The Alternate Root - Discover Roots & Americana Music
  • Home
  • Music
    • Top Ten
    • Top 100 Albums 2020
    • It's All Music Radio
    • Touring In Place
    • All Reviews/Archives
    • On The Radar
  • Videos
    • Latest Videos
  • The Crate
    • 10 Reasons >
      • Ten Reasons We Love Dr John
    • Record Collection
  • Seen & Heard
    • Advertise With Us
    • Removal of Content
  • About
  • Contact

reviews

gretchen peters songs of mickey newbury

5/21/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​Gretchen Peters (from the album The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury available from Scarlett Letter Records)
Making the most of the music of Mickey Newbury, Gretchen Peters reminds of the songwriter’s worth as she shines a light on Mickey’s words and music by emotionally reimagining his songs. For her recent release, The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury, Gretchen Peters becomes the understanding narrator, gazing down from a window to tell the tale of “St. Cecilia” and sharing the story of a lovelorn farmboy in “San Francisco Mabel Joy”. She becomes the child speaking of an unknown father in “The Sailor” and the left-at-home lover pining in “Why You Been Gone So Long”. Thanking the influence that Mickey Newbury has had on her own songwriting, Gretchen Peters finds a way to say thank you with Mickey’s own words, ‘you never knew how right you were the night you write that song’. The cut holding the line became the title for The Night You Wrote That Song, Gretchen fulfilling a longtime promise to herself with the recording, recalling in a Billboard magazine interview that ‘I had had the idea of recording an album of Mickey Newbury’s songs for the past 10 or 15 years, but it was always one of those ideas I put on the shelf because I was busy writing and making records of my own songs. About three years ago my husband and co-producer Barry Walsh and I decided to explore the idea of recording a few songs, as a sort of trial run, at Cinderella Studio, where Mickey recorded his great trio of albums in the late 60s/early 70s. I think we were hoping some of the magic would rub off. It turned out to be the best idea we could have had’.
On his own recording output, Mickey Newbury backed his words with an ever-changing musical backdrop, sidestepping a style brand to allow the songs their own unique sonic life. As a songwriter, Mickey Newbury scored major hits, The Night You Wrote That Song including his tune recorded by The First Edition with “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)”. The cut was a chart topper in 1968, a year that saw songs written by Mickey Newbury go Top five in four different charts: Pop/Rock with Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, Country with Eddy Arnold (“Here Comes the Rain, Baby”), R&B for Solomon Burke (“Time is a Thief”), and an Easy Listening hit with Andy Williams (“Sweet Memories”). A piano keeps rhythm as Gretchen Peters tosses hopes in the air with “Wish I Was” while guitar notes flicker like fading starlight in the sad dawn over “She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye”. The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury is a tender trap, Gretchen Peters honing the hooks of a first rate songwriter, warming the poor soul in “Frisco Depot” with the comfort of a song, the dancehall huckster selling memories in “Three Bells for Stephen”, and the wanderer following the clarion call of a scratchy fiddle in “Leavin’ Kentucky”.
Listen and buy the music of Gretchen Peter from AMAZON
For more information, please visit the Gretchen Peters website
 
 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017

Picture

    subscribe to our newsletter

Submit

To submit music, please mail a copy of your CD to the following address:
Danny McCloskey
The Alternate Root
1717 East Vista Chino
Ste A7 PMB 302
Palm Springs, CA 92262

Contact Us

    we do not share email addresses

Submit

©2021 The Alternate Root All Rights Reserved
website by Jim Cortez jctez12@gmail.com
  • Home
  • Music
    • Top Ten
    • Top 100 Albums 2020
    • It's All Music Radio
    • Touring In Place
    • All Reviews/Archives
    • On The Radar
  • Videos
    • Latest Videos
  • The Crate
    • 10 Reasons >
      • Ten Reasons We Love Dr John
    • Record Collection
  • Seen & Heard
    • Advertise With Us
    • Removal of Content
  • About
  • Contact