Van Morrison and Linda Gail Lewis - Choppin' Wood (2000)

In 2000 Van Morrison released 'You Win Again', an album of mostly covers recorded with Jerry Lee Lewis's sister Linda Gail Lewis, and foIlowing on from the success of that record they began work on a second collaboration in October of that year. The new album was provisionally entitled 'Choppin’ Wood', and this time contained more Morrison originals than previously, with Linda Gail Lewis’s vocals and piano parts overdubbed on all but one track. For reasons not fully known, the working relationship between the two suddenly soured during the tour in support of 'You Win Again', with Lewis making certain claims about Morrison, including harassment, none of which were ever proven one way or the other. Morrison completely stopped Lewis's involvement in the new project and refused to let her hear any of the new songs, and after she quit the tour the album was eventually discarded.  In 2002 Morrison released 'Down The Road', which contained some of the 'Choppin' Wood' songs, but with Lewis's contributions totally erased from all the tracks, and the general opinion from people who have heard 'Choppin' Wood' is that 'Down The Road' is a  poor substitute for what could have been a much superior album had it been released. Luckily, bootlegs of the original recordings have leaked out over the years, and so here is the original album as it would have sounded had the two musicians not fallen out, and so we can decide for ourselves which would have been the better release.  

Track listing

01 Choppin' Wood
02 Hey Mr. DJ
03 The Beauty Of The Days Gone By
04 Down The Road
05 Princess Of Darkness
06 Just Like Greta
07 For A While
08 Mama Don't Allow
09 Meet Me In The Indian Summer
10 All Work And No Play