An Excellent Album

It's nine years old, but I just got around to hearing it.

Van Morrison's album The Skiffle Sessions. If you don't know about skiffle, it was a popular British music style in the 50s that was highly influential in the rock music that came. It was based on American "roots" music like rockabilly, country, and blues. Lonnie Donegan was THE British skiffle star.

In 1998 Van Morrison, one of the truly classic, great musicians of the past 40 years go together with Donegan and others for a 1998 live concert in Belfast. The result is an infectious album that could even have been an inspiration for Springsteen's Seeger Sessions of a few years ago. I remember when the album came out and it got decent reviews. I finally got around to it yesterday.

I missed out on nine years of fun.

Skiffle was never GREAT music. But it made for great times and music. (My foot won't sit still when I'm listening.) Morrison et. al. do skiffle its due and then some with songs ranging from Alabamy Bound to Frankie and Johnny and the Midnight Special. It's the kind of concert that turns into a party. I'm sure it was hard to sit still. It is just good fun and fun music.