gone by".
Amen! But Van is creating beauty still, to "keep me young as I
grow old". This is a great hymn led by acoustic guitar with a wonderful organ part. It sends me back to Avalon Sunset and even Saint Dominic's Preview. To keep me young, indeed!
With his triumphant trio of The Healing Game, Back On Top, and now Down the Road, Van has once again proven, along with Neil Young, and even Bob Dylan, that age is no barrier to true genius. I'm already looking forward to his next classic!

To my ears, this is one of Van's best CDs in a long time.
The tunes themselves are pleasant reworkings of familiar themes, but what really makes this album work are the instrumental textures, combined with Van's "only-gets-better-with-age" vocals.

The rhythm section sounds relaxed, but confident, providing a solid, swinging foundation for Van's jazzy vocal interjections.

The addition of several lower-pitched instruments offers a more mellow, darker sound. In various combinations throughout the album, Van employs baritone sax, clarinet, viola, and yes, real strings! He has also done away with those annoying, repetitive background vocals of Brian Kennedy that plagued some of his more recent work. (His daughter's vocals are also nowhere to be found, thankfully)

The tunes tend to sound vaguely familiar;
"Hey Mr. DJ" sounds a lot like Sam Cooke's "Havin' A Party";
"All Work and No Play" is a re-write of the R&B standard "Things Ain't What They Used To Be", and "Whatever Happened to P.J. Proby" revisits "Minnie The Moocher" & "Fever" territory.

No matter. The music is swinging, Van's at the top of his game, and the whole thing works beautifully.

Immediately after listening to this, I put on "Beautiful Vision", one of Van's albums from the early 80's and was surprised to find how sterile it sounded by comparison.

Come take a journey with Van down the road; you won't be disappointed!

One of the great things about Van Morrison is how he ages with such grace, while exploring in his music all the ramifications of growing old. He continuously asks himself how he can keep the creative ... fires burning as he grows into old age and the answer(s) he finds to his questions are what is most fascinating about his recent music. Van Morrison, by now, has already created a vernacular that his listeners are well acquainted with and particular themes do occur & re-occur in his music. Again on DOWN THE ROAD he examines themes of youth & experience, the onset of wisdom, working against the odds, and his exquisite love songs... How does he manage to create such freshness in ideas he has explored over and over on countless albums? Fans of Van's music will see this as a modern-day equivalent to HIS BAND & THE STREET CHOIR because of it's R&B/Blues focus. But this album's best tracks are it's ballads, "The Beauty Of The Days Gone By" & "Fast Train"... And they are truly beautiful, mysterious and deep. The rest of the album is just Van at his best , he's at the top of his game and this effortless album showcases his awesome voice in a variety of musical styles.

In a society where the entertainment industry produces an endless number of one hit wonders and engineered pop acts, it is often a tiresome task to find truly good music. In addition, it is also a rarity to find talented musicians who can withstand many years in the music industry. Few artists excel in both of these categories. However, since 1967 Van Morrison continually released albums, and continues to do so today, with his new album "Down the Road." Once again Van Morrison works to intertwine jazz, country, folk, and R & B to produce a unique rock and roll sound. On his new album, Van Morrison doesn't hide his criticism of pop music today with lyrics such as, "There's nothing to relate to anymore/Unless you want to be mediocre." Instead Van Morrison is "Facing head-on and doing it my way." His first single, "Hey Mr. DJ" isn't one of the strongest on the album, but other good tracks include, "Whatever Happened to PJ Proby" and the title track "Down the Road." At first I was pessimistic about the CD, thinking that it was just one last chance for Van Morrison to pump out another album. However, I was pleasantly surprised after listening to the album. If you are a fan of Van Morrison, and have followed him "Down the Road", then this is another great album to add to you collection.

I like this new Van Morrison album, a lot. I don't think it quite measures up to his best stuff, but it is a big step up from most of the material he put out in the 90's. It has sonic elements that call to mind virtually all phases from his prolific career, but the period that is most often evoked is the classic 70's recordings - "His Band And The Street Choir", "Tupelo Honey", etc. The album gets off to a strong start with "Down The Road", "Meet Me In The Indian Summer", and "Steal My Heart Away", but then it hits a lull, with only one song out of the next six ("Choppin' Wood") making a strong impression. But it finishes strong, with five winners in the last six songs. Of these, the standouts are "Man Has To Struggle" and "Fast Train". The album on the whole has a very comfortable, relaxed vibe, with more acoustic instruments and less production than most of his albums since the late 70's. But he also plays around with some blues and swing tunes, as was often his habit in the 90's. In the past 10 years the only Van album I liked better was the superb "Back On Top". This fine album following closely on the heels of that triumph gives me hope that this decade may be one of the best yet for Van Morrison.

I love this one. Out of the fifteen tunes, there are at least five or six that are Van heavyweights - Evening Shadows, Only a Dream, and the Beauty of Days Gone By are my current favorites - they are almost in the same league with the best songs on No Guru and Healing Game; I personally find them very moving, and (as often happens with Van's better tunes) they seem to transcend the usual plane of this world. His rendition of Georgia on My Mind is unique; the first time I heard it, it began in a fairly mundane manner (and I thought "Oh, I wish he had tackled some other standard here, like 'Autumn Leaves' or 'I'll be seeing you' - this sounds too much like other versions of this song that I've heard"), but then about one minute into the tune, I couldn't help but laugh out loud with delight when Van lets loose. This album seems to be about life, and does a great job of helping us look at life as a journey that can still be beautiful, even as we grow older. It's impossible for me to describe this well enough in my words - the message is in the music, and I hope you'll get as much out of it as I've gotten. It was well-worth the wait.

Not only is "Down The Road" better than the highly succesful semi-comeback "Back On Top", it is one of Irishman Van Morrison three or four best records, period.
More accessible than most of his records, but still not quite mainstream (and thank God for that), "Down The Road" is a retrospective look at music and musicians, filled with tales of recollection and regret which are as well-wrought lyrically as they as they are musically.

Morrison employs his usual blend of R&B, jazz, folk, blues and country on this album. His phrasing is magnificent, subtle and jazzy, and the arrangements are often jazz-influenced as well...Martin Winning plays a couple of wonderful clarinet solos on the swinging numbers "Meet Me In The Indian Summer" and "Choppin' Wood", and Morrison is backed by a small, warm and unobtrusive brass band on the majority of these fourteen songs.

It seems moot to point out highlights...the entire album is one. Van Morrison has penned some of his very best melodies for "Down The Road", including the bluesy "Talk Is Cheap", the R&B-like "Hey Mr DJ", the lovely folkish "What Makes The Irish Heart Beat", and the curious and thoughtful "Whatever Happened To P.J. Proby?" with the lines "Don't have no frame of reference no more / Not even Screaming Lord Sutch / Without him now there's no Raving Loony Party / Nowadays I guess there's not much / To relate to anymore / Unless you wanna be mediocre..."

The mood is lighthearted even when the lyrics aren't, and this album is made for a 62-minute and five second drive along the highway, windows rolled down, fingers tapping the steering wheel, head bopping like a deranged chicken's.
Perfect band, perfect arrangements, wonderful songs, and Morrison himself has never sounded better, either singing or playing the saxophone.
A must-have for fans, and newcomers can start here as well.