It Might as Well Be the Moon

It Might As Well Be the Moon
Studio album by Mickey Newbury
Released	1999
Recorded	Master's Touch Studio, Nashville & Great American Music Hall, San Francisco
Genre	Country, Folk
Label	Mountain Retreat
Mickey Newbury chronology
Live in England (Mickey Newbury LP)(1998) It Might As Well Be the Moon (1999) Stories from the Silver Moon Cafe (2000)

It Might As Well Be the Moon is a double album by Mickey Newbury released in 1999.

Background

Disc one is a re-release of Newbury's 1988 album In a New Age with added instrumentation. The original album featured just Newbury on guitar and vocals and violinist Marie Rhines. Disc two is a live show recorded at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco from the tour Newbury and Rhines completed in 1988. Newbury and friend Marty Hall came upon the performance by chance when auditioning several DAT tapes made in the late eighties.^[1] The album's name comes from a line in an earlier Newbury composition "Frisco Depot". AllMusic: "You might suppose that since this collection consists of an album of re-recordings and what is Newbury's third live album to be released within five years (following 1994's Nights When I Am Sane and 1998's Live in England, drawn from 1993 shows), it would not be an essential album. In fact, it is nearly definitive, presenting a good sampling of Newbury's oeuvre on one disc...and the finest of his live recordings yet." Grant Alden of No Depression states, "Again, it's his voice that stands out on these discs. It is rich and supremely confident throughout, full of power and soaring emotion, and grit."

Track listing

All songs composed by Mickey Newbury unless otherwise indicated.

Disc one

1. "All My Trials" (Traditional)
2. "Cortelia Clark"
3. "Willow Tree"
4. "The Sailor"
5. "Frisco Depot"
6. "Poison Red Berries"
7. "Lovers"
8. "San Francisco Mabel Joy"
9. "An American Trilogy" (Traditional; arranged by Mickey Newbury)

Disc two

All songs composed by Mickey Newbury unless otherwise indicated:

1. "Introduction"
2. "Willow Tree"
3. "After All These Years"
4. "Goin' to Alabama"
5. "Apples Dipped in Candy"
6. "The Piper"
7. "Lie to Me Darlin'"
8. "The Night You Wrote That Song"
9. "Juble Lee's Farewell"
10. "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye" (Newbury/Doug Gilmore)"
11. "That's the Way It Goes"
12. "Sweet Memories"
13. "Workin' Man"
14. "Ain't No Blues Today"
15. "That's the Way It Was Then/Let's Say Goodbye One More Time"
16. "How I Love Them Old Songs"
17. "Danny Boy" (Frederick Weatherly)
18. "An American Trilogy" (Traditional; arranged by Mickey Newbury)

Personnel

• Mickey Newbury - guitar, vocals, effects
• Marie Rhines - violin
• Edgar Myers - acoustic bass (Disc 1, tracks 1 & 3)
• Mike Elliott - guitar, bass, percussion, strings, effects (Disc 2)

References

1. Zeimer 2015, p. 277.