The outcome of that trip was Townes’ debut album, For the Sake of the Song, coproduced by Jack Clement and featuring liner notes by Newbury. “I didn’t have to go through back doors,” Townes went on. “I just came straight down the freeway. And it was because of Mickey.”
Just as Newbury speaks of Townes’ songs with the highest regard, Townes expressed an intense respect and admiration for his friend’s music as well. “It was really funny trying to explain — I can’t call it ‘explain’ — but I’d tried to tell Jeanene [Townes’ wife] about the sound of Mickey’s voice and the guitar on a good night at the same time. It’s hard, you can’t do it. It’s like from outer space. I’ve heard about people trying to explain a color to a blind person. Like Helen Keller. There’s no way to do it.”
He picked his guitar up, shuffled down the walk
The cars uptown wound round the buildings at his feet.
Looking mighty proud, that old man, with his battered hat in his hand
Lord he sung a song that made me weep.
— “Cortelia Clark”
During our long phone conversation, it quickly becomes apparent that Newbury’s musical knowledge is immense. He speaks authoritatively of George Jones’ voice (“the greatest chops I’ve ever heard in my life”), Lefty Frizzell’s influence (“every kid that’s singing right now is either mimicking Lefty Frizzell or George Jones”), George Strait’s music (“You know what I hear in his voice? Sincerity”), and the once immense power of DJ Ralph Emery.
And then Newbury gets on the subject of Ray Charles, who, he says, “did more for contemporary music than anybody alive. You remember ‘Born to Lose’ and ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’? That was first time that that kind of blues treatment had been given to country songs.”
He’s speaking of Charles’ groundbreaking Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music album from 1962, which skillfully blended blues, country, pop and R&B into a whole that was vibrant and genuine.
“One of the greatest thrills in my life was having Ray Charles cut my songs. But I’ve never lost my awe of him even when I got to know him. He is just such a…soulful person. I can’t explain it. You’d have to be around him. Talk about charisma: He is the only person I’ve been around that I ever got that feeling from. When he walks in the room, you know he’s there.”
“It’s been an interesting life,” he says, pausing the conversation for a moment of reflection. “I’ve had the great fortune to be around people who have made the changes in music, who have really been the pioneers. Joan Baez was a pioneer, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson were pioneers, Ray Charles was a pioneer. I’ve been really lucky.”
Today, Newbury continues to plan his future. For one thing, he wants to expand Lulled By the Moonlight into a much larger project, and get into a proper mixing studio — which he hopes to do with the help of some friends in Hollywood. He still writes plenty of new songs as well.
“I never start with any preconceived ideas about what the song is going to say. I just sit down at the piano or with a guitar, and write what I happen to be feeling that day. You want to hear a couple of new songs?”
The cordless phone crackles as he walks down a hall, opening and closing doors. He sits at a piano and punches a few chords. “Can you hear that OK?” And then he proceeds to sing two brand new compositions that are no less beautiful for being carried through hundreds of miles of telephone cable.
Do you ever have a longing for a pure and simple time
When all we had between us was a dream and one thin dime
And we were flat out on the highway with no place to be but gone
Some memories are better left alone
“Okay, that’s a 3 o’clock in the morning song,” he says of the tune, immediately jumping out of his singing voice and back into the conversation. “I bought this old farmhouse, and am in the process of rebuilding it. It leans, and it’s old … and I know exactly what every word in the song is talking about. I didn’t sit down just to write lines; they all have a meaning to me. If I ever had to write where it didn’t have, I wouldn’t write.”
Mickey Newbury albums
Harlequin Melodies/1968/RCA
Looks Like Rain/1969/Mercury
Frisco Mabel Joy/1971/Elektra
Sings His Own/1972/RCA
Heaven Help the Child/1973/Elektra
Live at Montezuma Hall/Looks Like Rain/1973/Elektra
I Came to Hear the Music/1974/Elektra
Lovers/1975/Elektra
Rusty Tracks/1977/ABC-Hickory
His Eye Is on the Sparrow/1978/ABC-Hickory
The Sailor/1979/ABC-Hickory
After All These Years/1981/PolyGram
In a New Age/1988/Airborne
Nights When I Am Sane/1994/Winter Harvest
Lulled By the Moonlight/1996/Mountain Retreat
Kurt Wolff is a freelance writer living in San Francisco who thinks 1973 was a great year for country music.
