Photo by Bradley Quinn

Van Morrison
Ruth Eckerd Hall
Clearwater, Fla.
January 18

On the second of three sold-out nights at Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall on Wednesday, things were moving along similarly to the previous evening when Van Morrison and his band jumped into “The New Symphony Sid” and everything changed. Morrison suddenly shifted away from the setlist and style he had employed the night before and managed to turn in a show that bested the prior magnificent performance. Down-and-dirty blues and big-band jazz – absent on Tuesday – were present and accounted for (along with bebop, rock and rhythm-and-blues music) on Wednesday.

On “Sid,” a choice Lester Young cover, Morrison began scat singing and interacting more with his band than he had the previous evening. A few songs later, Morrison, who had been sticking to sax and harp, picked up an electric guitar and, with the help of his versatile quintet – who played trumpet, organ, synth, piano, percussion, drums, upright and electric bass and electric, acoustic and steel guitar between them – peeled off a version of “Cherry Red” so searing, even Big Joe Turner would have blushed.

Having already proved his mettle as an innovative sax man and harpist, Morrison showed off his lead- and rhythm-guitar chops for anyone who may have been unaware of the multi-talented multi-instrumentalist’s skill set.

But Morrison’s 71-year-old voice is his most important and effective instrument and the decades have treated it well. While a teeny percentage of its highest registers have eroded over his 36-album career, the voice remains supple and the singer uses it in such a way as to cause jaws to drop and ears to widen. When he duetted with his outstanding female vocal foil – which he did early and often – the results were spine-tingling.

With the musicians donning all black and Morrison sporting a hat and dark shades, the band played to a raucous and appreciative crowd whose energy seemed to rub off on the band.

The infamously reticent Morrison uncharacteristically engaged in some between-song banter that was purposefully garbled. I knows this to be the case because Eckerd has flawless acoustics so pristine that tambourine and shakers function as essential instruments in its environs and Morrison could have been understood if he’d wanted to be.

As he had the night before, Morrison bracketed his show with his latest (“Too Late”) and earliest (“Gloria”) material, respectively.

Between the bookends, the wildly eclectic Irishman treated concertgoers to a staggering array of gems that includes his own “Precious Time,” “Raincheck,” “Days Like These” “The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword” and “Why Must I Always Explain?;” Muddy Waters’ “Baby Please Don’t Go;” Them’s “Don’t Start Crying Now;” and Turner’s “Flip Flop and Fly” among many others during a 100-minute set that spanned some 25 numbers, when you include the handful of medleys performed.

He even did “Playhouse,” with its “going down to Florida” refrain for the hometown crowd, such as it was. But, as we Ohioans learned in talking to fellow music lovers in attendance, there were a lot of out-of-towners at these concerts.

With an artist with a songbook the size of Morrison’s, there are necessarily going to be tracks you wanted to hear, but didn’t. He did, however, showcase some of his biggest hits in “Brown Eyed Girl,” “Moondance” and “Have I Told You Lately,” adroitly mixing them with deep cuts and rarities in a valiant effort to please hard-core and casual fans alike.

As with most things Morrison attempts, this was a resounding success.