Van Morrison
Choppin’ Wood
(Unreleased Album)

Download FLAC: Google Drive

In 2000, Morrison released a collaboration with Linda Gail Lewis (Jerry Lee Lewis’s sister), You Win Again. Another side project, this time focusing on R&B and country-and-western standards, Lewis proved to be an excellent duet partner, and the project set the stage for Morrison’s next album, Choppin’ Wood. Clinton Heylin’s book, Can You Feel the Silence?, discusses this period in great detail, but due to legal issues surrounding the matter, not everything could be divulged. By the end of 2000, the album was essentially finished when Lewis and Morrison had a falling out.

As a result, Morrison went back and re-recorded and/or remixed most of the tracks, removing Lewis’s contributions in the process. A few songs were removed from the final running order and more new ones were added in. The result was released in 2002 as Down the Road. Arguably Morrison’s strongest release since Avalon Sunset, Heylin contends that the original version, Choppin’ Wood, would have been a true return to form. It is doubtful if that notion will ever be put to the test because the original recordings have yet to circulate, privately or publicly.– From WIkipedia

Um, you can put it to the test now:

1. Choppin’ Wood
2. Hey Mr. DJ
3. The Beauty Of The Days Gone By
4. Down The Road
5. Princess Of Darkness
6. Just Like Greta
7. For A While
8. Mama Don’t Allow
9. Meet Me In The Indian Summer
10. All Work And No Play