Van Morrison at the Edmonton Folk Festival
Saw Van Morrison last night! Surprise songs - Northern Muse, The Mystery, Celtic Excavation, In the Garden. Great job on Ballerina (from Astral Weeks), and standards Brown Eyed Girl, Moondance, Have I Told You Lately, Gloria were crowd pleasers. (NOTE - SEE MY FULL REVIEW BELOW)
You've got to sing and dance
And be alive in The Mystery
And be joyous and give thanks
And let yourself go
From The Mystery, one of the surprise songs of the evening!
MY FULL REVIEW
It was a great night to be outdoors – lovely evening sun; no mosquitoes (!), light breeze. The beer tent was CLOSED for this concert, which meant well-behaved people too. We had a great spot stage right and just uphill. And what an opener! Northern Muse – Van opening on piano, slow, great violin and great build up at the end. Van was in great voice and moved from piano to sax, guitar to harp. I loved seeing him at the piano, that being my instrument so one I can relate to strongly.
Overall I would not describe it as a ‘transcendent’ concert, but there were some surprise and welcome songs for me – songs I was very happy to hear live. A few songs in the middle of the set seemed to drain some of the good energy and it was hard to get it back when apparent monitor /sound problems meant lots of band solos while they tried to sort things out. This was disappointing as Van did not get into some songs such as In the Garden like he could have. And I imagine that the clock hit 90 minutes when he walked off practically before Gloria ended. The crowd loved it, particularly the standard crowd pleasers which were smattered in with songs that made ME happy!
Standouts for me were Northern Muse as the opener, The Mystery, Celtic Excavation transitioning to Into the Mystic – wonderful combo; And the Healing Has Begun – never thought I would see that one live – and loved his digadigadig groove; Ballerina – beautiful and well rehearsed; and In the Garden though by this time the sound problems meant it was a superficial attempt and did not reach a strong point (with a repeated verse rather than the whole song). I should mention Fairplay too – but for me his voice was too strong for this song and it was used as a band showcase – and worked well that way, becoming quite jazzy towards the end.
Crowd pleasers and standards – Brown Eyed Girl done as a sort of calypso; Moondance; Help Me – very funky ending with huge applause and cheers, Have I Told you Lately and of course Gloria.
Low points that I think brought the energy down (and my non-Van friend was in agreement) – Talk is Cheap, Keep it Simple and [High and Dry? – someone help me fill in this song name]. Playhouse picked it up a little with some amazing fiddling (or would one say violin!) and a great Jerry Lee style piano riff.
My friends enjoyed it. One of my friends, Ben Babchishin, just did a documentary of Canadian singer Bill Bourne. My other friend Rene Collin is a folk singer who organizes a folk fest near Calgary as well as a professional camera man and videographer. Rene felt he could see Van’s growing frustration as he turned it over to the band and stood by the drums while sound technicians ran about in a panic. Van was gesturing – turn it up; and he had his hand on his ear as he seemed to try hearing himself properly. They did enjoy the show very much and enjoyed seeing a World Class singer doing what he does best despite the circumstances, in the end appealing to the crowd most of whom would likely not have picked up on these nuances.
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