VAN MORRISON - Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge

The creative spark of Van Morrison's latest album, "Remembering Now" (2025), struck many as a successful late-career flourish from an artist who, over the last two decades, has stood out more for his tenacity and consistency than for the incisiveness of his admittedly dignified records. The release of "Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge" comes unexpectedly hot on its heels, confirming a state of grace and a self-awareness that once again deserve proper praise.

Van The Man has gone back to his roots with the wisdom of an eighty-year-old and the energy of a twenty-year-old. Eighty full minutes of visceral devotion to a genre, the blues, that has always been at the heart of the many musical excursions that, from "Astral Weeks" onward, have marked the history of the Northern Irish musician. The presence of three blues masters such as Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal and Buddy Guy confirms Van Morrison's intent to place at the center of these twenty songs a shared passion for music, free of pointless virtuosity and with a sound that forgoes any technological embellishment.

"Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge" unfolds like an imaginary documentary on the glories of the blues, offering an in-depth and knowing reinterpretation of many classics, occasionally interspersed with a few originals that serve the staging of the project. In the manner of the unforgettable "Buena Vista Social Club", Van Morrison's new album brings together a crew of "old-timers" (Elvin Bishop and Taj Mahal, 83, Van Morrison, 81, and Buddy Guy, 89) who don't just revel in their first unforgettable love, but reinvent it and adapt it to a conceptually on the road vision, alternating vibrant honky-tonk blues numbers ("When It's Love Time" and "Play The Honky Tonks") with superb readings of classics, such as a splendid "Madame Butterfly Blues" and the Muddy Waters superclassic "I'm Ready". The emotional charge and quality of the performances steer clear of any purely retro drift.

There's no shortage of variations on familiar themes. Van Morrison picks up the sax on the driving "Kidney Stew Blues", flips the perspective of Fats Domino's lively "Ain't That A Shame" by dragging its melody into the arms of gospel-blues, and turns B.B. King's "Rock Me Baby" into the perfect showcase for his still-remarkable interpretive and vocal skills, just a shade or two below the twenty-three-year-old who made "Astral Weeks".

That unreleased tracks like the excellent “Montecarlo Blues,” with an exemplary Van on harmonica, and the title track, an acid gospel rock-blues number, hold up effortlessly against the revisited classics is a further source of pleasure and wonder. Even when the author risks a fluid Latin rhythm on “Social Climbing Scene,” everything remains in perfect balance.

David Hayes (bass), Larry Vann and Bobby Ruggiero (drums), Anthony Paule (electric guitar), Mitch Woods (piano), John Allair (Hammond and B3 organ) round out the lineup on this new Van Morrison album, an artist who has brilliantly weathered old age and shows no sign of intending to retreat.

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13/02/2026