About Rebecca Newton
Rebecca cut her musical teeth on show tunes and vaudeville acts as a young child of the late 50s and early 60s. Her first LP record was a 78, which her Grandmother bought for in her home state of Washington. She’d been to her 5th birthday dinner, at a restaurant called ‘Steve’s Gay 90s’ where she witnessed a Barber Shop Quartet comprised of banjo and ukulele-playing, pinstriped- suit-wearing men with straw hats who were singing impeccable harmonies. The record was a 78rpm of Sophie Tucker’s called “Cabaret Days” (1954), which she still owns.
Rebecca’s music career began at 19 with the band, “Mother Country” – a bluegrass, country band based in central North Carolina (1975). In 1978 she played in a 4-piece swing band (un-creatively) named “Rebecca & Friends.” Then, mid 1981 she and longtime co-writer Keith Guile put together “Rebecca & the Hi-Tones,” a North Carolina institution for 30+ years. The Hi-Tones were a 7-piece swing/early jazz/R&B band containing the “core four” members from 1981.
Rebecca has been commissioned by National Public Radio to write and produce feature music for “All Things Considered,” and was mentored by many great North Carolina musicians including Tony Award winning playwright Jim Wann (Diamond Studs, Pump Boys & Dinettes). Rebecca composed the music for the play “Napoleon’s China” ©, which premiered at Salt Lake Acting Co. in 1995 and several years later composed music for two musicals including “At Home with Carson Taylor,” written by North Carolina born (but NY bound) playwright Jon Courie.
Since 1987 Rebecca has performed as half the (in)famous pure country music duo ‘Pinky Wyoming and Duke LaCrosse’, with Jim Watson, founding member of the ‘Red Clay Ramblers’ and touring member of Sugar Hill Recording Artists Robin and Linda Williams for over 30 years.
In 2019 Rebecca released her first solo album entitles, “Blue Shirt“. She followed up 3 years later with her latest solo album “Riding Ponies to the Moon“, which she refers to as a “Music Storybook.” Ponies points to various chapters in her southern novel called “A Simple but Kind Gesture on What Was Otherwise an Ordinary Day.” The novel is Newton’s first prose project.
She’s finishing up a documentary film, funded in part by UNCW, that she and friend/southern writer Clyde Edgerton are co-producing. The documentary is based on “The Circle Shows,” which have been presented for over a decade and are based on the “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” records and concept from the 70s.
Rebecca and her daughter have recently bought a music venue outside Chapel Hill, NC called “87 South” and plan to promote creative, cultural events of all kinds in the space. Newton is planning a live podcast at the space, based on all things “Southern.” Rebecca also juggles monkeys in her spare time (not really, but if she had the time, she’d learn).
Rebecca has recorded with national and regional recording artists for several decades and continues to perform regionally. She is devoted to her dog “Figaro”, cats “Opie” and “Aunt Bea”, her J Model Pre-War Guitar, Martin CEO 9 guitar, Northfield and Wayne Henderson mandolins, Northfield octave mando, Taylor baritone 8-string guitar, blue Fender telecaster, fancy red Gibson EC with stars and such, her Irish tenor banjo, 1913 Gibson H2 Mandola and her newest acquisition – a Terry McInturff electric Spell Caster guitar. “You can never have too many guitars or mandolins, or too much art,” Newton states (to anyone who will listen).
Community leader and musician Rebecca Newton reflects on growing up in Durham, North Carolina, and how the pull to leave always resulted in her being drawn back to “one square mile”. In this talk, Rebecca is joined by guitarist Barry Gray to perform a song entitled “One Square Mile”. CEO & President , Carolina Theatre of Durham, Inc. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more.