“One of the great american songwriters”
–Boston Globe

Offering an incisive and sometimes caustic take on contemporary life in America, Randy Newman brings a menagerie of characters to life in his celebrated songs. His knack for story-telling has made him Hollywood’s favorite tunesmith, an Oscar-winning composer whose music has played an essential role in more than a dozen hit films including The Natural and Toy Story. Everyone from Ray Charles and Etta James to Peggy Lee and Dusty Springfield has recorded his music, but newman is his own best interpreter. In this rare solo performance, Newman will perform selections from his acclaimed repertoire, which includes songs like “Sail Away,” “Political Science,” and the recent “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country,” as well as works from his new Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels (August 2008).

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Offering an incisive and sometimes caustic take on contemporary American life, Randy Newman brings a menagerie of characters to life in his celebrated songs. His knack for storytelling has made him Hollywood’s favorite tunesmith, an Oscar-winning composer whose music has played an essential role in more than a dozen hit films including The Natural, Monsters, Inc., and Toy Story. Everyone from Ray Charles and Etta James to Peggy Lee and Dusty Springfield has recorded his music, but Newman is his own best interpreter. In this rare solo concert, he will perform selections from his acclaimed repertoire, which includes songs like “Sail Away,” “Political Science,” and the recent “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country,” as well as works from his new Nonesuch release, Harps and Angels.

With a career spanning more than four decades, Newman has produced a catalog of songs marked by biting wit and broad satire. The fact that his music is so well suited for movies should come as no surprise. Three of his uncles, nine-time Oscar winner Alfred Newman, Lionel Newman and Emil Newman, were esteemed Hollywood composers, and today his nephew Joey Newman and cousins Thomas Montgomery Newman and David Newman are successful film and television composers. Raised as a child in New Orleans, he absorbed the city’s rhythms and cadences. It’s no coincidence that his song “Louisiana, 1927,” from his landmark 1974 album Good Old Boys, became an anthem for New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

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