Keep It Simple  | 
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Artist: Van Morrison
Label: Lost Highway
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy New: $7.39
You Save: $6.59 (47%)
New (43) Used (16) from $6.85
Avg. Customer Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 19
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 001065802
UPC: 602517630789
EAN: 0602517630789
ASIN: B0012QGP00
Release Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New - Factory Sealed - Shipped from Florida via USPS First class mail. We ONLY sell what we have in stock. NO back orders here.Import Edition
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| Tracks:
| • | How Can A Poor Boy | | • | School Of Hard Knocks | | • | That's Entrainment | | • | Don't Go To Nightclubs Anymore | | • | Lover Come Back | | • | Keep It Simple | | • | End Of The Land | | • | Song Of Home | | • | No Thing | | • | Soul | | • | Behind The Ritual |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
On April 1st, Lost Highway will proudly release 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 composed all 11 songs specifically for one album.
In the interim the legendary artist had a year that may be unprecedented for any living artist, having released three separate collections of his hits, with the latest, Still On Top entering the UK charts at #2 and selling platinum, proving the ongoing appetite for his unrivalled work.
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 the band he started early on- called "Them."
On Keep It Simple, Morrison honors all those varied influences - Ulster-Scots Celtic, Jazz, Folk, Blues, Country, Soul and Gospel - and an added surprise of a mighty Ukelele -most times melding them all together at once creating his unmistakable signature sound.
In some of these songs Morrison addresses the propaganda of the myth perpetrating rock music world. There is a definite theme that recurs throughout the album, especially in the title track.
In keeping with that idea, Keep It Simple does not boast the big horns or expected string arrangements of some of Morrison's previous work. What it does feature are gorgeous songs rich with emotion, depth and beauty.
Album Description
In keeping with the album title, Keep It Simple does not boast the big horns or string arrangements of some of Morrison's previous work. What it does feature are 11 gorgeous songs rich with emotion, depth and beauty. 'I felt I had something to say with these songs.' says Van Morrison. He explains his approach with the track 'Entrainment' by saying 'when you connect with the music - Entrainment is really what I'm getting at in the music. It's kind of when you're in the present moment. You're here with no past or future.' 11 tracks.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
Great Soul / Blues cd from Van the man May 2, 2008
I'm bias on this review because I love Van Morrison music to death, I know this cd it's been been getting bad reviews, but I think those critics need to listen to this cd a little more more, I think is great (remember, I'm bias regarding Van's music) but if you like Blues / music with soul and a little inspiration from above, you will like this cd.
 Back to the Mystic May 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had high hopes when Van signed with roots rock label Lost Highway. But after several lackluster records - including the dreadful "What's wrong with this picture" and the dull country record "Pay the devil" - Van has delivered the record I've been imagining. The material and his singing are strong, as are the arrangements and production, and the whole cd has a wonderful organic feel to it. There are a few vague references to "the myth" and "propaganda" (on "What's Wrong...", his paranoid musings made him sound mentally ill), but overall, these are Van's strongest batch of songs in a long while, maybe since "Into the Music." Makes a great companion piece with Dylan's "Modern Times."
Best Van In YEARS! April 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Man is in great voice here. Terrific understated arrangements and some really good energy throughout. This is the record I have been hoping Van would make for 20 years. Great stuff.
vAN IS IN TOP FORM April 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've been a huge fan since Van was with Them. I saw him on his Pay The Devil tour. This is classic Van Morrison, no excuses...some of his best work. The cover portrait is lean and mean; an apt description of this CD.
Van Morrison in Goteborg, Sweden, April 26, 2008 April 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
On Saturday, April 26, 2008, I attended Van Morrison's concert tour for the KEEP IT SIMPLE album in Goteborg, Sweden. Prompt, as always, the show began at 7:30pm with a cast of 11 musicians + a couple of female backing vocals. His performance was all business and was being recorded "Live", as evidenced by three separate stations manned by sound engineers. His mastery of the instruments chosen for the show, being his Tenor Sax and Pocket Harp, and Ukelele was performed with jazzman's precision, but more evident was his voice that has never abandoned him and has only improved with age.
The show was a bit slow at the start and he played a little more country than I would have preferred, but eventually he got things rollin' and got the Swedish crowd a-clappin' and their feet a-tappin'. He had brought together some great musicians for the album and tour band. Especially, a young woman who I believe her name was Sarah Jory? Am not certain of her name, as Van never noted anyone's name (not like him - unusual) and there was no program available. Anyway, she played Steel Guitar and Slide, on what appeared to be a "Resonator 0 Style" Guitar (you may remember the guitar featured on the cover of Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms album?). This young lady musician was everywhere, playing leads, singing vocals, and proved her varied talents by giving one heck-of-a demonstration of her rhythmic musical ability by performing "hand-clapping" on "That's Entertainment", which is barely heard on the album, but greatly enjoyed by myself and everyone in the live performance.
A highlight of the show and the turning point in mood (at least for me) was when Van reintroduced an old favorite "Saint James Infirmary", which I haven't heard him play for years. It was an excellent arrangement and the band excelled in this old New Orelans standard. It got the blues a-flowin' from him and for the next 45-minutes it was all uphill.
Also, enjoyable was the inclusion into the band of an electric violin played by fiddler Tony Fitzgibbon; and, the Hammond B3 Organ of John Allair. That reminds me every time I hear a musician playing the B3; it brings back memories of the musician, known as "The B3 Beast" - Lee Michaels, who Van certainly remembers from his early San Francisco days. Nobody has yet to match, or even duplicate Lee on the B3, but I keep hoping somebody will appear, whereas, after 6-albums in 4-years, Lee disappeared in 1971, never to be heard from again.
Van the Man, took one bow returning to the stage to perform "Brown-Eyed Girl' and finished with "G-L-O-R-I-A", to an aroused standing hand-clapping and foot-stomping full house. Business like, the show ended at 9:00pm, and everything he had to say was said in that eventful and enjoyable performance.
All-in-all, this album is certainly worth the price. Regardless, of what the critics say, as they only sharpen their pencils to deliver venom at their favorite target, whereas, Van (at least these days) has chosen the high road and applies his five decades of proven talent, as songsmith the creation of lyrics and tune that will far outlast whatever his critics may write. Rave on John Donne! RAVE ON!
If you get the opportunity, be sure YOU don't miss Van's "Live Performance" of the KEEP IT SIMPLE tour.
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