Saint Cecilia Knows / Mountain Retreat
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Blue To This Day was the final Mickey Newbury recorded prior to his death in 2002 and was released posthumously on Mountain Retreat the following year.
The album is a moving testament to the unique talent of one of America's greatest singers and most gifted songwriters and was a remarkable achievement given the state of his health when it was recorded. Newbury often had an oxygen tanks on hand during the sessions but his voice was as uplifting as ever.
Notable accompaniment came once again from some of the best Nashville session players including Mac Gayden and Kenny Malone who played on the series of albums recorded at Wayne Moss' Cinderella Sound studios that commenced with Looks Like Rain. Among the highlights of Blue To this Day is a staggering re-interpretation of Leadbelly's Bring Me A Little Water, Sylvie and a new version of Remember the Good from Newbury's 1971 debut album for Elektra, Frisco Mabel Joy.
1. Some Dreams Never Die
2. The Two Step Goes On
3. Song Of Sorrow
4. Father's Amen-Interlude
5. Brother Peter
6. Mississippi Moon
7. Help Me Son
8. House Of Blues
9. Little Blue Robin
10. Down And Dirty
11. Shuck And Jive
12. All The Neon Lights Are Blue
13. Tilde
14. Remember The Good
15. Goodnight -
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Lulled By The Moonlight - First released in 1996 as a limited edition CD and only available through Newbury's official website, Lulled by the Moonlight was Newbury's first album of new material since 1981's Mercury label release, After All These Years. Although he had distanced himself from the music industry, Newbury could still draw from the cream of Nashville session musicians every time he recorded.
The likes of Roger Hawkins, Gene Chrisman, guitarists Reggie Young, Mike Elliot and Jack Williams (who also played live with Newbury), all appear on Lulled by the Moonlight. Conceived as a tribute to Mickey Newbury's songwriting hero, Stephen Foster, the title is taken from a line in Foster's Beautiful Dreamer and opens with Three Bells for Stephen, a tribute to him in song.
This serves as the springboard for a suite of songs dealing with memory, loss and mortality, given the added poignancy that Newbury had been diagnosed with chronic lung disease prior to making the record. Despite his illness, he continued to record and tour right up until his death in 2002.
The songs on the album are linked in Newbury's unique style by atmospheric interludes that hark back to the classic run of albums he recorded between 1969 and 1981.
Tracklisting:
1. Three Bells For Stephen
2. East Kentucky
3. Captured In Blue
4. Just Another Lovely Day
5. Blue Sky Shining/Down The Tracks (Interlude)
6. Freight Train Howlin'/Into The Sky (Interlude)
7. Shades Of '63
8. Amen For Old Friends
9. Genevieve
10. Sailor Sailor
11. What Will I Do (In The Dead Of The Night)/Black Butte Thunderstorm (Interlude)
12. Ramblin' Blues
13. Workin' Man
14. The Future Is Not What It Used To Be/B. B.'s Madison, TN New Orleans Jazz Ensemble (Interlude)
15. Time Was
16. Silver Moon
17. Safe Harbour -
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Stories from the Silver Moon Café, originally released in 2000, was the second album of original songs issued by Mountain Retreat. Also very much in Newbury's in characteristic, understated, sensitive style and recorded with the same Nashville players, alongside twelve previously-unreleased Newbury originals, the album features a new recording of Newbury's classic Why You Been Gone So Long.
The song originally appeared on 1973's Heaven Help The Child and has been covered by Jerry Lee Lewis, Jessi Colter and David Allan Coe, among others. Of the new songs, Susan Newbury, Mickey's wife for over forty years, considers A Storm Is Comin' to be one of his finest: the song he wrote when he realised he was dying."
1. The Silver Moon Cafe
2. Lie To Me Darlin'
3. It Makes Me So Sad
4. Some Memories Are Better Left Alone
5. Down N' Dirty
6. Why You Been Gone So Long
7. Ain't No Blues Today
8. Ain't No Sunshine
9. Oh Mama
10. Dancing Shadows
11. Twenty Years And Sweet Dreams Ago
12. A Storm Is Comin'
13. A Father's Prayer