Van Morrison continues to surprise with Somebody Tried to Sell Me a Bridge, his 48th studio album in his 59th year of recording. This time out, he managed to make a late-career, guest-heavy album of mostly covers that’s not only vibrant, it sounds like a Van Morrison album. 

Returning to the blues that informed early works like 1967’s Blowin’ Your Mind!, Morrison raids the songbooks of John Lee Hooker (“Deep Blue Sea”), Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry (“Can’t Help Myself”), Lead Belly (“On a Monday”), B.B. King (“Rock Me Baby”) and others and transfers them to the Van Morrison catalog. 

These are large-band arrangements with various keys, rhythm section, a chorus of male and female backgrounds and Morrison’s sax, harmonica and acoustic and electric guitars, bolstered by Elvin Bishop’s guitar, Taj Mahal’s vocals, harp and banjo and Buddy Guy’s guitar and vocals. The 20 tracks were either laid down live or deliberately made to sound that way as the majority do not fade and Morrison frequently calls for extra refrains while shouting out his guests, who appear on a combined 12 tracks. 

Scattered among these 20th-century songs and throwback arrangements are four modern Morrison originals that settle in as contemporaries to their vinyl-mates. The title track is the most notable – it swings like a kid on monkey bars and shows Morrison remains his cantankerous self at 80. 

“Devil to pay/either way/I may be a lot of things but/stupid I’m not,” Morrison and his singers declare as electric guitar slashes through and acoustic piano dances atop the arrangement. 

Most amazingly, this Bridge is not too long despite running 80 minutes and focusing on a single genre. But then, Morrison has been nothing if not full of surprises across his long, varied and nearly always high-quality career.