Having his own label allowed Van to put out albums even faster than before, and one release was deemed important enough to make it to streaming services as well as CD and LP. Live At Orangefield (subtitled “Be Just And Fear Not” on the spine) documents a concert he gave in 2014 at the school that graduated him 55 years earlier. Clearly he was feeling nostalgic, with several songs explicitly referencing his youth—or at least life pre-fame—and not once complaining about show business. A brief performance of the “Celtic Excavation” theme leads into a very gentle “Into The Mystic” before he kicks up the tempo for “Cleaning Windows”, which ends with an extended riff on “Be-Bop-A-Lula”. The smooth jazz combo is particularly effective on “Moondance”—and Van takes an alto sax solo—but we’re on the fence about the rearrangement of “Got To Go Back”. There are several deep cuts from all the decades, and he sings the little-known preamble to “That’s Life”, the set’s only cover save the occasional tags at the ends of songs, like how “Real Real Gone” turns into “You Send Me”. The credits don’t state which of the backing vocalists takes a verse on “Rough God Goes Riding” and “Sometimes We Cry”, but she’s a good match for him. He moves to piano for “Northern Muse”, and his “poetry corner” crack doesn’t dilute the wonder of “On Hyndford Street” at all over seven minutes, until the MC calls out his name. But “Ballerina” is nice, especially when he cracks up in the middle—maybe because curfew meant the show could not go on?—and the MC yells his name again. “In The Garden” has a little more oomph, though it fades at the end, most likely to fit on a single CD. It’s a nice album, if not exactly transcendent, but not the only archival release he had in the pipeline.
Van Morrison Live At Orangefield (2024)—3