Track Listing
Click tracks with speaker icon to listen| 1 | Harps and Angels | 5:07 |
| 2 | Losing You | 2:42 |
| 3 | Laugh and Be Happy | 2:19 |
| 4 | A Few Words in Defense of Our Country | 4:13 |
| 5 | A Piece of the Pie | 2:42 |
| 6 | Easy Street | 3:14 |
| 7 | Korean Parents | 3:27 |
| 8 | Only a Girl | 2:44 |
| 9 | Potholes | 3:42 |
| 10 | Feels Like Home | 4:51 |
News & Reviews
- Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Randy Newman to Discuss Film Music in KPCC "AirTalk" Event Webcast Live
Randy Newman will join Larry Mantle, host of KPCC's AirTalk, for a live broadcast event from The Crawford Family Forum in Pasadena, California, this evening at 6:30 PM PST. The event is an in-depth discussion about the state of contemporary film music and how the business is changing. Joining the discussion are fellow composers Michael Giacchino, David Newman, and Trevor Rabin. Watch it streaming live at scpr.org. Randy Newman's film work has garnered two Academy Awards and 20 Oscar nominations.
- Monday, March 5, 2012
Randy Newman Concert Earns Five Stars from The Guardian, Independent; "Quite Simply Peerless," Says The Times
Randy Newman continues his tour of Europe with stops in Germany this week, following several shows in the UK and Ireland last week that brought rave reviews, not least five-star reviews of his London show from the Guardian and the Independent. "Newman’s songs express a set of values and concerns that touch on the work of other greats—Toms Waits and Lehrer both spring to mind, likewise Stephen Sondheim—but he remains essentially uncategorisable," says the Independent. "On occasions the experience—a packed auditorium, an artist alone on stage with his piano—was akin to a Schubert recital, so exquisite and so deft was Newman’s rendering of human experience." The Times insists "that Newman's work as a songwriter and social commentator is quite simply peerless."
About this Album
Harps and Angels is Randy Newman’s first album of new material in nine years.. The recipient of the 2002 Academy Award for Best Original Song, 17 Oscar nominations, five Grammy awards, and 13 Grammy nominations, Newman is a singular figure who over the course of his career has explored various styles and sounds of the canon of 20th-century American music.
Having focused on film scores, live performances, and career retrospectives since 1999’s Bad Love, Newman returns with this album that already has a successful single. Harps and Angels’ “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country,” originally released exclusively via iTunes in 2007 and published as a New York Times op-ed piece, was named the #2 song of 2007 by Rolling Stone (“right behind Jay-Z and ahead of Rihanna,” Newman helpfully points out).
Co-produced by Mitchell Froom (Elvis Costello, Los Lobos, Sheryl Crow) and former Warner Bros. head and longtime Newman collaborator Lenny Waronker, Harps and Angels showcases Newman’s myriad talents as a political and social commentator, balladeer, and storyteller. The arrangements have a Dixieland feel, with Newman on piano fronting a club-size combo; several tracks feature his lush orchestrations, as grand as anything he has produced on his film scores. According to NPR, “Singer and composer Randy Newman’s wry and sometimes raw musical commentary has become a big part of the American cultural landscape.” The Los Angeles Times says “Newman is a brilliant songwriter who, like Paul Simon and a few others, bridges the gap between the classic American Songbook craftsman tradition and the more personalized singer-songwriter style of the modern pop age.”
Harps and Angels is Newman’s first album of new material on Nonesuch Records and second Nonesuch release following 2003’s Randy Newman Songbook, Volume 1, which celebrated some of Newman’s best-known work in solo performances by the songwriter at the piano. “It’s an austere and moving piece of work,” says Interview magazine, “the songs, some going back 35 years, sound absolutely fresh.”Credits
MUSICIANS
Randy Newman, piano, vocals
Greg Cohen, bass
Steve Donnelly, guitar
Pete Thomas, drums
Greg Leisz, pedal steel and acoustic slide
Mitchell Froom, additional keyboards
Orchestra:
Arranged and conducted by Randy Newman
Violin: Roger Wilkie, Eun-Mee Ahn, Jacqueline Brand, Kevin Connolly, Joel Derouin, Julie Ann Gigante, Natalie Leggett, Helen Nightengale,Alyssa Park, Sara Parkins, Katia Popov, Rafael Rishik, Anatoly Rosinsky, Marc Sazer, Tereza Stanislav, Lisa M. Sutton, Sarah Thornblade, Irina Voloshina
Viola: Brian Dembow, Robert Berg, Thomas Diener, Steven Gordon, Roland Kato, Darrin McCann, Victoria Miskolczy, Michael Nowak, Shanti Randall, David Walther
Cello: Dennis Karmazyn, Antony Cooke, Steve Erdody, Christine Ermacoff, Armen Ksajikian, Andrew Shulman, David Speltz, Cecelia Tsan
Bass: Michael Valerio, Drew Dembowski, Edward Meares, Susan Ranney
Flute: James Walker, Norda Mullen, Geraldine Rotella, David Shostac
Clarinet: Gary Bovyer, Stuart Clark, Donald Foster, Marty Krystall
Saxophone: Daniel Higgins, Gary Foster, Greg Huckins, Bill Liston, Brian Scanlon
Oboe: Thomas Boyd, Leslie Reed
Bassoon: Kenneth Munday, Michael O'Donovan, Judith Farmer
Horn: James Thatcher, Mark Adams, Richard Todd
Trumpet: Warren Luening, Malcolm McNab, Daniel Fornero, Jon Lewis, Timothy Morrison
Trombone: William Booth, Bruce Fowler, Alesander Iles, William Reichenbach, George Thatcher
Tuba: Doug Tornquist
Percussion: Alan Estes, Gregory Goodall
Harp: Jo Ann Turovsky, Allison Allport
Accordion: Frank Marocco
Orchestra contracted by Sandy Descrescent
Music preparation: Jo Ann Kane Music Services
Vocal contractor: Luanna Jackman
Angry Belgians on “Piece of the Pie”: Kathie Van Kerckhoven, Jeremy Altervain
Happy Immigrants on “Laugh and Be Happy”: Los Amigos Locos del Este
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Produced by Mitchell Froom and Lenny Waronker
Recorded and mixed by David Boucher
Recorded at Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, and Newman Scoring Stage, 20th Century Fox Studios, Los Angeles
Mixed and additional recording at Tea Time Studios, Santa Monica
Mastered at Gateway Mastering, ME by Bob Ludwig
Written and arranged by Randy Newman
Design by Barbara deWilde
Photography by Autumn de Wilde
Executive Producer: Robert Hurwitz
