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TORONTO - You can call Van Morrison lots of things, but predictable is not one of them -- and neither is chatty.
Last night, at his sold-out Air Canada Centre show, the 60-year-old Irish singer-songwriter-curmudgeon played very little from his latest album, this year's country-cover-heavy Pay The Devil, and said barely a word to his adoring audience.
He did, however, surprise and delight them by playing a number of old crowd-pleasers that he hadn't performed in ages.
Why does someone who can write so many beautiful songs insist on doing so many covers?
Why does someone with such a strong and beautiful voice rely so much on his backing singers?
He's not saying, so the best thing to do is sit back and take what you get -- knowing that will at least include a stellar band and a magnificent voice.
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Last night, Morrison came out in a straw hat and a dark suit with a saxophone around his neck, which he used to quickly swing into the intro to All Work And No Play, from 2002's Down The Road album.
Backed by an 11-piece band that included pedal steel, fiddle, horns and three backing singers as well as keyboards and guitars, Morrison performed a decorous, laid-back and understated yet soulful program of songs from many stops on his long career.
Interestingly, despite the varied selection, nearly all of them were performed in musical styles from 50 years ago -- '50s jazz, '50s country, '50s rock 'n' roll or '50s soul.
For most of them, Morrison would sing a few verses and then turn things over to the band for a series of solos before winding things up.
Bright Side Of The Road, for instance, had a gentle country swing, with pedal steel, fiddle, keyboard and sax solos, while Stranded had a country-doo-wop flavour, with a lovely sax solo by Morrison himself, and St. James Infirmary went back even further, with a spooky and atmospheric '30s jazz feel. I Can't Stop Loving You and Big Blue Diamonds -- one of very few selections from the new album -- tapped Nashville country-pop without the raw emotionalism.
Crazy Love, the first big oldie of the night, was wonderful, until for some reason Morrison got a female backup singer to do the second verse; the same thing happened in the jazzy Moondance.
They played a few more gems like Cleaning Windows, Precious Time and Sometimes We Cry before thrilling the crowd with a beautiful, un-schmaltzy Have I Told You Lately and a string of rapturously received golden oldies including Wild Night, Brown-Eyed Girl -- featuring a rare acknowledgment of the audience in the form of encouraging them to sing the sha-la-la-la-las -- and, finally, Gloria.
So you could say it was a typically perplexing and pleasing show from the crusty old master of Celtic soul.