LeAnn Rimes' 'BLUE' first recorded in New Mexico!

LeAnn Rimes' first version of her giant hit "BLUE" was first recorded in Clovis, New Mexico, by Johnny Mulhair, interviewed here. That first recording was a regional (and national - see below) hit, and is almost indistinguishable from the final version released nationally.

The 24-Track Chronicles: An innocent in search of recording studio GOLD
by Jim Terr ISBN # 978-0-929830-06-3

British c/w expert Tony Byworth talks about what an unexpected (or not) sound the song was for the time.

In our next installment, more about how and why the song was re-recorded.

(preview, from Wikipedia:)

Rimes told a BBC radio program in October 2016 [13] that the record company accidentally released the version she had recorded as an 11-year-old. She said it was this version that peaked at number ten on the Billboard Country Chart.[14] During this time the media were reporting that Rimes was the successor to Patsy Cline's legacy.[9] The album Blue sold 123,000 copies in its first week, the highest figure in SoundScan history at that time. It peaked at number one on the Top Country Albums and debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 albums chart, eventually selling a total of four million copies in the United States and eight million copies worldwide