A New Look at Mickey Newbury

Kacey Jones Sings Mickey Newbury
(IGO Records)

If an artist is primarily known as a funny person, it can be hard for critics and fans to accept their serious side. Ask Jim Carrey. The rubber-limbed comic shoved slapstick to the side in the late '90s for meatier dramatic roles in "The Truman Show" and "Man on the Moon." Despite showing that he was more than capable of handling weightier parts, Carrey had nary a Oscar nomination to show for it (he did win back-to-back Golden Globes, though). To belabor the point slightly, Carrey deserved a little love from Oscar for his work in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," too. The Globes at least gave him a nomination.

To sum up: Comics taking serious turns might just end up crying tears of a clown.

A veteran performer known for her CDs "Every Man I Love is Either Married, Gay, or Dead" and "The Sweet Potato Queen's Big-Ass Box of Music" as well as her appearances on "A Prairie Home Companion," Kacey Jones undoubtedly knows the risks involved in her latest artistic endeavor. She's taking a chance nonetheless, using her non-comedic singing to showcase one of America's great songwriters, Mickey Newbury, on her new release (Aug. 1), which is appropriately titled "Kacey Jones Sings Mickey Newbury."

Jones just doesn't feel like laughing this time around. Attending five funerals in a year will do that to you. So let the buyer beware: There's no "I Could Get Over You (If I Could Get Under Him)" or "You're The Reason Our Kids Are So Ugly" here. There are 15 tracks written by Newbury, a hero to singers and fellow songwriters, who died in 2002 with nowhere near the household-name status of contemporaries Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson or even Tom T. Hall. Jones has a chance at changing that situation with this tribute.

Jones proves that she's up to the task, applying her rich, resonant voice to a mature, heartfelt work honoring her late friend and mentor. She's especially appealing when singing sultry blues, such as on "Apples Dipped in Candy" and "Why You Been Gone So Long."

Many of Newbury's best-known songs, such as "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)," "Sweet Memories," "An American Trilogy" and "Funny, Familiar, Forgotten Feelings," are missing from this collection, but there's still plenty of choice material.

Like most of the best writers, Newbury could conjure up vivid imagery with an economy of words, such as this verse from "San Francisco Mabel Joy": "Sunday mornin' found him standin' 'neath the red light at her door / A right-cross sent him reelin', put him face down on the floor / In place of his Mabel Joy he found a merchant mad marine / Who growled, your Georgia neck is red but sonny, you're still green." Like most of the best interpreters, Jones gets to the heart of the song, bringing out the emotions behind lines such as "You can lie to me darlin' / But darlin' come lie in my bed" ("Lie to Me Darlin') and "Do you ever have a longing for a pure and simple time / When all we had between us was a dream and one thin dime / And we were flat out on the highway with no place to be but gone" ("Some Memories are Better Left Alone")

"Kacey Jones Sings Mickey Newbury" is unlikely to appeal to all audiences. At the expense of sounding ageist, a slightly older set is the likely target audience for the wealth of somber, string-laden ballads. The rainstorm effects subliminally set a rainy-day mood. Its sometimes dreary nature is likely an effect of the grief that turned Jones to this project in the first place. In that respect, the album could be enjoyed by even more fans, as sadness knows no age of consent.

It's not all mournful, though. And ultimately it's a celebration of a gifted songwriter's life and long legacy. It seems that Jones could have cause to celebrate, too.

These days, there seems to be a little more hope for artist yearning to express more than humor. Bill Murray, formerly of "Saturday Night Live" and "Caddyshack" fame, is pretty widely regarded as a dramatic actor now. Even better, he inspires public outcry (not yet outrage) when he's passed over during awards season. Maybe Newbury put it best in his "Song of Sorrow," the first selection on Jones' tribute: "It's true I'm a fool and a dreamer / I'll do what a dreamer would do / I'll dream long enough and I just may be fool enough / To see my dreams come true."

Kacey Jones isn't asking too much, just a chance to be a more well-rounded artist. She and Mickey Newbury both deserve a second listen.