The trio performs After All These Years, A Celebration of the Music of Mickey Newbury.
I’ve spent more than 40 years having to explain my love of Mickey Newbury and his music to those who should know better. Even the most muso of musos often seem puzzled at the mention of his name. Here’s an artist who has had his songs recorded by Ray Charles, Elvis, Dolly, Jerry Lee, Roy Orbison, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, BB King… the list goes on and on and yet, those that know the original versions of the songs by Mickey Newbury also know that he is difficult to emulate or surpass.
And so it is a pleasant and unexpected surprise to find that The Betsey Trotwood on London’s Farringdon Road, on a Sunday afternoon, is host to a sold-out crowd, gathered to hear three singer-songwriters pay homage to the man and his music.
First up is Michael J Sheehy. Frontman for Miraculous Mule and United Sounds of Joy, he’s not an expected choice to play Newbury songs, and yet, the moment he opens with ‘I Don’t Think Much About Her No More (Poison Red Berries)’ from 1969’s “Looks Like Rain”, it’s evident he’s a fan. Mixed with songs of his own, Michael provides solid ground for the rest of the afternoon, providing insight and background into ‘An American Trilogy’ and, in his own words, “having the balls” to attempt the song in front of a Newbury fan base. Also in his set was a beautiful version of the lesser-known ‘Help Me Son’ from Newbury’s later works.
After a short break, Dan Raza opens with ‘East Kentucky’. Looking like a less weather-worn Townes Van Zandt, Dan has the pace and honesty in his voice to carry the weight of the songs. ‘Shades of ’63′, another unexpected choice from “Lulled By The Moonlight”, showcases the lyrical genius of Mickey in his later years. A masterclass in storytelling and told by Raza as well as any. He finished with an exquisite ‘After All These Years’, a song Mickey wrote for his wife Susan as a gift when he’d forgotten their wedding anniversary.
The most well-known of the three singers on show here is Michael Weston King (The Good Sons; My Darling Clementine), who mentions casually that he’d toured with Townes and Guy Clark (Clark got married to Susanna Talley in 1972 on Mickey’s boat on Old Hickory Lake, just outside of Nashville. Townes was best man). Weston King opens with Van Zandt’s ‘Rake’ and follows with Newbury’s ‘She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye’, sung, as Weston King admits, in a mix of Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey’s versions. Lewis was one of the first big artists to have a hit with a Newbury song. The only upbeat song is the finale, as the crowd of fifty-plus (in number and age) is encouraged to sing along to one of the most covered (after ‘Trilogy‘) of Newbury’s songs, ‘Why You Been Gone So Long’. Like McCartney’s set at Glastonbury, so many great songs were left out but impossible to fit into the three-hour time slot. I can’t imagine this Mickey Newbury celebration will be repeated anytime soon, but how wonderful it would be if it was.
