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MP3 Live: Van Morrison plays secret show
In support of his new countrified album, Pay the Devil, Irish legend sneaks into San Francisco Bay Area for show at tiny ranch house restaurant.
MARIN COUNTY, California--How does an international musical icon elude major media to sneak in a pre-tour afternoon concert?
Despite an on-air radio announcement and a post on an Irish fan Web site, only a lucky few were tipped off well in advance to Irish legend Van Morrison's supersecret concert 35 miles north of San Francisco last week.
That didn't stop last-minute Craigslist posts by people offering double the face value of the sold-out show, the first of a seven-show tour to promote Morrison's new countrified album, Pay the Devil. Morrison need not fret, though, as even the White House cannot sustain total secrecy.
Rancho Nicasio
To kick off the tour with his full band in tow, Morrison picked Rancho Nicasio, a roadhouse restaurant 30 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge in the sleepy town of Nicasio. He also chose 4 p.m. as the start time so that his band and crew, most of them just arriving from England and Ireland, could better adjust to the time difference and recover from jet lag.
The town's population of less than 600 swelled by about 50 percent by late afternoon, and signs announced that the venue--the only restaurant in town--would be closed until 6 p.m. Cars overflowed the parking lot and lined the two-lane road in and out of the small town center, and an orderly swarm of venue regulars gathered near the front door. Promotional posters for Pay the Devil were tacked to the wooden outdoor walls.
A checkpoint at the door kept non-ticket-holders outside, but there was nothing to prevent the unprivileged from loitering on the long covered porch that runs down to the general store. Inside, roughly 200 attendees were directed to numbered seats and tables, where they were soon treated to an intimate and perhaps once-in-a-lifetime performance.
Despite word-of-mouth mutterings about the main attraction's unpredictable performing demeanor, Morrison strode onstage at exactly 4 p.m., already blowing an alto saxophone looped around the neck of his dark suit.
The crowd immediately hushed at the melodic introduction to "Did Ye Get Healed?" His 10-piece backing band kicked in at his hand signal, and the appreciative audience took it all in, applauding enthusiastically when Morrison led the horn section--initially with alto sax and then with vocals--into the opening tune's trademark call-and-response section.
Wasting no time with between-song banter, the man sometimes called the Belfast Cowboy then drove his band into the title track from his 2005 release, Magic Time. A few more Van Morrison gems were unearthed, including the 1985 nugget "Tore Down a la Rimbaud," before the band got down to the business of promoting the new album.
The disc, smartly marketed to pair the official release date with the band’s performance in Memphis, showcases Van Morrison's take on country-and-western standards. It also includes a few tunes penned by the bandleader himself, such as "Playhouse," which the band showcased during its second foray into country-and-western territory.
When the musical genres switched, the onstage personnel followed suit. For the new material, Morrison's horn section was replaced with a fiddler, pedal steel, and acoustic guitarists, and the Crawford Bell Singers (who provided background vocals on Pay the Devil).
And what a picture-perfect venue in which to debut the country-and-western songs.
Some of the dark wood walls were adorned with worn saddles, wagon-wheel chandeliers hung from exposed beams, and a stuffed moose head stared sidelong at the band from above the red-brick-mantled fireplace. Morrison's plaintive and pleading inflections were dead-on for delivery of the new disc, especially for his rendition of the classic "There Stands the Glass," at the end of which the singer playfully stuttered the final phrase as if he'd been taking shots instead of performing for the past hour.
One reason Morrison almost always includes San Francisco on his tours of this country is that his daughter, Shana Morrison, lives in the area. She has been performing around the region for the past decade, including regular appearances at Rancho Nicasio. Van invited Shana onstage and introduced her to the audience as some fans were already shouting her name. Father and daughter then performed a duet "More and More," from the new release, which provided nine of the 22 songs played during the 90-minute performance.
The seasoned musician knows how to highlight his new recordings, and he is also tuned in to what else his audience is hoping to hear. "Moondance," complete with simulated stars twinkling behind the stage, delighted the crowd around the halfway point, and the band took the opportunity to stretch out, passing solos all the way around the crowded stage.
"Brown Eyed Girl" inspired some dancing near the end of the show, and three tunes later, Van Morrison ended with "Help Me," a blues standard cowritten by Willie Dixon and Sonny Boy Williamson.
"You got to help me, I can't do it all by myself," Van Morrison sang to a completely rapt small audience, and the words rang especially true. Somehow this unscheduled and hush-hush show was successfully staged without it turning into a media circus. The singer thanked his band, the venue, and the audience before stepping offstage to a lengthy standing ovation.
Not long afterward, the tour vehicles were packed and rolling back toward Highway 101. From there it would be southbound to San Francisco, where the following night Van Morrison's official 2006 US tour would kick off.
But before that, a few fortunate fans will always remember there was Rancho Nicasio, a break in the winter rain, and the devil to pay.
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