Mickey Newbury - An American Trilogy (CD box set)

Crumbs. What do we have here? Its not like me to be unaware of a seminal American songwriter but I'd never heard of this lad before finding this in my pile. To start, he's a favourite of Will Oldham, Steve Earle, Kris Kristoffersen and...um...Johnny Cash. His songs have been covered by Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton, Ray Charles, Scott Walker, Nick Cave and many more. This is a 4 CD box set containing his landmark albums. I'm listening to a nine track sampler which is excellent throughout. Its classic American storytelling, which stands up alongside all the greats, easily comparable to Hank Williams, Townes Van Sant, Gene Clark, Leonard Cohen, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, 'Nashville Skyline'-era Bob Dylan. I could go on. The songs are uniformly sad, troubled and beautiful with vocals that appear constantly on the brink of bursting into tears, understated instrumentation and spacious, simple production. Listen to late at night with a bourbon and you are going to need to have a hanky at the ready.