GRAMMY winner John McEuen's new album, THE NEWSMAN, is a first for the
acoustic music legend who helped to define the trajectory for bluegrass and
acoustic-rooted music in the mid 1970s as a member of The Nitty Gritty Dirty
Band. The album's 11 tracks are all spoken word renditions of poems from the 19th
and 20th century that McEuen has been collecting over the course of his 50 year
career. Each story is told in McEuen's engaging baritone, adorned by his unique
instrumental compositions informed by his many years of scoring films. From the
opening title track, which is a true story about a man who sold newspapers and
was a tremendous influence on the young musician in Los Angeles, to the final
cut, "Julie's Theme," inspired by Jules Verne telling a friend, in a French cemetery,
about his recently deceased young wife, McEuen presents an album of mini-stories
at once inspirational and deeply emotional.
GRAMMY winner John McEuen's new album, THE NEWSMAN, is a first for the
acoustic music legend who helped to define the trajectory for bluegrass and
acoustic-rooted music in the mid 1970s as a member of The Nitty Gritty Dirty
Band. The album's 11 tracks are all spoken word renditions of poems from the 19th
and 20th century that McEuen has been collecting over the course of his 50 year
career. Each story is told in McEuen's engaging baritone, adorned by his unique
instrumental compositions informed by his many years of scoring films. From the
opening title track, which is a true story about a man who sold newspapers and
was a tremendous influence on the young musician in Los Angeles, to the final
cut, "Julie's Theme," inspired by Jules Verne telling a friend, in a French cemetery,
about his recently deceased young wife, McEuen presents an album of mini-stories
at once inspirational and deeply emotional.