Van Morrison has unveiled his 37th studio album ‘Roll With The Punches’.
The 71-year-old singer/songwriter will release the blues record, which features Jeff Beck, ‘Out of Time’ hitmaker Chris Farlowe and regular collaborator Georgie Fame, on September 22.
The CD also includes hits by blues legends John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Witherspoon, Bo Diddley, Little Walter & Mose Alliso.
On his aficionado for the genre, Van said: "From a very early age, I connected with the blues. The thing about the blues is you don’t dissect it – you just do it. I’ve never over-analysed what I do; I just do it. Music has to be about just doing it and that’s the way the blues works – it’s an attitude. I was lucky to have met people who were the real thing – people like John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Witherspoon, Bo Diddley, Little Walter & Mose Allison. I got to hang out with them and absorb what they did. They were people with no ego whatsoever and they helped me learn a lot."
The ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ hitmaker felt it was important for each song on the record – whether he wrote it or not – to have a story behind it, something which he thinks is lacking in modern music because people "over-analyse" everything.
He explained: "The songs on ‘Roll With The Punches’ – whether I’ve written them or not – they’re performance oriented. Each song is like a story and I’m performing that story. That’s been forgotten over years because people over-analyse things. I was a performer before I started writing songs and I’ve always felt like that’s what I do."
‘Roll With The Punches’ follows 2016’s ‘Keep Me Singing’.
The track-listing for ‘Roll With The Punches’ is as follows:
‘Roll With the Punches’ (Van Morrison & Don Black)
‘Transformation’ (Van Morrison)
‘I Can Tell’ (Bo Diddley & Samuel Bernard Smith)
‘Stormy Monday’ / ‘Lonely Avenue’ (Stormy Monday – T-Bone Walker/Lonely Avenue – Doc Pomus)
‘Goin’ To Chicago’ (Count Basie & Jimmy Rushing)
‘Fame’ (Van Morrison)
‘Too Much Trouble’ (Van Morrison)
‘Bring It On Home To Me’ (Sam Cooke)
‘Ordinary People’ (Van Morrison)
‘How Far From God’ (Sister Rosetta Tharpe)
‘Teardrops From My Eyes’ (Rudy Toombs)
‘Automobile Blues’ (Lightnin’ Hopkins)
Benediction (Mose Allison)
‘Mean Old World’ (Little Walter)
‘Ride On Josephine’ (Bo Diddley)