21st
I hope Joe posts some more Mickey Newbury songs.
I couldn’t find a digital version of Mickey Newbury singing this painfully beautiful song, so I settled on the erstwhile unheard-of Stephen Ackles, who at least sings it with some emotion. Newbury is such a cool and underappreciated characted. Cash and Roger Miller and those fellas from the previous generation honor him as the first “hippie-cowboy” in Nashville, and he was instrumental in the development of Kristofferson, both in terms of songwriting style and by convincing Roger Miller to record the first version of “Me and Bobbie McGee.” Later on, he’s the one who convinced Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt to come out to Nashville to get serious about trying to sell their work. He’s also the youngest inductee to the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. Feel the pain of this song. Brutal.
