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Van Morrison & Linda Gail Lewis
You Win Again
Despite the criticism of some relatively fluff discs thru recent years, you could never accuse Morrison of resting on his laurels. He may drag out the Celtic yarns once too often, travel a little mileage on the r'n'b road, and load up his albums with tired alumni, but "predictable" is a term that only applies to the revered stature of his legendary. This disc drops out of nowhere, perhaps. Bolstered by last year's skiffle reunion with Lonnie Donegan, Morrrison unearths (literally) the twangy, backwoods charm of Linda Gail Lewis for a rollickin' session of bluesy, countryish duets. For both singers, the material sounds like karaoke night at the Dew Drop Inn, having the time of their lives covering well-worn chestnuts like Hank Williams' "Jambalaya" and Bo Diddley's "Cadillac." A bit out of character, Morrison sounds giddy in the presentation, ripping into his side of Otis Blackwell's domestic quarrel, "Let's Talk About Us," as if he'd been caught stealing the rent money for a night out at the Tanga. Considering her recording hiatus (a lone set in '96, and then sometime the '70s before that), Lewis is nearly perfect. Given the strained nature of her voice (an unmistakable, piercing alto that you can almost visualize), her hillbillish yawl and deliberately-flattened harmonies don't so much compliment Morrison's voice in their pairing, as they vie for their own independence. That this Celtic blowhard and homespun honey chew up John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillen" as if it were written specifically for them says a lot about this album: carefree, sounding more energetic than either have sounded over the years. –peter moore (Exile/Virgin Records America)
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