Details
Track Listing
1. Wild Night
2. Like a Cannonball, (Straight to Your Heart)
3. Old Old Woodstock
4. Starting a New Life
5. You're My Woman
6. Tupelo Honey
7. I Wanna Roo You (Scottish Derivative)
8. When That Evening Sun Goes Down
9. Moonshine Whiskey
Album Notes
Personnel: Van Morrison (vocals, guitar, harmonica); Ronnie Montrose (guitar, mandolin); John McFee (steel guitar); Stuart Houston, Bruce Royston (flute); Jack Schroer (saxophone); Luis Gasca (trumpet); Mark Jordan (piano, electric piano); Ted Templeman (organ); Gary Mallaber (vibraphone, percussion); Bill Church (bass instrument); Connie Kay, Rick Schlosser (drums); Janet Planet, Ellen Schroer (background vocals).
Recording information: Columbia Studios, San Francisco, California; Wally Heider Studio, San Francisco, California.
Part of Van Morrison's living-in-the-country-and-taking-life-easy series of early-1970s albums, TUPELO HONEY is full of the organic mix of soul, folk, blues, and rock that was his signature sound at the time. The freewheeling "Wild Night" bursts at the seams with the pure joy of living, carried along by R&B horns and Morrison's own soulful invocations. "Old Old Woodstock" and the title track are songs of devotion to home and hearth, indicative of the mood prevailing at the time, as the acid-rock excesses of the '60s gave way to a more down-home sound à la the Band, CSNY, et al. Nevertheless, even though he spent some time with his feet up in front of the fireplace, Morrison was always too much of a soul man at heart to remain low-key for long, as evidenced by the up-tempo closing tune, "Moonshine Whiskey."
Industry Reviews
...Musically, the album functions at several different levels. Van turns in a truly virtuoso vocal performance and there are several moments on the record of obvious and planned vocal greatness...
Rolling Stone (11/25/1971)
4 Stars (out of 5) - ...one of the last, sweetest expressions of what we think of as the Sixties...evokes images of Old, Old Woodstock and articulates a shimmering vison of peaceful, back-to-the-land domesticity...
Rolling Stone (03/04/1999)
...Musically, the album functions at several different levels. Van turns in a truly virtuoso vocal performance and there are several moments on the record of obvious and planned vocal greatness...
Rolling Stone (11/25/1971)
4 stars out of 5 -- [S]ome of the warmest, most intimate love songs of Morrison's lengthy career....'Wild Night' comes as close to defining white soul music as anyone has ever got.
4 stars out of 5 -- It was war, open-hearted, perfectly relaxed....'Tupelo Honey' is sung by a man who has grabbed us by the lapels and won't let go until we understand precisely what he's experiencing...
3 stars out of 5 -- [A] fine blend of R&B Americana and homegrown Celtic musings...
[H]is warmest recording, TUPELO HONEY is Morrison at his most contented and unguarded.
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