Van Morrison - Down the Road (2002) - Flac

VAN MORRISON - Down The Road (2002)

(A dBpoweramp rip, all files updated w ID tag, FFP, MD5, AuCDtect Flac Report, Original and Alternate Digital Enhanced 150DPI Art Included)

Released: May 14, 2002
Recorded: Spring 2000-September 2001
Wool Hall, Bath, Somerset, England

Produced By Van Morrison for Exile Productions Ltd. 2002
Licensed to Polydor Ltd. UK, A Universal Music Comapny
#589 177 2

Track Listing:

All songs by Van Morrison except as indicated:

Down the Road
Meet Me in the Indian Summer
Steal My Heart Away
Hey Mr. DJ
Talk Is Cheap
Choppin' Wood
What Makes the Irish Heart Beat
All Work and No Play
Whatever Happened to P.J. Proby?
The Beauty of the Days Gone By
Georgia on My Mind (Hoagy Carmichael, Stuart Gorrell)
Only a Dream
Man Has to Struggle
Evening Shadows (Acker Bilk, Morrison)
Fast Train

Length: 67:09

Musicians:

[font=Verdana]Van Morrison - acoustic guitar, harmonica, alto saxophone, vocals
John Allair - Hammond organ
Crawford Bell - background vocals
Olwin Bell - background vocals
Acker Bilk - clarinet
Richard Dunn - piano, Hammond organ
Lee Goodall - tenor, alto and baritone saxophones, flute, background vocals
Mick Green - acoustic and electric guitars
Colin Griffin - drums
Karen Hamill - background vocals
David Hayes - bass guitar, double bass
Matt Holland - trumpet, flugelhorn, background vocals
Pete Hurley - bass guitar
Bobby Irwin - drums
Bob Loveday - violin
Siobhan Pettit - background vocals
Johnny Scott - electric guitar, background vocals
Fiachra Trench - piano
Jake Walker - viola
Geraint Watkins - piano, Hammond organ
Rosie Wetters - cello, string section leader
Aine Whelan - background vocals
Martin Winning - clarinet, tenor saxophone[/font]

Down the Road is the twenty-ninth album by Northern Irish singer Van Morrison (see 2002 in music).
The album has a nostalgic tone, lyrically and musically, and its arrangements mix R&B and blues with country and folk, and with a few exceptions,
like "Georgia on My Mind," the music is most often rooted in 1950s and early 1960s popular music.
The album charted at #6 in the UK and #26 in the US, while consistently charting in the top 20 across Europe.

Recording:

The album was originally recorded with singer and pianist Linda Gail Lewis within a month of the release of You Win Again.
It was originally entitled Choppin' Wood, but Morrison re-recorded it, removing Linda Gail Lewis' contributions to the songs and deleting other songs from the album. Morrison recorded another nine songs to the album in late 2001 and retitled it, Down the Road.
The songs that were included were increased from an original ten to fifteen tracks and a lengthly sixty-seven minutes.
One of the original songs, "Just Like Greta", that was not included on the album would appear on Morrison's 2005 release Magic Time,
without a rerecording. It was finished by year's end in 2001 and released after numerous delays.

Composition:

The songs on the album lean towards the blues the singer listened to in his youth.
The title track was originally entitled "Down the Road I Go" and was first recorded in 1981 with guitarist Mark Knopfler.
The song was then re-recorded with Linda Gail Lewis in November 2000 with additional lyrics.
"Choppin' Wood" is a tribute to the singer's father, George Morrison, who had died suddenly from a heart attack more than a decade earlier.
In "The Beauty of the Days Gone By", Morrison attempts to come to terms with approaching old age.
In the song "Whatever Happened to P.J. Proby?" Morrison refers to musicians P J Proby and Scott Walker and makes political references to Screaming Lord Sutch,
the former leader of the British Monster Raving Loony Party, who died in 1999.
In the second verse of the song Morrison claims that he,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
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

Reception:

Down the Road was commercially and critically one of Morrison's most successful albums.
It charted higher in the U.S. than any of Morrison's albums since 1972's Saint Dominic's Preview.
John Metzger of The Music Box wrote, "Every few years,
Morrison manages to tap into some magical space that sums up both his career and his influence in one fell swoop ...
Not that they're all that groundbreaking, they're just penultimate pieces of perfection.
Such is the case with his latest near-masterpiece Down the Road, which finds him fondly recalling the folk, blues, and jazz to which he grew up listening.
Pop Matters critic John Kriecbergs stated in his review: "Bolstered by yet another outstanding collection of backing musicians, ...
Down the Road rivals some of Morrison's strongest work."

The Cover:

[font=Verdana]The album cover depicts the front of a record store with a window full of LP covers by blues,
R&B, jazz, and old rock & roll artists, a deliberate blueprint of the album's influences.
The shop pictured was actually a real record store, Nashers Music Store in Walcot Street, Bath, UK, specially dressed for the photo-shoot.[/font]
All info found @>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_the_Road_(Van_Morrison_album)

********************************************************************
MUSIC OMH REVIEW: UK release date: 13 May 2002
Van Morrison - Down The Road (Polydor)

[font=Verdana]One of several old duffers who still push out records now and again
(see also Dr John, Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan),
Van Morrison's effective harnessing of the blues for his own ends has never known limits.[/font]

[font=Verdana]On Down The Road he's back in fine style and each song is a little gem.
Their basic blues structure ensures that originality is in short supply,
but presence, unique vocal and musical style and, goddammit, the man's canon of work all save him.[/font]

[font=Verdana]Resolutely a troubadour bluesman, his music is - like Costello's - the kind of musical world you'd imagine a chap clad in a tweed jacket with elbow patches, who drives an old Rover and smokes a pipe, would inhabit.
It is an adult world of thought, process, travel and talent and it is as far removed from the saccharine-swept pop charts of today as it could be.
Intelligent and incisive lyrics sit happily alongside performances from his band that seem destined to make the listener smile. And for this reason, this album will sell.
After all, Van Morrison always does.

First single Hey Mr DJ begs the jockey of the title to "play me something slow/play me the songs/for the lonely ones/play me something/that I know" and it instantly pits Morrison against the banale and the bland.
We even let a somewhat bilious brass and tremolo interlude pass by without batting an eyelid.

If anyone wonders what keeps someone going for as long as he has in the music world,
they need only consider that he's written hundreds of songs,
all of which earn him money enough to continue to enjoy the trappings of a celebrity lifestyle.

And he's clearly lost none of his energy - there are no less than 15 tracks here,,,,,,,,,
and not a duff one amongst them!
How many recent albums can you honestly say the same about?[/font]
Long live Van The Man.

From; Michael Hubbard
http://www.musicomh.com/albums/van-morrison.htm

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Also a good one to have along with 2002's "Down The Road" is Van Morrison [font=Verdana]Choppin' Wood (Unreleased Album)[/font]
which is still available here @ Demonoid >
http://www.demonoid.me/files/details/2441218/39310840/

While I have learned over the years to not share officially released material and to support the artist by buying their music,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
I have found a worthy cause for my new young friend from the Netherlands who is missing this one and a few others in his collection.
I understand times are hard and Van's music just might do some good.
If you do win the lotto or land that great job please do support the artist by purchasing some of the official released material which can be found here @ Amazon> http://www.amazon.com/Van-Morrison/e/B000APRGTI
Also visit Van's new site and check out the tour dates - buy a ticket if he is coming to your little corner of the world.
http://www.vanmorrison.com/
For now enjoy a perfect dBpowerAmp CD Rip of Van's 2002 "Down The Road"
FreeMorrison