You Win Again

by

Van Morrison and Linda Gail Lewis

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Van Morrison delivers a beautiful set of traditional C&W, blues and rockabilly with Jerry Lee Lewis' younger sister, Linda Gail Lewis. These are songs that Van grew up listening to from his father's record collection. Songs are written by his idols, including Hank Williams, John Lee Hooker and other musicians and songwriters from his childhood. The only Van Morrison original is No Way Pedro, a really fun track that sounds like a slice of rockabilly from the 50s.

Linda Gail Lewis has a great voice and blends in with Van almost perfectly. She also play a mean killer boogie woogie piano and is quite talented in her piano solos.

I would recommend this disc for anybody who is a fan of 50s or 60s rockabilly, C&W or blues.

When I first saw this cd I was shocked. I had totally forgotten about Linda Gail Lewis. I saw her open for Jerry Lee in 1970 in Lubbock, Texas. In those days anyone who opened for the "killer" was in for a tough evening. Since that night, I had not heard or seen anything about her until this disc. This could have been a great cd if they could have kept the tone of the first five cuts throughout the recording. "Let's Talk About Us" is an old B side of a Jerry Lee recording made in the late 50"s at Sun Records. Van and Linda Gail capture the spontaneity and grit of the great old rockabilly sound. The same goes for "You Win Again." Linda Gails' pumping piano(a la Jerry Lee) keeps these cuts rockin. "Jambalaya, Crazy Arms, and Old Black Joe" continue in the same vein. After that, the album starts to flounder with lackluster songs except for John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen" and Van's "No Way Pedro." The reason I love Van Morrison so much is that he continues to take chances and never loses his artistic integrity--the public be damned. On this cd he sounds like he is having an absolute blast and could care less about what the audience thinks! With more country and rockabilly songs on this set he could have been close to making a great record. While this is not one of Van"s best, it certainly beats the heck out of the majority of swill that is being released these days.