Editing Van Morrison (section)

===Genre===
The music of Van Morrison has encompassed many genres since his early days as a [[blues]] and [[rhythm and blues|R&B]] singer in Belfast. Over the years he has recorded songs from a varying list of genres drawn from many influences and interests. As well as blues and R&B, his compositions and [[cover versions|covers]] have moved between pop music, [[jazz]], rock, [[folk music|folk]], [[country music|country]], [[gospel music|gospel]], [[folk music of Ireland|Irish folk]] and [[Irish traditional music|traditional]], [[big band]], [[skiffle]], [[rock and roll]], [[New-age music|new age]], classical and sometimes [[spoken word]] ("[[Coney Island (Van Morrison song)|Coney Island]]") and [[instrumental]]s.<ref name="HintonPage15">Hinton (1997), page 15.</ref> Morrison defines himself as a soul singer.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mvremix.com/rock_blogs/2009/01/08/van-morrisons-astral-weeks-live-at-the-hollywood-bowl-chronicles-the-first-ever-live-performance-of-legendary-soul-singers-revered-1968-album/|website=Mvremix.com|date=8 January 2009|title=Van Morrison's "Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl"|access-date=29 May 2009}}</ref>

Morrison's music has been described by music journalist [[Alan Light]] as "Celtic soul",<ref name="Astral Weeks, Light" /> or what biographer Brian Hinton referred to as a new alchemy called "Caledonian soul."<ref name="HintonPage13" /> Another biographer, [[Ritchie Yorke]] quoted Morrison as believing that he has "the spirit of Caledonia in his soul and his music reflects it."<ref name="Yorke Page159">Yorke (1975), page 159.</ref> According to Yorke, Morrison claimed to have discovered "a certain quality of soul" when he first visited Scotland (his Belfast ancestors were of [[Ulster Scots people|Ulster Scots]] descent) and Morrison has said he believes there is some connection between soul music and Caledonia. Yorke said Morrison "discovered several years after he first began composing music that some of his songs lent themselves to a unique major modal scale (without sevenths) which of course is the same scale as that used by [[bagpipes|bagpipe]] players and old Irish and Scottish folk music."<ref name="Yorke Page159" />