Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Mickey Newbury "American Trilogy"


(Drag City) Who knew Mickey Newbury could sing as good as he could write? I guess anyone who bought his LPs in the early 70s knew, but did anyone buy his LPs? Well, maybe he was not as good a singer as a writer, but he was pretty damn good, his melodramatic readings of his own words more than compensating for any vocal limitations. Funny thing here, Otis Blackwell and everyone always said Elvis just copied demos verbatim, but for the title track here Elvis actually had to tone down the drama of Newbury's version. This is a sampler from a four disc set releasing all his records and a bunch of extra rarities/demos etc, which may be for diehards only, but this taste really did make me want to hear the album tracks. What would Newbury filler sound like? All I have to say is, the Newer the bury the sweeter the juice!
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownApril 19, 2011 at 12:27 PM

    Not quite all his records. Check out mickeynewbury.com

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  2. The LonerMay 7, 2011 at 1:18 AM

    Vocal limitations? But I think we agree that his voice was suberb. Also check out his records from the 90's and 00's where his soulfull voice might have changed. But A Long Road Home, Winter Winds and Lulled by the Moonlight are all dear favourites of mine. Not to forget In a New Age/It Might as Well be the Moon (1988/1999) with "definitive" versions of some Newbury-classics.

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