Van Morrison “Somebody Tried to Sell Me a Bridge”

Popular music icon explores the blues in depth and sounds just fine.

And your humble writer gets to review yet another musical icon, in the form of Sir Van Morrison, as he releases the 51^st  (give or take) solo album of a stellar career spanning more than 60 years across a wide range of musical genres; and, extraordinarily, he has become even more prolific in the last 10 years since turning 70,  releasing more than an album a year, culminating in an album of predominantly blues covers sprinkled with a few new songs of his own.

Morrison’s musical career began in the late 50s as he learned to play guitar and saxophone as a teenager and featured in a variety of bands before forming Them in 1963, a quasi R’n’B group that released a string of singles, including rock standards such as ‘Gloria’ and ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’. He left to go solo in 1967 after monetary disputes arising from the band’s US tour, amongst other issues. In mid-1967 he released the single that catapulted his career; ‘Brown-Eyed Girl’ was a significant hit and appeared on a number of reviewers’ lists of best pop or rock songs. It appeared on a debut album that was released without Morrison’s approval due to a contract misunderstanding. Then came the two albums that rank amongst the very best in the history of modern popular music – the luminous folk masterpiece “Astral Weeks”, and the eclectic triumph “Moondance” –  and which cemented Morrison’s status in the rock world. “Moondance” in particular included many of the musical styles that permeated his music going forward (folk, rock, jazz, r’n’b, pop, Irish and Celtic folk).

Truth be told, not every one of his significant catalogue has been so universally praised as the two aforementioned, but every one has tracks that have resonated positively and his distinctive vocals and skilful and adventurous arrangements on his many cover versions have always been things to celebrate. He is often most praised for his enigmatic songwriting and he has introduced many differing styles to his music but it is most likely that his preferred style is the blues, considering how many, particularly of his later albums, have included elements of it. And he has the perfect voice for the blues without being able to replicate the booming depths of the original blues masters.

Considering his obvious love for that genre, it is perhaps surprising that in his entire canon of work, only one previous album before this new 2026 release has delved deep into those old masters and reinterpreted them, that being the excellent 2017 release “Roll with the Punches” which had 10 blues covers,  and 5  Morrison originals that fit the tone of the album, such as the title track. His innate knack for timing transformed songs like the ‘Stormy Monday/Lonely Avenue’ mash-up into an outstanding modern interpretation and helped to keep alive the old blues traditions in the face of new modern blues stylists.

Fast forward to 2026 and Morrison releases “Somebody Tried to Sell Me a Bridge”, and proceeds to perform the same trick, with his voice (at 80) still intact and his ability to attract star names to play with him, and select cracking sidesmen for the project. This time around he has called on the talents of Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, and Buddy Guy on an album of 20 tracks, of which just 4 are Morrison originals. As usual with Morrison albums, the runtime is long, in this case running to more than 80 minutes. A listen in one go takes some aural stamina and an artist trying this has to be very sure of his devoted fans’ patience and ensure that there is little or no filler.  This is a recurrent theme as his albums regularly exceed 60/70 minutes. including those that have explored specific genres, e.g. country (“Three Chords and the Truth”), skiffle (“Moving on Skiffle”),  instrumentals (“Beyond Words”) or rock’n’roll history (“Accentuate the Positive”).

‘Somebody Tried to Sell Me a Bridge’ is a very solid album, with Morrison paying homage to blues songwriters from Chicago to Memphis to Texas. Apart from the star turns, the session men on the album are amongst the longest established in the field of Chicago and jump blues; David Hayes on bass, Larry Vann and Bobby Ruggiero on drums,  Anthony Paule on electric blues guitar, Mitch Woods on, particularly, jump blues piano, and the outstanding John Allair on Hammond organ and B3 (‘nobody plays organ like that’, says Morrison).

The album kicks off with a couple of Eddie ‘Cleanhead’ Vinson songs, led into by Morrison’s excellent sax riffs and you soon get the feel of how good these musicians are. After another couple of blues staples comes the first example of Morrison’s truly interpretative skills as he slows down Fat Domino’s ‘Ain’t That a Shame’ (in a way that he did on the “Punches” album with Sam Cooke’s ‘Bring it on Home to Me’.) Next up he slays Dave Lewis’ ‘Madame Butterfly Blues’, and then lets Taj Mahal share the vocals on Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee’s ‘Can’t Help Myself’; same share of vocals on the traditional ‘Betty and Dupree’. where Allair really shines. Very early bluesman Blind Blake (1896 to 1934) supplies ‘Delia’s Gone‘, an incongruously lightly swinging blues with Taj Mahal on harmonica and some great harmony backing on a famously dark murder ballad from the year 1900. The back up singers are excellent throughout.

Morrison’s first contribution as songwriter is on the Chicago blues style ‘Monte Carlo Blues’ with its lovely rolling guitar – it’s a worthy contribution to the album. And just to prove his bona fides, he delivers the excellent slow blues ‘Loving Memories‘. Elvin Bishop shines on this one, as do the backing singers with their call-and-response vocals. Another highlight is ‘Play the Honky Tonks‘, from the pen of R’n’B soul singer Marie Adams, with its great lyric “gonna play the high class joints, gonna play the low class joints, hey baby I’m even gonna play the honky tonks”.  Interestingly Morrison’s next contribution is more of a 60s doo-wop ‘Social Climbing Scene‘, while the title track takes its cue from an authentic early 1900s idiom “if you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you” (conman George C Parker tried this on people as a scam)

‘You’re the One‘, by the less well-known Don Robey (otherwise known as Deadric Malone), is another slow gospel blues, enhanced by Bishop again, before the album closes with two standard Chicago blues, Willie Dixon’s ‘I’m Ready’, before the final track, BB King’s loping ‘Rock Me Baby’, highlighting both the blues guitar skills of Buddy Guy and Morrison’s interpretative innovations.

There are no frills to this album’s arrangements, aside from Morrison’s occasional vocal stylings, it has reverence for the blues in spades, there is good pacing and variety throughout and overall is a fine exploration of his musical roots. And shows that Morrison is not ready to slow down just yet.