I am a long time listener of Van Morrison, also known to many of his fans as "Van the Man."  I was never a huge fan, but always enjoyed listening to him, since my indoctrination into classic rock & R&B musicians during the early 80s, when I was trying to find an alternative to the repetitious beat of the new wave and pop invasion.  While listening to the local classic rock station I first heard a glimpse of Morrison, probably the first taste of his music was either "Moondance" or "Brown Eyed Girl." He always had that real gritty, voice accompanied by some nice music that let you get adrift in the melody.  Over the years, I became more acquainted with his music and added the Best Of (vol. 1) to my collection of cassette tape along with the album Moondance. Interestingly enough, I had replaced the Moondance tape over the last decade with the CD, but never got around to going digital with the Best Of album.

When the opportunity to review the album came up, I jumped at the chance.  Because of time commitments, I leave the reviews to other people, but for Van Morrison, I'll take the time.  This is the third (obviously) greatest hits compilation to be released.  Although he has quite a large library of tracks to pick from, most are not well known and most of his major and minor hits were released on the first two compilations.  However, there is still a lot of great stuff out there and a great number of the hidden gems were placed on this new release, and also limits the range of music from those that were released between 1993 and 2005.

Morrison is known for his wide range of musical abilities performing a wide range of musical types.  He has been categorized as a "classic rock" artists by some, but he is also known for his playing of blues, jazz, folk, scat and even a bit of Irish music (he includes a track with the Chieftans on this album).  The diversity of his music is reflected in the varying tracks throughout this album.  In addition to the Chieftans, Morrison pairs up with a number of great jazz, R&B and other artists such as Tom Jones, John Lee Hooker, Junior Wells, Georgie Fame, Ray Charles, B.B. King and a host of other musical guests. But do not worry, there are still plenty of solo Van to listen to as well.  For those of you saying, well, I have most of his songs already, he includes a bunch of previously unreleased songs that are awesome.

The first and second track on an album, especially a two disc album must (1) be good and (2) be reflective of what the listener should expect from the album.  If the album starts out with two really bad songs with a lot of beat, poor vocals or musical accompaniment, I either stop listening or if I need to listen, I do so with dread.  If the first two songs are full of life, melody and energy, that is what I would expect of many of the following songs (unless the artist drained themselves on the first track and had nothing left).  This album starts out with the later, it was pure melodic ecstasy.  The music, the rhythm, the beat and the raw sound coming out of my speakers (I was in my car for the first listen through) was amazing.  I did not know what to expect since the first song, "Cry For Home" was previously unreleased and it featured Tom Jones (who I can take or leave depending on the song).  However, right out of the box, the song blew me away.  That was followed up with "Too Long In Exile" another powerful song.  It did not stop there, a cut of "Gloria" was next (he originally wrote it for Them back in the 60s, but was probably made more wide known in the Doors cover of the song).  The music did not stop, the next two tracks were electric and live featuring some old time musical greats such as John Lee Hooker ("Help Me") and Jimmy Witherspoon, Candy Dulfer and James Hunter ("Lonely Avenue"). I can go on and on about the music and musicians on this album, but I want you to go out there and get the album.  I have already listened to the album twice and it is already queued up for a third time, it is that good.  FYI, although I have not mentioned much about the second disk, it is just as good as the first with an sweet rendition of "Georgia On My Mind" and an unreleased version of "Tupelo Honey" with Bobby Bland that will have you say "wow" after listening to either song.  These are just two of many other great songs on the disk.

The cons - There really are not any, except that a box set with all three Best Of albums would be nice to have to get the full Van Morrison experience.  Also, I got the advance of the CD which came in a shoddy case without the front cover or liner notes -- I am one of those people that looks at who produced and played each instrument for each song, so this is my only downer for the album.