Van Morrison

Latest Articles

Thin Lizzy | Jailbreak

Mercury (2011)
For the sheer sake of keeping an underrated name out there, Thin Lizzy, and more specifically Jailbreak , fully deserve the deluxe-edition treatment.
By MICHAEL CHRISTOPHER | February 16, 2011

Music for the love of it

From the Schemers to the Men of Great Courage, Mark Cutler’s songs have always gotten to ‘that special kind of place’
Whether driving his Men of Great Courage on a tune about a spooky midnight stroll, or gently declaring a deep camaraderie with “We Shall Always Remain Friends,” Cutler’s concocting a soundtrack to the feelings in the room.
By JIM MACNIE | May 05, 2010

Excerpt: Patti Smith's Just Kids

Rock icon Patti Smith recalls burroughs and Mapplethorpe, the early days of CBGB, and saddling up for Horses in this memoir excerpt
The stars were lining up to enter the Ziegfeld Theatre for the glittering premiere of the film Ladies & Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones. I was excited to be there.
By PATTI SMITH | March 03, 2010

Flanagan’s empire

Native son Bill Flanagan — novelist and MTV executive — discusses big books, musical longevity, Irish Catholicism, and Behind the Music .
Once a staple of the pages of The NewPaper (original incarnation of The Providence Phoenix ), Warwick-born Bill Flanagan went on to become a prominent rock journalist whose credits include U2: At the End of the World , the definitive portrait of one of the world's biggest bands.
By MICHAEL ATCHISON | February 05, 2010

Open House

After more than a year of construction and relative quiet, the Lansdowne Street music scene is about to be reborn
I put on the obligatory hard hat and walk through the doors of what used to be Avalon on Lansdowne Street, across from Fenway Park. To the layman — me — it's all dust, noise, metal, and mess.
By JIM SULLIVAN | February 06, 2009

Gossip=Truth

Ray LaMontagne on his new Gossip in the Grain
On LaMontagne’s new Gossip in the Grain (RCA), he’s having a lot more fun.
By SAM PFEIFLE | October 09, 2008

Record lows, indies peak

Musical notes
Last week’s number 10 album, Van Morrison’s Keep it Simple, sold just 37,000 copies.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | April 16, 2008

Low and slow

Van Morrison at the Wang Theatre, March 14, 2008
Van Morrison has joined the ranks of ridiculously expensive artists.
By BRETT MILANO | March 17, 2008

Celtic tigers

Interview: the Chieftains at Symphony Hall — again
At 69, Paddy Moloney is still the world’s foremost uilleann-pipes player.
By JIM SULLIVAN | March 12, 2008

Van Morrison

Keep It Simple | Lost Highway
You might call this the Van Morrison equivalent of Bob Dylan’s Modern Times .
By BRETT MILANO | March 11, 2008

Going on sale: February 8, 2008

Breaking news from the concert ticket trade
Mike Doughty, the Aggrolites, Colin Meloy, and more.
By GOING ON SALE | February 05, 2008

How I became a Grasshole

Or how my music teacher tricked me into having fun
If it wasn’t for Buckdancer’s Choice, I wouldn’t be a Grasshole, and I’d be a hell of a lot poorer for it.
By SAM PFEIFLE | November 28, 2007

Britt pop

The spare magic of Spoon
It’s like the Anti–Wall of Sound.
By WILL SPITZ | October 09, 2007

Quirk-pop?

The Aliens and Mystery Jets
The Beta Band never really made an album you could listen to from beginning to end.
By MIKAEL WOOD | September 19, 2007

Once from the heart

The musical takes to the streets
Some people are confused when they talk about musicals.
By PETER KEOUGH | May 23, 2007

New Orleans notes

A city holds fast to its soul
This year as last, the refrain at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival was: “We’re back.”
By JON GARELICK | May 08, 2007

The flying Scotsman

Paolo Nutini soars across the pond
“I don’t usually come across as all that interesting in interviews,” admits 20-year-old Paolo Nutini over the phone from a gig in Stockholm.
By MIKAEL WOOD | January 29, 2007

Next steps

Dominique Eade returns to disc with a new partner
There’s a perverse, painful pleasure in recalling a particular New York Times Magazine essay by David Hajdu back in December 2000.
By JON GARELICK | November 07, 2006

Making book on rock 'n' rool

The dean's list
Everybody knows that the first rock critics were those sweaty adolescents who got dragged up to American Bandstand’s Rate-a-Record display by Dick Clark.
By MARK MOSES | November 06, 2006

Remembering Randy Hien

A collection of anecdotes and heartfelt farewells
In an unfathomably cruel twist of fate, longtime Living Room owner Randy Hien was killed in a car accident on Monday, September 25.
By REMEMBERING RANDY HIEN | September 28, 2006

Diamond in the rough

Jackie De Shannon’s eternal promise
If today’s pop-music business is, as it was in the ’60s, driven largely by songwriters and producers who choose singers to put across their latest concoctions hoping for a hit, why does so much current pop feel so utterly charmless? Jackie DeShannon live in London (YouTube)
By CHARLES TAYLOR | August 01, 2006

Counting Crows

New Amsterdam: Live At Heineken Music Hall | Geffen
For hardcore Counting Crows fans, the California roots-pop band’s live shows have often been more revelatory than their albums, affording frontman Adam Duritz the opportunity to stretch his time-tested Van Morrison impression out to inhumane lengths.
By MIKAEL WOOD | July 24, 2006

Soul brothers

James Hunter and Jamie Lidell
Hunter and Lidell's music shares something deeper than demographics: an abiding interest in the classic Southern R&B of Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. Both men prove that blue-eyed soul didn’t die with Hall & Oates.
By MIKAEL WOOD | June 21, 2006