LAS VEGAS -- The Man is on a roll, having just growled his way through Sonny Boy Williamson's Help Me, a concert staple going back to his Too Late To Stop Now tour in the 1970s.

It's the night before New Year's at the Mandalay Bay Event Center in Las Vegas, and the party-ready crowd can see that on this night, Van Morrison is into it.

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, he whirls around to check his stage-side, Lost-style countdown clock. Like that, the momentum shifts and he's in wrap-up mode, the familiar riff of Brown Eyed Girl ringing in the air.

Oh, well, it was nice while it lasted. And these days you can count on it lasting 90 minutes, no more, no less, a contractual obligation sparked by too many unpredictable shows when the red-haired Irishman would stomp offstage early, unhappy with the way somebody was playing or with the sound mix or who knows, maybe with the temperature of the water in his glass. Depending on his mood, those 90 minutes can include a warmup song or two from the band.

When he does hit the stage, though, there's no denying his power. In recent years, by sprinkling '70s standards like Domino, Moondance and Wild Night in with songs from throughout his decades-long career -- and then changing his set list from show to show -- the Belfast Cowboy appears to have rediscovered some sort of joy in performance.

Signs of his stage fright are still there: He seldom makes eye contact with the audience, usually singing with his eyes closed. And he might not utter two words all night.

But the music, clearly, still moves him. These days he gets his jollies from the pedal steel and fiddle sound of his last CD, Pay the Devil. Hearing a steel guitar during Moondance may sound odd, but it's obviously another way for Van to keep things fresh. He loves to keep his band on its toes, too, calling for solos apparently on a whim or shuffling through music sheets, deciding where he wants to go next.

He remains a virtuoso on the sax, and you'd be hard-pressed to find someone more inventive on the harmonica. What really sets a Morrison show apart, though, hasn't changed since Day 1: The voice. While not as brassy as it once was, it remains unique, equal parts bayou blues, shimmering soul and cry-in-your-beer country. He can take a song you've heard a thousand times -- his own or someone else's -- and do something that'll send shivers down your spine.

Peter Cooper, writing in the Tennessean after a show in Nashville last March, may have coined the perfect description of The Man's voice. "Somewhere probably decades ago, in a violent and almost certainly mean-spirited episode, someone shoved the world's finest tenor saxophone down Van Morrison's throat," Cooper began. "And it lodged right there. And somehow, the guy learned to sing through it ... and the resultant sound is magnificent." And when he's on, when the music manages to take him to the place where he's found all that magic for all those years, it's something to see and hear.

Back in Las Vegas, Van has left the stage after a surprisingly robust, faithful rendition of Brown Eyed Girl, the "money shot," as he calls it. A song he refused to play for years, it's recently become a live staple again, often just before a set-closing Gloria.

On this night, though, as Van himself said earlier, things are going well. So the next thing you know, he returns to the stage with an acoustic guitar and begins plucking And the Healing Has Begun, a gorgeous, eight-minute epic from 1979's Into the Music. Soon, The Man is banging his guitar, rocking back and forth, shouting and ad-libbing his way through the final minutes, until the whole thing comes to a gentle stop.

"Take my hand," he sings to close it. You are transported -- until the iconic chords of Gloria snap you out of it.

Alas, the clock has run out.

In the Mix

Van Morrison's set list from his Dec. 30 show at Mandalay Bay Event Center, Las Vegas:

- Boogie Woogie Country Girl (Band Intro)

- T-Bone Shuffle (Band Intro)

- Domino

- Bright Side of the Road

- Stop Drinking

- There Stands the Glass

- Cleaning Windows

- I Can't Stop Loving You

- I'm Not Feeling it Anymore

- Moondance

- Wild Night

- St. James Infirmary

- Wonderful Remark

- Have I Told You Lately

- Precious Time

- Help Me

- Brown Eyed Girl

- And the Healing Has Begun

- Gloria