Somebody Tried to Sell Me a Bridge is the 48th studio album by Northern Irish musician Van Morrison. It was released on 23 January 2026 through Orangefield Records. Produced by Morrison, the album consists primarily of blues and contains both covers and original material. The record also features multiple guests including Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal and Buddy Guy.

Reception

Somebody Tried to Sell Me a Bridge was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, this release received an average score of 69, based on 5 reviews.

Americana UK rated the album 7/10, praising its pacing, variety, and musicianship. Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times lamented that the overall tempo "hardly changes", but called the musicianship "first-rate".

Track listing

Personnel Credits adapted from Tidal.

Van Morrison – vocals, production (all tracks); saxophone (tracks 1, 2, 14, 15), harmonica (3, 4, 11, 19), guitar (8, 13, 15), arrangement (8), acoustic guitar (16) Jim Stern – engineering Ben McAuley – engineering (1–17, 19, 20), tambourine (18) Jimmy Mahoney – engineering assistance Tony Cousins – mastering David Hayes – bass guitar Anthony Paule – guitars John Allair – Hammond organ (1–6, 8, 10, 13, 16–20), piano (7, 9, 12–15, 17, 18), vocals (15) Bobby Ruggiero – percussion (1, 3, 6–18), drums (2) Mitch Woods – piano (1–6, 8, 10, 11, 14, 19, 20) Larry Vann – drums (1, 3–18) Jolene O'Hara – background vocals (1, 3, 9, 11, 13, 14) Dana Masters – background vocals (1, 3) Larry Batiste – background vocals (4–6, 13, 14, 16–18) Nona Brown – background vocals (4–6, 13, 14, 16–18) Elvin Bishop – guitar (4, 6, 12–14, 18) Omega Rae Brooks – vocals (4, 6, 16–18) Taj Mahal – harmonica (7–10), vocals (7, 8, 10), banjo (10) Crawford Bell – background vocals (9, 11) Buddy Guy – guitar, vocals (19, 20) Tom Hambridge – drums (19, 20)

Charts + Chart performance for Somebody Tried to Sell Me a Bridge Chart (2026) Peakposition UK Albums Sales (OCC) 19

References