"An American Trilogy" is a 1972 song medley arranged by country composer Mickey Newbury and popularized by Elvis Presley, who included it as a showstopper in his concert routines. The medley uses three 19th-century songs:
Milton Sims "Mickey" Newbury Jr. was an American singer-songwriter and a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Blessed Are... is the twelfth studio album by Joan Baez and her last with Vanguard Records, released in July 1971. It included her hit cover of The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" and songs by Kris Kristofferson, the Beatles, Jesse Winchester, and The Rolling Stones as well as a significant number of Baez' own compositions. Like its immediate predecessors, the album was recorded in Nashville and had a decidedly country feel.
The Contemporary Ballad Book was a 1974 Joan Baez compilation, released by Vanguard after the success of the Joan Baez Ballad Book. Unlike the first Ballad Book, this one focused on singer-songwriter material, rather than traditional folk. This new compilation contained one previously unreleased track, the Italian song, C'era un ragazzo che come me amava i Beatles e i Rolling Stones, taken from Baez' performance at the Isle of Wight Festival.
'Frisco Mabel Joy is a 1971 studio album by singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury. This was the second of three albums Newbury recorded at Cinderella Sound. The album includes the original version of "An American Trilogy", which Elvis Presley later performed in his Las Vegas shows with much success. "How Many Times " is a dramatically re-imagined version of a song first released on Harlequin Melodies, Newbury's RCA debut. Other standout tracks include "The Future's Not What It Used to Be", "Remember the Good", "Frisco Depot", and "How I Love Them Old Songs". The track "San Francisco Mabel Joy" was not initially part of the album, though it is included on some versions. ’Frisco Mabel Joy was collected for CD issue on the eight-disc Mickey Newbury Collection from Mountain Retreat, Newbury's own label in the mid-1990s, along with nine other Newbury albums from 1969 to 1981. In 2011, it was reissued again, both separately and as part of the four-disc Mickey Newbury box set An American Trilogy, alongside two other albums recorded at Cinderella Sound, Looks Like Rain and Heaven Help the Child. This release marks the first time that 'Frisco Mabel Joy has been released on CD in remastered form, after the original master tapes were rediscovered in 2010.
The Best of the Early Years is a 2007 Blues compilation album by B.B. King. This "Best of" collection was created from master recordings from King's works from the 1950s and 1960s.
Cortelia Clark was an American blues singer and guitarist, known for his performances on the streets of Nashville. He won a Grammy Award for Best Folk Recording in 1967, for the album Blues in the Street, his only recording.
Looks Like Rain is a 1969 concept album by singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury. After recording his debut album with RCA, Newbury was dissatisfied with the resulting album and left RCA to pursue a style closer to his tastes. Recorded at Cinderella Sound, as his next two albums would be, the result is widely considered his first real recording and represents a peak in the singer songwriter movement, especially for Nashville. The sound and style of the record would be highly influential during the Outlaw Movement during country music in the 1970s especially on albums by David Allan Coe and Waylon Jennings. Linking the tracks with delicate arrangements and liberal amount of atmosphere, the record contains some of Newbury's most celebrated compositions including "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye", "33rd of August", "I Don't Think Much About Her No More", and "San Francisco Mabel Joy". AllMusic's review of the album concludes, "Looks Like Rain is so fine, so mysterious in its pace, dimension, quark strangeness and charm, it defies any attempt at strict categorization or criticism; a rare work of genius."
Heaven Help the Child is a 1973 studio album by country singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury. The album was Newbury's third consecutive release recorded at Cinderella Studios. Noted for its dramatic remakes of four previous Newbury songs: "Sweet Memories" and "Good Morning Dear" from Harlequin Melodies, "Sunshine" from Sings His Own, and "San Francisco Mabel Joy" from Looks Like Rain, the album is considered equal among Newbury's acclaimed Looks Like Rain and Frisco Mabel Joy. Apart from its definitive versions of three of Newbury's early songwriting hits, the album is also acclaimed for its title track, with its multi-generational narrative, the haunting "Cortelia Clark", and the bluegrass classic "Why You Been Gone So Long". In his AllMusic review of the LP, Thom Jurek declares, "Newbury, for the third time in as many recording sessions, came up with a record that defies categorization. And for the third time in a row, he had done the impossible, created a masterpiece, a work of perfection."
Live at Montezuma Hall is the first live album from singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury, recorded at Montezuma Hall at San Diego State University in 1973. Featuring Newbury performing solo with an acoustic guitar, the album is notable for touching renditions of many of Newbury's excellent songs and for his personable and humored performance. The set was not edited for the album.
After All These Years is the 1981 album by singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury. Considered the concluding album of his remarkable 1970s run, it was the last album he would record for seven years. The album is very different in tone from its predecessor and revives Newbury's talent for song suites with "The Sailor/Song of Sorrow/Let's Say Goodbye One More Time". Other highlights on the album include "That Was The Way It Was Then" and "Over the Mountain".
Harlequin Melodies is the 1968 debut album by singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury. Newbury was already a successful songwriter in Nashville, signed by Acuff-Rose Publishing. At one point he had four #1 hits on different charts for Eddy Arnold, Solomon Burke, The First Edition, and Andy Williams, and he had written hits for several others. Produced by Elvis Presley producer Felton Jarvis, Harlequin Melodies concentrates on Newbury's versions of his hit songs; nearly every song on the album has been covered by other artists.
Sings His Own is the 1972 compilation album by singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury, a revised edition of his debut Harlequin Melodies, released by RCA Records in 1972, after the critical notice of Newbury's highly acclaimed Looks Like Rain and Frisco Mabel Joy. Newbury's RCA debut heavily featured songs that had been made into hits by other artists, and there is not much difference between that set and this one. Newbury largely disowned his RCA recordings, considering 1969's Looks Like Rain his true debut, and this album bears little stylistic similarity to anything else in his catalog.
In a New Age is a 1988 album by the singer-songwriter Mickey Newbury. It contains new versions of eight classic Newbury songs, with a full version of "All My Trials" which is part of Newbury's "An American Trilogy"
She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye is the 13th album by pianist and singer Jerry Lee Lewis. It was released on Mercury Records in 1970.
Best of Jerry Lee Lewis is an album by Jerry Lee Lewis released on Smash Records in 1970. It features all seven consecutive top-ten country hits Lewis scored between 1968 and 1970, including the number one "To Make Love Sweeter for You". "Slippin' Around" had been previously unavailable. Jim Worbois of AllMusic writes that "these tracks are every bit as exciting, in their own way, as the tracks he cut for Sun. This stuff is killer."
