Music News

Micky Dolenz releasing new solo album featuring covers of songs by Monkees band mate Mike Nesmith

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7A Records

The MonkeesMicky Dolenz celebrates the songwriting talents of band mate Mike Nesmith on a new solo studio album aptly titled Dolenz Sings Nesmith that will be released on May 21.

The album features reimagined versions of more than a dozen songs penned by Nesmith during his 50-plus-year career, including several tunes previously recorded by The Monkees, songs from Mike’s solo catalog and from his work with his First National Band, and “Different Drum,” which was a 1967 hit for the Linda Ronstadt-fronted group The Stone Poneys.

“I think I first mentioned it to Nez years ago,” says Dolenz with regard to the covers project. “I don’t know where the idea came from, maybe from my friend Harry Nilsson and his [1970 album of Randy Newman covers] Nilsson Sings Newman…I thought to myself, ‘Wow, Dolenz Sings Nesmith.'”

The album was recorded between September 2020 and February 2021, and was produced by Nesmith’s son Christian, who’s also a member of The Monkees’ touring band.

Dolenz Sings Nesmith will be available on CD and as a colored-vinyl LP, and can be pre-ordered now at DeepDiscount.com and Amazon. In addition, you can order signed copies via MickyDolenz.com.  The CD version of the record will include one bonus track, a rendition of Nesmith’s 1971 tune “Grand Ennui.”

You can hear clips of a few of the songs by checking out a preview trailer for Dolenz Sings Nesmith at the 7A Records label’s YouTube channel.

In other news, Dolenz and Nesmith’s “An Evening with The Monkees” tour, which was postponed last year because of the COVID-9 pandemic, is now scheduled to get underway on September 10 in Seattle, according to MickyDolenz.com.

Here’s the full Dolenz Sings Nesmith track list:

“Carlisle Wheeling”
“Different Drum”
“Don’t Wait for Me”
“Keep On Keeping On”
“Marie’s Theme”
“Nine Times Blue”
“Little Red Rider”
“Tomorrow and Me”
“Circle Sky”
“Propinquity (I’ve Just Begun to Care)”
“Tapioca Tundra”
“Only Bound”
“You Are My One”
“Grand Ennui”*

* = CD bonus track.

By Matt Friedlander
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