Catalog of Songwriting Legend Mickey Newbury Finally Being Reissued

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It’s about time.

Mickey Newbury is one of the most criminally-overlooked, though critically-important songwriters in American history. And though he’s most often associated with country music, his songs and influence span across multiple genres. “In America, one of the great things to do is listen to Mickey Newbury sing,” Waylon Jennings once famously said. John Prine simply stated, “Mickey Newbury is probably the best songwriter ever.”

A member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, Mickey Newbury wrote “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” for Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, “An American Trilogy” for Elvis, “33rd of August” and many more for Waylon Jennings, and is referenced in the lyrics of “Luckenbach, TX.” Gretchen Peters once did an entire album of Mickey Newbury songs.

Then of course there is Mickey Newbury’s own catalog of classics like ‘Frisco Mabel Joy and Heaven Help The Child. But for many years, the Mickey Newbury catalog has been a mess of out-of-print titles in both physical and digital formats, with folks looking to delve into his legacy stonewalled unless they were able to find something used.

Now that’s all about to change. Fat Possum Records out of Oxford, Mississippi has acquired the master recordings and publishing from Mickey Newbury’s estate, and is currently working to return his entire catalog to the public in both physical and digital form.

Fat Possum is beginning by re-issuing three of Newbury’s most iconic records on vinyl, Looks Like Rain will be hitting stores on July 25th, then ‘Frisco Mabel Joy and Heaven Help the Child coming August 29th. All of them are now available for pre-order. The three albums together are considered Newbury’s master work.

“We’re going to try our best to give Mickey Newbury the credit that he deserves,” says Matthew Johnson, founder of Fat Possum Records.



In 2013, Saving Country Music reviewed the last physical release of Newbury albums from 2011, packaged under the title An American Trilogy like the Newbury song. But multiple titles from Newbury’s catalog like 1974’s I Came To Hear The Music and 1975’s Lovers have never been available digitally, and have been out-of-print for decades.

“Our next step is to get all the tapes transferred, and release them all digitally, as well as physically,” Patrick Addison of Fat Possum tells Saving Country Music. “Those records have not been distributed to DSPs ever, and have long long been out of print. We’ll have all the master recordings back in circulation, and will be digging through other b-sides, demos, live recordings, and anything else we can get our hands on. The Mickey Newbury story needs to be up front, right next to Townes Van Zandt.”

Newbury was a somewhat reclusive character who lived on a houseboat just outside of Nashville before moving away to Oregon to purposely get as far away from the music industry as possible. The case could be made that Mickey Newbury was one of the very first, if not the first true American country music “Outlaw.”

Mickey was the first to be released from his contract with the intrusive RCA label and win the stipulation to be able to produce his own albums or choose his own producer—years before Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings would accomplish the same from the Nashville recording establishment, partly inspired by Newbury’s story. But Newbury’s songs and albums were exceptionally purposeful and intricate, complimenting his cinematic songwriting.

Newbury is also given credit for convincing Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt to move to Nashville.

But Micky Newbury’s greatest contribution was his songs. Finally, there is a effort to make sure those songs can be heard by everyone again.

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