MICKEY NEWBURY* - Frisco Depot* - To Tim M. Otto

FRISCO DEPOT
(Mickey Newbury)
MICKEY NEWBURY

To Tim M. Otto

Milton Sims "Mickey" Newbury, Jr. (May 19, 1940 - September 29, 2002)[1] was an American songwriter, a critically acclaimed recording artist, and a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Biography - As a teenager, Newbury sang tenor in a moderately successful vocal group called The Embers. The group opened for several famous performers, such as Sam Cooke and Johnny Cash. Although Newbury tried to make a living from his music by singing in clubs, he put his musical career on hold at age 19 when he joined the Air Force. After four years in the military, Newbury again set his sights on making a living as a songwriter. Before long, he moved to Nashville and signed to the prestigious publishing company Acuff-Rose Music.

Ralph Emery referred to him as the first "hippie-cowboy" and along with Johnny Cash and Roger Miller, he was one of the first to rebel against the conventions of the Nashville music society. After his producer, Felton Jarvis, became the exclusive producer for Elvis Presley, Newbury got himself released from his contract with RCA and signed the first offer he received to comply with his condition that he could either produce his own albums or choose the producer.

He went on to record three albums in Wayne Moss's garage-turned-studio just outside Nashville. The influence of the production methods can be heard in the albums Waylon Jennings went on to record in the 1970s (with instrumentation highly unconventional for country music) and his poetically sophisticated style of songwriting was highly influential on Kris Kristofferson. It was Newbury who convinced Roger Miller to record Kristofferson's "Me & Bobby McGee", which went on to launch Kristofferson as country music's top songwriter. Newbury is also responsible for getting Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark to move to Nashville and pursue careers as songwriters.

In 1974, he moved to a house on the McKenzie River in Oregon with his wife, Susan, and newborn son, Chris, where they welcomed three more children over the years. He recorded several albums throughout the 1970s for Elektra and ABC/Hickory, all of them critically praised, but financially unsuccessful. In 1980, he was given the distinction of being the youngest songwriter ever inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. Although he spent much of the 1980s retired from performing and recording music, he returned to both recording and touring in the late 1980s before he died, in Springfield, Oregon, following a battle with emphysema on September 29, 2002, aged 62.

Legacy - Newbury wrote many songs that would be recorded by singers and songwriters such as Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Bill Monroe, Johnny Rodriguez, Hank Snow, Ray Charles, Tony Rice, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tammy Wynette, Ray Price, Don Gibson, Brenda Lee, Charlie Rich, David Allan Coe, Sammi Smith, Joan Baez, Tom Jones, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, John Denver, Kenny Rogers, Steve Von Till, B.B. King, Linda Ronstadt, Dax Riggs and Bobby "Blue" Bland, among many others.

Although his songs have been recorded by hundreds of performers from a wide variety of musical genres, he is most remembered for his creation of "An American Trilogy", a medley that was recorded by many, including symphony orchestras, and Elvis Presley.

Frisco's a mile long away
You can afford to fly
But it might as well be the moon
Lord, when you're as broke as I
Here I sit with my head in my hands
Watching the trains roll by
Lord, the Helping Hand Mission man warned me
That the nights here got cold
When you're cold, there's nothing as welcome as sunshine
When you're dry, there's nothing as welcome as rain
When you're alone, there's nothing as slow as passin' time
When you're afoot, Lord, there's nothing as fast as a train
Old Frisco's a mighty rich city
Now that ain't no lie
Well, they have some buildings
That reach nearly a mile in the sky
Everyone's so busy, they can't tell me the reason why
Here's a world full of people so damn many people alone
When you're alone life just don't seem worth living
While you're alive gotta learn to live with the pain
You've been grown for so long
There's no one left who'll forgive
You find yourself searching your mind
For the links to the chain
When you're cold, there's nothing as welcome as sunshine
When you're dry, there's nothing as welcome as rain
When you're alone, there's nothing as slow as passin' time
When you're afoot, Lord, there's nothing as fast as a train...