Few among rock and soul\u2019s elder statesmen have been as uncompromising and creatively prolific as Van Morrison. The Belfast-born singer-songwriter has taken sabbaticals in his career, but always bounced back with a new outlook or direction for his iconoclastic, organic and often transcendent music. Morrison released his latest album, Keep Me Singing , in September to critical acclaim and a No. 9 debut on Billboard \u2019s album chart. He returns to the U. S. for five shows this month, including two in Las Vegas, after a year that started with his being knighted by Prince Charles before performing a steady stream of dates in the U. S. and U. K.
Morrison ended most of those shows with \u201cGloria,\u201d the 1964 classic he wrote as the singer for Them, but that\u2019s been the only consistent aspect of his marathon concerts. A 40-song repertoire enables him to frequently switch up set lists, which this fall often included songs from Keep Me Singing such as \u201cThe Pen Is Mightier than the Sword,\u201d \u201cMemory Lane\u201d and the title track. It doesn\u2019t take much motivation to keep Sir Van Morrison singing, though. As he told the Prince of Wales in February, he\u2019s far from ready to retire. His voice is still a force of nature, having lost none of its Northern Irish soul power as it graciously ages.
While Morrison prefers that fans and critics pay attention to his most recent original work, he\u2019s well into an appreciation phase of his career. Last year, he revisited his songs with artists such as George Benson, Michael Bubl\u00e9 and Steve Winwood for the album Duets: Re-working the Catalogue. A collection of his lyrics, Lit Up Inside , was published (by City Lights Books in the U. S.) in 2014. \u201cYou put your own meaning on it, don\u2019t you? I mean, that\u2019s what it\u2019s about,\u201d he told an interviewer in a promotional film for the book. \u201cIt\u2019s different things to different people, and it could mean stuff to me later on that I didn\u2019t mean in the beginning. And when I perform them, they\u2019re changing all the time. They have different meanings when they\u2019re done live.\u201d
That\u2019s apparent to fans who heard Morrison\u2019s latest live renditions of songs such as \u201cSomeone Like You\u201d or \u201cHave I Told You Lately,\u201d or the recently remastered version of his 1974 live album It\u2019s Too Late to Stop Now. He\u2019s a restless spirit, always searching for the transcendental moment in music that he first found as a boy discovering his father\u2019s extensive, eclectic record collection. Morrison was a professional musician long before he scored hits such as \u201cHere Comes the Night\u201d and \u201cBaby Please Don\u2019t Go\u201d with Them, and followed his own muse through 36 studio albums since debuting as a solo artist with his meditative 1968 classic album Astral Weeks.
He may have a reputation for being mercurial, but reviews of recent U. K. shows have been glowing. Manchester Evening News compared his voice to a fine Bordeaux, while the Nottingham Post praised him for overcoming an apparent cold to sing with \u201cexplosions of primal power.\u201d Performing, said Morrison in the Lit Up Inside interview, is acting. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit like if you\u2019re in a theater and somebody\u2019s doing a play. So what I\u2019m doing is basically a form of psychodrama, but actually through music.\u201d
Caesars Palace, 8 p.m. Jan. 13-14, $56.50-$257 plus tax and fee. 866.320.9763<\/p>\n

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