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‘A kind of musical Mark Twain’: A look at Randy Newman

Singer-songwriter Randy Newman performs at Symphony Hall on October 5, 1974 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Tom Hill
/
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
Randy Newman performing at Symphony Hall in Atlanta on October 5, 1974.

Randy Newman has been nominated for 22 Academy Awards (he’s won twice), for 23 Grammy Awards (seven wins), and for three Primetime Emmy Awards (and he won all three).

Bruce Springsteen has called him “our great master of American song and storytelling.” Jackson Browne says Randy Newman is “the foremost satirist of our times.” And the composer John Williams has called him “a kind of musical Will Rogers or Mark Twain.”

Critic Robert Hilburn has published what may well be the definitive biography of Newman, A Few Words in Defense of Our Country.

This hour, Hilburn joins us to talk Randy Newman.

GUEST:

  • Robert Hilburn: Author of A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman

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Colin McEnroe and Dylan Reyes contributed to this show.

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Jonathan is a producer for ‘The Colin McEnroe Show.’ His work has been heard nationally on NPR and locally on Connecticut Public’s talk shows and news magazines. He’s as likely to host a podcast on minor league baseball as he is to cover a presidential debate almost by accident. Jonathan can be reached at jmcnicol@ctpublic.org.