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Mickey Utley was born in Winston-Salem,
NC. He was reared and resides in a little community outside of
Brownsville Tennessee known as Belle Eagle, which, is just a few miles
from another community that a lady by the name of Tina Turner made famous,
Nutbush. His musical interest began at an early age and, being in Haywood
County a place deep in delta blues heritage,
Mickey had a broad spectrum of music to be around. Influences ranging from
Sleepy John Estes, Hammon Nixon
Elvis Presley, Tina Turner to Charlie
Rich, George Jones, and Merle Haggard. At the age of 29, he has experienced a lot
on and off stage. Off stage Mickey is a hard working family man who loves and
respects
everything that’s dear and close to him. He was reared in a close knit family.
His daddy was a blue collar man who drove a truck nearly all his life, while his
mama was a stay at home mom. Thoughout his life as a child his
daddy really turned him on to a wide
range of music, sitting by an old record player, while his daddy pulled
out old eight tracks and 45’s to listen
to. He quotes “ We would sit back hours on end listening and being
quizzed about what was being played. Mama liking country, daddy liking rock and
roll”. As years went by,
Santa Claus brought Mickey a set of drums when he was nine years old. Playing
them day in and day out, he
would sing along to what he was playing.
So he picked up a guitar to learn on and started writing. Not
knowing if it sounded good or not, but he love what he was doing.
After graduating Haywood High School in
1991, Mickey continued to write, sing, and play guitar. Shortly
there after he realized that music
definitely flowed through his veins. He continued to take music a step
further. Playing different club venues, open mic nights, trips
back and forth to Nashville,
singing and getting his music out there
to anyone interested in even listening, he then auditioned for and was giving
a spot to perform on a country show at Libertyland, a local theme park in
Memphis TN. This in return
is where he had the opportunity to
learn stage performance, and how to gain a crowds interest. Couple of years
had gone by, and Mickey bid
farewell to the cast and crew at Libertyland and ventured out to
different spectrums of the music
business. He made several trips to Nashville where he met up with some session
players, producers,
and song writers. Listening to song from
different publishing companies and cutting
demos, in 1995 he decided
to record a 3 song demo of his own. With
a great producer, top notch session players, and great songs from
great song writers and publishing companies, he took a song off of the
demo and put it on a compilation disc that had went
out to several hundred radio stations around the world. The song “When
the sun goes down” written by MarkCollie & Marty Stuart, two well
established artist in the music industry, went to #3 on the Independent
AirplayCharts without any airplay promoter. He later had recorded his own album,
where he wrote eight of the songs out of ten. The album entitled” Little Red
Truck”, has gotten some airplay and is being very well accepted
in many of Mickeys live performance shows. Him and his band MPulse has
recently opened up for such acts as the Oak Ridge Boys, Jerry Lee Lewis, Marty
Stuart, Survivor, Jefferson Starship etc....
Mickey has spent the last few years
perfecting his style by writing and performing. Just recently he won the
West Tennessee Jimmy Dean True Value
talent showcase. He was a part of the 24th anniversary Elvis Week
at Graceland, headlining entertainment. Currently he is involved with the casino
circuits. Playing, Sams Town,
Grand , Sheraton,
Ballys, Fitzgerald casinos as well. This is keeping him busy playing over 150
dates in the year of 2002. At 29 years old and many years of experience behind
his belt, he continues to move
forward in search for a record deal in hopes of helping him get his music heard.
With his wide range variety show,vocal versatility, and high energetic
performances, there’s no reason this young man should be without a record
deal. He gives something back to the music fans from what he was giving growing
up. It all started back to when he was a youngster, growing up in the flat lands
of the delta, having nothing to do but play in the dirt fields with his sister
and sit around and listen to 45s and the radio .With a wide selection of
influences and music to listen to, it gave him the appreciation and
understanding of the things that lye in all realms of music in general. “ You never work hard, you only work hard at it. And you
never learn to quite learning”, he says. Today Mickey is still writing a
performing.
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