Few singers know as many paths to the heart as Van Morrison. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has spent most of the past five decades seeking and discovering new inroads to that spiritual core.

By the time he rose to the fore of Britain’s nascent blues-rock scene as leader of Them, Morrison had already pulled years in the trenches, singing skiffle, country and rhythm and blues tunes with some of Belfast’s cagiest combos. He’s journeyed far and wide since, but inevitably, the man Bob Geldof called “the one true genius in Irish music” has invariably come back to the philosophy summed up in the title of his new Lost Highway album -- Keep It Simple.

“It’s just a song about how everything’s gotten now so complex and how things have become so complicated and nothing’s easy to do anymore,” Morrison says of the title track, a statement of purpose that helps define the disc. “So the song’s a kind of prayer – or what have you – let’s hope we can get back to something simple, otherwise, we’re screwed.”

Keep It Simple is practically bursting with declarations that listeners don’t need to submit to that sort of treatment -- and, for those willing to delve beneath the surface, it’s also peppered with bits of counsel about breaking free from it. He serves notice of his intentions from the get-go, opening Keep It Simple with the low-slung, harmonica-laced “How Can a Poor Boy” -- on which Morrison preaches the blues to the great unwashed, fully aware that he’s taking on non-believers, but willing to believe that his message will hit home with at least a few of them. That attitude pervades Keep It Simple, a disc rife with eureka moments and instantly relatable emotion.

So, if you would like to win one of these new CDs, just answer this easy question:In what song from the album “Sense of Wonder” does Van Morrison use a name of God found in the Book of Daniel?!

Send us your answers and if you're correct you'll be in the running to win one of these wonderful new CDs! Just send us an e:mail here before May 15th with your answer and the subject title CONTEST: VAN MORRISON CDs to: exclusivemagazine@flash.net

CD Purchase Link

Audio Stream for “That’s Entertainment”

Lost Highway’s Van Morrison Artist Page