Mickey Newbury
b. Milton J. Newbury Jnr., 19 May 1940, Houston, Texas, USA. Newbury began by singing tenor in a harmony group, the Embers, who recorded for Mercury Records. He worked as an air traffic controller in the US Air Force and was stationed in England. He later wrote Swiss Cottage Place, which was recorded by Roger Miller. In 1963 he worked on shrimp boats in Galveston, Texas and started song-writing in earnest. In 1964 he was signed to Acuff-Rose Music in Nashville. Among his early compositions are Here Comes The Rain, Baby ( Eddy Arnold and Roy Orbison), Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings ( Don Gibson and Tom Jones), How I Love Them Old Songs ( Carl Smith) and Sweet Memories ( Willie Nelson). In 1968 Kenny RogersAnd The First Edition had a US pop hit with the psychedelic Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In). Newbury recorded low-key albums of his own but his voice was so mournful that even his happier songs sounded sad. After two albums for RCA, he moved to Mercury and wrote and recorded such sombre songs as She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye (later recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis), San Francisco Mabel Joy (recorded by John Denver, Joan Baez, David Allan Coe and Kenny Rogers) and I Don't Think About Her (Him) No More, which has been recorded by Don Williams and Tammy Wynette, and also by Bobby Bare under the title of Poison Red Berries. Newbury, who by now lived on a houseboat, was intrigued by the way his wind chimes mingled with the rain, thus leading to the sound effects he used to link tracks with. This gave his albums of similar material a concept. His gentle and evocative American Trilogy— in actuality a medley of three Civil War songs (Dixie, The Battle Hymn Of The Republic and All My Trials)—was a hit in a full-blooded version by Elvis Presley in 1972. Says Newbury, ‘It was more a detriment than a help because it was not indicative of what I could do.’ Nevertheless, his RUSTY TRACKS also features reworkings of American folk songs. Amongst his successful compositions are Makes Me Wonder If I Ever Said Goodbye ( Johnny Rodriguez) and Blue Sky Shinin’ ( Marie Osmond). He has scarcely made a mark as a performer in the US country charts (his highest position is number 53 for Sunshine) but he was elected to the Nashville Songwriters International Hall of Fame in 1980. Ironically, he has released few new songs since and his ‘new age’ album in 1988 featured re-recordings of old material. Although he performs USA dates with violinist Marie Rhines, he makes a habit of cancelling UK tours.