(September 24, 2016) Over his 50-plus year music career, the great Van Morrison, a six-time Grammy winning Irish singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, has woven together a terrific body of music that reflects the folk, rock, R&B, soul, and jazz influences of his youth and which Time magazine has aptly characterized as “Celtic Soul.”
Morrison’s early paces as a solo artist leaned towards earthy, acoustic folk/rock, but beginning with his hit album Moondance, released in 1970, Morrison fully embraced his soul and jazz jones and his tracks often were driven by R&B rhythms and had a certain elegant swing. Perhaps most notably for SoulTrackers, Morrison toured the U.S. in 1973 with the 11-piece Caledonia Soul Orchestra, which resulted in one of the most critically-acclaimed live albums of that era, It’s Too Late To Stop Now, released in 1974. We feature here from that album Morrison paying tribute to one of his idols, Ray Charles, with an absolutely ferocious cover of “I Believe To My Soul.” Enjoy.
By Robb Patryk
