Mickey Newbury: Last News

Tom T. Hall's death at 85 last summer was ruled as a suicide by officials with the Williamson County Medical Examiner's office.Hall's 'manner of death was ruled a suicide,' a spokesperson for the office confirmed to The Sun Wednesday.Authorities said Hall 'had sustained an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, to the head' and was pronounced dead less than 20 minutes later when paramedics and police responded to a 911 call, according to the blog Saving Country Music.

Chris Morris Music ReporterSinger-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian folk music laureate who crossed over to major pop fame in the U.S. during the ‘70s, died Monday evening at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. He was 84 years old. Lightfoot’s death was confirmed by his longtime agent, Victoria Lord.Lightfoot rose to prominence in the mid-‘60s, penning such folk standards as “Early Morning Rain” (a major hit for the Canadian folk duo Ian and Sylvia Tyson), “For Loving Me” and “Ribbon of Darkness,” as well as the ambitious “Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” a sort of Northern equivalent to Mickey Newbury’s “American Trilogy.”While he was acclaimed at home and served as an inspiration for such younger Canada-bred performers as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, success in America eluded him until he signed with Warner Bros.’ Reprise imprint (which released Young and Mitchell’s breakthrough recordings).

As the writer of such monumental country songs as “Independence Day,” “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am” and “On a Bus to St. Cloud,” Gretchen Peters certainly knows her way around a good tune.As the title of her May 15 album declares, The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury, the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee is turning to another legendary songwriter for her latest effort.