Blue Shirt
When the opportunity came up to record a solo album at Jerry Brown’s Rubber Room studio in Chapel Hill, Rebecca leapt at it and began a years-long collaborative process to write down her story and assemble it with help from some of the state’s best musicians, including Rob Ladd (Don Henley, Alanis Morrisette, The DBs) Andrew Marlin of Watchhouse (formerly Mandolin Orange), Joseph Terrell (Mipso) and Robert Sledge (formerly of Ben Folds Five.) The product is her new record “Blue Shirt.”
This Music Announces:
“I am blue shirt – sun-fresh and sweetly unpredictable. I was made by inspired pros working together: Jerry, Barry, Rebecca, and Andrew and a significant bunch of that genius gang of central NC musicians, all grooving under the softly hovering wings of old Louise, sister Deb, and other bright morning angels. I am born from a range of styles – country and blues and beyond – delivered with a clear, warm voice risen up from a heart that is tender and tough, a heart, knowing nuances, and knowing the value of a kind spirit, fun, romance, and family love – a resilient heart, holding a little regret.
“And I will add: any album that can effortlessly accommodate a banjo, and a Hammond B3, has done won the lottery.”
And About the Singer-Songwriter-Musician:
In a midnight dream, you stand backstage, were all these people are preparing for a big show; and among the move, this worker who makes you (and everybody else) feel good. She’s smiling and happy, and you think, who in the world is that? And then you realize it’s time to get a seat out front among the wedding crowd. You find your seat, and wait. Drum roll, curtains, spotlight colon and there she is: that happy worker.
It’s Rebecca.
Who has, behind the scenes, gently encouraged and inspired more musicians (professional, and would-be) and other artists and non-artists than you can shake a pick up.
This, her first solo album, avoid sentimentality, is gentle, tough, and honest. Her voice is a smooth wave of love. There is this subtle phrasing that makes sentences into songs. In the process of composing, arranging, and singing, she’s pulled off a Don Quixote music album: novels folded within a novel that conveys a generous scope of passions, spanning themes that unite into a meadow of sound and meaning.
The songs were biography, history, and poetry.
Get in a room with somebody you love and then listen. Or just get in a room and listen. Or just listen. Or just get in a room – but they go listen. You will find parts of yourself you’ve forgotten: gifts from Rebecca Newton.
– Clyde Edgerton