In my cultural stumblings, I came across a later Van Morrison CD at our local library and liked it enough I wanted to listen to his music from the ground floor onward.

I was familiar with, Brown-Eyed Girl (who isn't?), so I skipped over that first album of his and went on to his second solo work, "Astral Weeks".

Astral Weeks absolutely was crammed full of 5-star reviews on i-Tunes and similar loud reviews on Amazon.com and other music websites I search for reviews when I get curious. I thought I couldn't go wrong by giving it a listen even though I was not familiar at all with Mr. Morrison's music beyond that one memorable, classic song.

What I ran into was an absolutely marvelous album that was nothing like expected, nothing I had ever heard before and a piece of work that has leapt into my all-time favorite/great albums.

The songs are all free-flowing and to me paint a picture of a moment that stretches out to last hours and even days.
....and you don't want the journey they take you on to end.

The album always makes me feel like I am on a long walk through a very green place near the rocky shores of a churning sea while the breeze blows around me and rustles the leaves in the trees.

It makes you feel alive without prodding you.
It reminds you that life can be this good and this simple.

There are no stand-out tracks, all of them could even be one single song.
All of the songs are wonderful.

Again, I have never heard anything like this and I can't tell you what to expect.
I didn't like it the first time I listened to it all the way through, but now it is always playing on my iPod (and is currently playing in my headphones right now).

I urge you to try it.
Then try it again and then again.
I will bet that it will eventually lead you on that journey, wherever it is you will end up.

Van Morrison homepage.