A Long Road Home
by Mickey Newbury

I can't help feeling underwhelmed with "A Long Road Home," Mickey Newbury's fourteenth studio album, released months before his passing. Newbury was deep into his diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis and he was definitely hooked up to an oxygen machine at the time of these recordings. It is still remarkable to hear his singing knowing, and how well he copes, despite his ill health. However, I prefer many of his other records before this one.

Newbury gives rare insight into his personal life and youth, particularly in the opening track. It is a pleasure to learn about his modest origins in the "shotgun shack" he calls his childhood home.

The production is classic Newbury. This one doesn't wow the listener. It just is enough to support the ailing singer. Often it's just his voice, a guitar, a bass, a single mandolin and trace background vocals.

Newbury's label would release one more posthumous album the following year named "Blue to This Day." It would mark the close to the end of the career and life of the finest country-folk singer songwriter and recording musician of the twentieth century.

Track Pick: One More Song of Hearts and Flowers

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