Morrison’s early music influences included the jazz and blues tunes he heard in the collection of his father’s records. Those music genres are a wealth of platforms for unique storytelling. Morrison’s Irish culture is steeped in storytelling with a host of famous writers, poets and tale spinners. His artistry is the way he engages with his audience. It seems like fun but the listener knows they need to be on point when brought to attention; they are always made to feel they are the one who is being told the story directly even though outwardly there is a strong directness gruffness and almost finger wagging presentation as if to say you’d better take this with a chaser. It is very much a grown-up version of sitting around the teacher while they read a storybook and hold up the pictures at a storytime, one page after another where the teacher’s voice is determined to make the story land deep and with purpose.
Morrison’s artistic share is energized, layered, and can be very raw. His voice is a no messing-around, truth-telling, vessel. He is often described as being enigmatic but that is too easy a throwaway description of an artist who is as engaged with what he writes and then performs as he is with how he performs what he writes.