The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 3

The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 3

Nonesuch Records releases <strong><em>The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 3 </em></strong>on September 23. The album is the third in a series comprising solo recordings of songs from throughout Newman's five-decade career. Previous volumes were released in 2003 and 2011. (A four-LP, vinyl-only limited-edition box set, <em>The Randy Newman Songbook</em>, containing all three volumes in a new, thematic sequencing, is being released simultaneously.) Mitchell Froom and Newman's lifelong friend and colleague Lenny Waronker produced <em>The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 3</em>. <br /><br />The <em>New York Times</em> said of the first volume of <em>The Randy Newman Songbook</em>: "The great craftsmanship is more apparent in the stripped-down context," and the Associated Press said, "Few singer-songwriters could inject more new life into solo piano versions of their work than Randy Newman." The UK's <em>Uncut </em>called <em>Vol. 2</em> "another subtly sublime stroll through the master's back catalogue," noting that Newman is "owner of a peerless canon," and that the album "isolates his full range of qualities: the improbable juxtapositions of caustic topicality and heart-wrenching universality, the concise character studies, and singing and piano playing that seem to emanate from the very fabric of America."