By Dennis Atkins

In 1964, Belfast-born Van Morrison was a fresh-faced, ginger-headed Northern Irishman pursuing his dream of becoming a professional musician, fronting his band, Them. In his mind and his heart ran a quest for the sense and sensibility of the American blues from the Deep South.

Morrison’s ambitions found favour with the record label Decca, which had already signed a band with deep blues roots, the Rolling Stones. Whereas the Stones kicked off their career with a Chuck Berry song, Come On, Them’s first single, Baby Please Don’t Go, was written by the Mississippi Delta bluesman, Big Joe Williams.

What we can say now about what happened in 1964 is that it was the B-side of that first Them recording, Gloria – a song soon to be a signature tune for Morrison as well as a staple of big-name rock bands and singers, including The Doors, Patti Smith and Jimi Hendrix.

This history provides perspective on a new record from Morrison, Somebody Tried To Sell Me A Bridge, featuring 20 songs and running just the other side of 80 minutes.

The record is Morrison’s 48th release, and it draws a direct line back to that Decca recording session in London 61 years ago. Of the 20 tunes on the disc, just four are written by Morrison, while the rest are the real deal, genuine blues classics, standards and gems.

While Morrison has issued albums which celebrate and map particular musical genres – the best known is the Pay The Devil disc, which included the George Jones tune Things Have Gone To Pieces, Hank Williams’s Your Cheatin’ Heart and the Rodney Crowell woe-is-me confessional ‘Til I Gain Control Again.

It’s easy to pick the touchstones for Morrison – the first two songs are by Texan Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, a man with a reputation as a shouter who was renowned for playing the alto sax. Morrison plays the songs, Kidney Stew Blues and King For A Day Blues, straight, paying homage to a particularly foot-tappin’, on-the-porch blues.

From there, the album delves into some better-known tunes, the snappy Buddy Guy and Junior Wells song Snatch It Back And Hold It, John Lee Hooker’s Deep Blue Sea, and the Fats Domino standard Ain’t That A Shame (written with Dave Bartholomew).

With the Fats tune, Morrison gives the song his own recognisable treatment, slowing it down to slide across the dance floor rather than a mid-tempo bluesy bump.

Other big names are scattered through the credits: B.B. King co-wrote Rock Me, Baby with Joe Bihari; I’m Ready is one of Willie Dixon’s better-known songs; and When It’s Love Time is an instantly familiar Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee tune.

Blind Blake, a ragtime performer from the early 1900s, is famous for his distinctive vocal style and lightning-fast guitar fingerpicking and

Morrison includes one of his emotionally charged soul songs, Delia’s Gone.

Elsewhere, Morrison picks up the chugging, goin’-to-jail tune On A Monday by Lead Belly (featuring John Allair’s divine Hammond B3) and Chuck Willis’s Betty And Dupree (complete with Taj Mahal’s dance-inducing harmonica) and a couple of other more obscure songs. Standouts in these parts are Marie Adams’s Play The Honky Tonks and Deadric Malone’s You’re The One.

Close your eyes and lose yourself in the swinging guitar blues of Don Robey (Deadric Malone’s real name). You’re the One, slipping into the swirling mix of Bishop’s finger work and Allair’s skipping along the Hammond keys.

One thing’s for sure, that little number will juice you up for Buddy Guy’s bluesman’s master class on Willie Dixon’s I’m Ready.

This joyful album is a superb romp through blues history, brought into the open with Morrison’s love of the genre and a collection of San Francisco Bay Area musicians – session performers he’s worked with for many years and on many records (some dating back to the early 1970s). This bedrock is augmented by an A-list of guest players: Buddy Guy and Elvin Bishop on guitars, Taj Mahal on harmonica and banjo, and sharing vocals.

Morrison shows he’s lost none of his keen touch when it comes to picking up great blues music, giving it heart and soul, honouring its past and freshening it when it feels right.

This collection of blues songs is as cool as you’ll find anywhere this year. Van is still the Man.