I must admit to having complete ignorance of the music of Mickey Newbury until I purchased the year end music mags and saw his name on their reissue of the year lists with Mojo putting his American Trilogy box set at the top of their list and Uncut putting it second on theirs. The box set contains his three late 60' and early 70's albums plus the by now obligatory album of demos and outtakes - what box set these days would be complete without them !!
Newbury was better known as a songwriter than as a singer, despite releasing over 25 albums, but his soft, beautiful tenor voice rarely reached the charts. His songs have been covered by hundreds of artists with over 1,000 covers documented. Even today, he remains a songwriter's songwriter, lionized by a new generation of musicians including Will Oldham and Nick Cave and it's not hard to hear why with definite hints of Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman and Tom Waits in his songwriting.
Well worth dropping a few hints to your nearest and dearest as a last minute Chrimbo gift....
Mickey Newbury - San Francisco Mabel Joy
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