Mickey Newbury

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Milton Sims "Mickey" Newbury Jr. (May 19, 1940 – September 29, 2002)^[2] was an American singer-songwriter and a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Early life and career

Newbury was born in

Newbury started out releasing singles of his own, with his first release being "Who's Gonna Cry (When I'm Gone)" in 1964; he also wrote songs for other artists.[3] In 1966, country star Don Gibson had a Top Ten country hit with Newbury's "Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings" while Tom Jones scored a world hit with the same song.

In 1968, Newbury saw huge success with four Top 5 songs across four charts: "

Based on his phenomenal success as a writer, Newbury scored a solo deal with RCA and recorded Harlequin Melodies. Sonically, the album is drastically different from anything else Newbury recorded. He largely disowned the album, considering its successor Looks Like Rain his true debut.
In contrast to the subtle expressiveness of Newbury's prime work, Harlequin Melodies is overproduced and packed with often distracting instrumental touches, shifting tempos, and strange production effects. Some of the songs on Harlequin Melodies would be re-recorded by Newbury for later albums, with marked differences. "How Many Times (Must The Piper Be Paid For His Song)" was a highlight of Frisco Mabel Joy; "Good Morning, Dear" and "Sweet Memories" reappeared on Heaven Help the Child, and "Here Comes The Rain Baby" reappeared on A Long Road Home, the second to last album Newbury released. Blue To This Day was his final album. It was finished just before his death and released just after he died.

Owing to a verbal agreement with

Newbury would record three albums at Cinderella Sound that defied categorization. One significant aspect of their production is the inclusion of sound effects to link the songs, which gave the LPs a conceptual feel and would become a Newbury trademark. His next album, Frisco Mabel Joy, includes
his most famous song, "

Throughout the '70s, Newbury continued producing albums such as Live at Montezuma Hall (1973), Heaven Help the Child (1973), and I Came to Hear the Music (1974), which were critically acclaimed for their unique, mysterious atmosphere and poetic songs. However, they were not great sellers, in part because of their eclecticism and Newbury's growing disdain for the music business, especially in Nashville. By 1975, outlaw country had captivated the industry, led by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Meanwhile, Newbury was having difficulty keeping his albums in print. Newbury biographer Joe Ziemer summed up the dilemma in Crystal and Stone: "Though diversity derives from aptitude and ability, diversity was Newbury's problem with radio stations. One dominant characteristic of his music is eclecticism, and that's what made his albums unattractive to strict radio formats."^[5]

Newbury was not even living in Nashville by 1975, having moved to Oregon with his wife and son. Ironically, his profile could not have been higher on the radio in 1977, albeit in a referential way; in April, Jennings released the #1 smash "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)," which contains the lines "Between Hank Williams' pain songs, Newbury's train songs..." The song became an instant classic, but most of those who sang along likely had no idea who Newbury was. Although cited by Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, David Allan Coe, and several other country stars as a primary influence on their songwriting and albums, Newbury had little interest in cashing in on the outlaw country movement, telling Peter O'Brien of the Omaha Rainbow in 1977, "It's just categorising again, making a new pigeonhole to stick somebody into. You got to be dressed a certain way, you got to be a drinker and a hell-raiser, cuss and make an ass of yourself, act like a kid. I've told 'em I quit playing cowboys when I grew up. I just get turned off by all that."^[6]

In 1976, Newbury signed with ABC Hickory Records and recorded Rusty Tracks (1976), His Eye Is on the Sparrow (1977) and The Sailor (1979). Despite featuring some of the best musicians in Nashville (as well as film scorer Alan Moore), the recordings failed to find an audience, although his work remained highly regarded by critics and fellow artists. In his AllMusic review of The Sailor, Thom Jurek observed, "The Sailor, once again, refused to sell, perhaps because it was too late, perhaps because it was too early—Merle Haggard and George Jones made records that sounded exactly like this only three years later and scored big... Nashville's radio machine wasn't having it, and therefore the public never got the chance to make up its mind."^[7]

1980s

In 1980, Newbury was inducted into the

Newbury died at age 62 on September 29, 2002 in Springfield, Oregon, following a battle with emphysema.^[2][13]

Legacy

In 2020, fellow Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Gretchen Peters released an album of Newbury songs entitled The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury,^[16] which received critical acclaim^[17] and debuted at #1 on the FAI Folk chart and reached #1 on the UK Official Country Artists Albums Chart.

Many of Newbury's songs, such as "The Thirty-Third of August", "The Future Is Not What It Used To Be", and "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)", delve into the dark recesses of the human psyche. Newbury, who battled depression in his life, later reflected, "How many people have listened to my songs and thought, 'He must have a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a pistol in the other.' Well, I don't. I write my sadness."^[18]

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Singles

References

Citations