New album Gretchen Peters
Gretchen Peters
The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs Of Mickey Newbury
Out May 15 2020
On May 15 this year, Gretchen Peters will release The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs Of Mickey Newbury via Scarlett Letter Records.
The album was recorded at Cinderella Sound Studios in Nashville, the place where Newbury recorded his landmark albums in the late 60’s and early 70’s – Looks Like Rain, Frisco Mabel Joy and Heaven Help The Child.
A lifelong fan of Mickey Newbury’s albums and songwriting, Peters chose to record his songs in stripped-down fashion. Guests on the album include Buddy Miller, studio founder and legendary guitarist Wayne Moss, Country Music Hall of Famer and renowned harmonica player Charlie McCoy, Will Kimbrough and Barry Walsh.
Here’s the tile track:
“In sifting through all the Mickey Newbury songs I could get my hands on, there were only two criteria for inclusion on the album: did I love it, and did I think I could bring something of myself to it?” Gretchen explains. “I decided early on that I didn’t want to make an album of Mickey’s hits; that opened up the potential field to his late-career songs, which took a decided turn towards folk, and obscure early songs, as well as hits. All my lifelong favourites were on the first list, of course – but some of those, much as I loved them, proved not to be the right fit. I came across “The Night You Wrote That Song” early on, and felt it was the perfect title for the album.
She continues: “Mickey’s sensibilities as an artist were probably the first thing that drew me to his records. I identified with him, not only because of his songs but because of the way I felt he saw himself. I only deduced this from listening to his records; I didn’t know him (I actually had several chances to meet him when I first came to town, but he was such a hero of mine that I was afraid to) – but he was an artist. He was hugely successful as a songwriter and yet he rejected – in both his writing and his recording – the Nashville assembly line approach. He approached everything he did as an artist, and as a young songwriter I deeply identified with that. That was what I wanted to do, what I felt I could do best. His records were thrilling to me.”
Gretchen Peters has been one of Nashville’s most respected artists, inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2014 . Her 2015 album Blackbirds debuted at #1 on the UK Country chart and was awarded International Album of the Year and Song of the Year (read our review of The Essential Gretchen Peters). In 2015, The Telegraph named her one of the greatest 60 female singer-songwriters of all time.
Pre-order HERE
Tracklist:
1. The Sailor
2. She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye
3. Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
4. The Night You Wrote That Song
5. Frisco Depot
6. Heaven Help The Child
7. Why You Been Gone So Long
8. Saint Cecilia
9. Wish I Was
10. San Francisco Mabel Joy
11. Leavin’ Kentucky
12. Three Bells For Stephen
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new album Gretchen Peters
