A bit more to clean up from late 2016: Sting and Van Morrison delivering new music and sounding as good as ever.

Sting released his 12th solo album “57th and 9th” in early November, and it features more rock and roll than we’ve heard from the legend in a long time.  The album title reportedly refers to an intersection he crossed daily on the way to the recording studio.  The first track released from the album was “I Can’t Stop Thinking About You”.    To recall his early rocking, listen to the first track from the first Police album.

Van Morrison released “Keep Me Singing” in September, 50 years after the release of his first album “Blowin’ Your Mind”.  That blows my mind.  Sir George Ivan Morrison has released a total of 36 studio albums in that span. That also blows my mind.  The first track released from the new album is “Every Time I See A River”.

And here is fun extra. Before going solo Van Morrison fronted the band Them. Perhaps their most memorable song was Van’s composition “Gloria”. Check out their live performance of that song, and then Patti Smith’s cover which was the first track on her first album.  The poetic lead in was Smith’s poem “Oath” and the lyrics owe a lot to the earlier cover by the Doors.