Van Morrison has announced a new album, due out September 22. Roll With The Punches marks the British star’s 37th studio album and will be a mix new self-written originals and hand-selected rhythm and blues classics, with covers of Bo Diddley, Mose Allison, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Lightnin’ Hopkins, among others. In celebration of this new release, Van Morrison will bring the show on the road for a number of concerts in the U.S. and the U.K– including stops at Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival in Hershey, PA, the Ascend Amphitheatre in Nashville, Tennessee, The Show At Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa in Rancho Mirage, California, and The Fox Theatre in Oakland, California.
“From a very early age, I connected with the blues,” Van Morrison says in a press release. “The thing about the blues is you don’t dissect it–you just do it. I’ve never over-analyzed what I do; I just do it. Music has to be about just doing it and that’s the way the blues works–it’s an attitude. I was lucky to have met people who were the real thing–people like John Lee Hooker, Jimmy Witherspoon, Bo Diddley, Little Walter & Mose Allison. I got to hang out with them and absorb what they did. They were people with no ego whatsoever and they helped me learn a lot.”
He contines, “The songs on Roll With The Punches–whether I’ve written them or not–they’re performance oriented. Each song is like a story and I’m performing that story. That’s been forgotten over years because people over-analyze things. I was a performer before I started writing songs and I’ve always felt like that’s what I do.”
Roll With The Punches track list:
1) Roll With the Punches (Van Morrison & Don Black)
2) Transformation (Van Morrison)
3) I Can Tell (Bo Diddley & Samuel Bernard Smith)
4) Stormy Monday/Lonely Avenue (Stormy Monday–T-Bone
Walker/Lonely Avenue–Doc Pomus)
5) Goin’ To Chicago (Count Basie & Jimmy Rushing)
6) Fame (Van Morrison)
7) Too Much Trouble (Van Morrison)
8) Bring It On Home To Me (Sam Cooke)
9) Ordinary People (Van Morrison)
10) How Far From God (Sister Rosetta Tharpe)
11) Teardrops From My Eyes (Rudy Toombs)
12) Automobile Blues (Lightnin’ Hopkins)
13) Benediction (Mose Allison)
14) Mean Old World (Little Walter)
15) Ride On Josephine (Bo Diddley)
Van Morrison U.S. Dates:
Sun Sept 10 Hersheypark Stadium @ “Outlaw Music Festival”
Thu Sept 14 Ascend Amphitheater
Fri Oct 13 The Show At Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa
Sat Oct 14 The Show At Agua Caliente Casino Resort Spa
Fri Oct 20 Fox Theater (Oakland, CA)
Sat Oct 21 Fox Theater (Oakland, CA)
Van Morrison UK Dates:
Mon Nov 6 Edinburgh Playhouse
Tues Nov 7 Glasgow Royal Court
Sun Nov 12 London Eventim Apollo
Mon Nov 13 Birmingham Symphony Hall
Wed Nov 15 Liverpool Philharmonic Hall
Mon Nov 20 Cardiff St. David’s Hall
Tues Nov 21 Bristol Colston Hall
Fri Nov 24 Torquay Princess Theatre
Sat Nov 25 Plymouth Pavilions
Mon Dec 4 Belfast Europa Hotel
Tues Dec 5 Belfast Europa Hotel