Mick Sweetman’s love for country music started when he was a boy helping out on fairgrounds when they came to his village on the south coast blasting out country music alongside rock n roll. His record collection at that time consisted mainly of Slim Whitman, Charlie Pride and Jim Reeves and as time passed many more were added, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, Ray Price, Brooks and Dunn, to name but a few and more recently Ricky Van Shelton.
Mick didn’t start singing until he retired in 2004 at the age of 60. To pass the time he decided to go for singing lessons with Alan Langham from Eastbourne who was part of the original Fifth Avenue band. Alan introduce him to John Lane and Maxine Lowe who were also having singing lessons and the upshot of that was the start of Crystal Clear a Country music group. They played locally in pubs and clubs and although Alan was a competent guitar player they decided to focus on four part harmony and let their voices be their instruments.
As time went by and members moved to different successful musical ventures, Crystal Clear became a trio end ended up being a duo and with Mick and Emma Phillips. They were fortunate enough to appear on television on The Phil Mac Country show and were chosen as the featured artist on The Smith and Rogers Country Show, both of which are/were International. A song writer from Canada, Jim Newcombe sent them some original songs, Moon Over Memphis (written by Newcombe, Taggart and Rayburn), Still 19 (written by Newcombe and Taggart) and I Painted it Blue (written by Newcombe Taggart and Rayburn). Crystal Clear recorded these in Mick’s studio at home and they can be found on YouTube. The songs were played all over the world and Moon Over Memphis ended up reaching No. 11 in Joyce Ramgatie’s International Country Music Chart in February 2015 and was featured as song of the month on Netherlands country radio. Unfortunately Emma had to stop singing for personal reasons in 2019 and having taken 7 months out, Mick decided to go out as a solo artist which he found a bit daunting to start with as he was so used to having someone by my side but his solo work has proved to be successful and he continues to enjoy a good following. At his age, Mick knows he will have to put his feet up at some stage but in his time as a Country singer he has many fantastic memories to look back on. He is so thankful and blessed that his music has made so many people happy. He has met so many lovely people who have become true friends.
Research by Nick Catford.