What is Heidi Newfield waiting for?

Dan MacIntosh, August 2008

Heidi Newfield was in West Virginia about to play a show at the University of West Virginia. That would be a solo show, by the way, and not another date with Trick Pony because Newfield has long since left that group and just released her first post-Trick Pony solo album, titled "What Am I Waiting For." Naturally, one wonders what Newfield may have been waiting for, so to speak, regarding this whole new solo artist experience.

"There was a creative difference among the three of us that was beginning to occur," Newfield begins when queried about the end of Trick Pony's ride together in 2006. "We were singing a lot of that barroom, honky tonk stuff. We were staying right there in that place, and we weren't branching out from there. And I really wanted to evolve musically. I wanted to sing about other things. I wanted to talk about other things. I wanted to express (myself) musically in another way, as well."

Newfield also wanted to call the shots. "In a band, it's really difficult because you compromise an immense amount," she states. "It was great training for marriage or a family," the California native adds with a chuckle. "I feel like I wanted dig down a little deeper, musically, and that's what I felt like I could do on my own, more than I could with the band. I also wanted to work with some other people, production-wise, and in the studio."

Nevertheless, do not get the incorrect impression Newfield thinks any less of her former band mates, Keith Burns and Ira Dean, the other two-thirds of the Trick Pony stable. In fact, these two gentlemen helped Newfield write the title track to her debut. "Sometimes you say things, and you can hear my voice and the inflections and so forth, and in print, it sounds like I'm putting them down," Newfield clarifies. "I certainly don't mean that at all. I have a great respect for the music that we made. I have a great respect for the chemistry. We had a lot of fun together. We made a lot of music together, and I'm very appreciative of all of that."

Trick Pony also had plenty of commercial success during their brief, three-album run as well. The group's 2001 self-titled debut went gold, and the singles Pour Me, On a Night like This, Just What I Do and On a Mission, all went top 20 on country radio. The trio also took home awards for Top New Vocal Group on the ACMs and an AMA award for Favorite New Country Act.

Additionally, much of the reasoning behind this split had to do with how each member of Trick Pony had changed personally over the years, which is totally separate from any issues regarding musical direction.

"I needed to leave the group because it was simply time," Newfield says. "People change. They evolve. They go through times in their lives where they're willing to be in certain situations then they go through periods in their lives where they're not willing to put themselves in certain situations. I think we were all kind of changing as individuals as much as we were musically. I wanted to grow musically, but I also wanted to grow as a person. I think everybody was going in different directions."

Newfield knew that moving on was the right decision. But that transition, which separated her from the security of a group setting and presented her with the challenge of carrying shows all by her lonesome, was daunting at first.

"The first few shows; there was definitely a little trepidation, a little bit of fear, no doubt," she admits. "I was so used to that chemistry. I was so used to looking to my left and to my right, and seeing those guys that I could play off of every night. Then, boom, it's just me and my band up there! That went away rather quickly, in a healthy way. It went away because I've got this great band, and the camaraderie onstage is fantastic. There's a lot of laughter. There's a lot of creativity. There's a lot of musicality. When you're crazy in love with the songs that you're singing and you're on stage with a group of people that you enjoy making music with, suddenly all that fear and that little bit of worry of, 'Can I carry this?,' starts to dissipate, and I began to just walk up there, with every single show, and gain confidence. And I realized, 'Hey, I've done this before. I've been here before. I can do this.' And with a little laughter in my voice, (I) walk right out there and enjoy it."

A primary reason why Newfield is so pleased and confident with her new solo material is the fact that respected industry veteran, Tony Brown, produced it. "He was my first choice all the way around in producers," Newfield says. "When he took a meeting with me, he asked what records I was digging and whose music I was digging. We were just getting to know one another on a different level. We'd known one another in the past -- you know how the music industry is; it's a really small wheel. And we'd see each other at industry events and things like that - awards shows and such. He was always extremely nice. And I found out in working with him that he is every bit as kind and genuine as a human being on the inside, as he is on the outside. Getting to work with him was truly fun, much less adding a lot of swagger to my step every day getting to walk into the studio. And he was present for every step of it. He was into this project. Clearly, the second that guy walks in the studio the respect level on everybody's part is so high."

One of the new CD's best songs - and a top 20 single - is a love song about two famous people, Johnny and June, which, of course, is about the inspiring tale of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. It's not at all unusual for artists to write tribute songs to the late Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. After all, those iconic artists influenced most everybody - at least a little bit. But in Newfield's case, their influence was also extremely personal because she called both Johnny and June her friends.

"I had the opportunity to record with Johnny Cash on the first Tick Pony album (Big River, which is (also) where I met him," she elaborates. "Ira Dean had been great friends with John Carter Cash, and he had met Johnny through (his son) John Carter. And he had asked Johnny years prior, 'If I ever get to record a record, would you come sing on it?' And Johnny said he would. And he made good on his promise. So, that's how I met Johnny. Shortly thereafter, he introduced me to the lovely and very funny June Carter. I just adored June with all my heart. We just hit it off; let me put it that way. He introduced me to his wife, and we just got to spend some time together. They would have us over to the house in Hendersonville. Sometimes with Ira, sometimes without. I got to witness, in person, the kind of love they shared. And it was clear that they were crazy about each other, even though they were just a normal couple."

"I got to go to Jamaica with them for Christmas," she recounts. "I got to spend a very quiet, intimate Christmas with them. There are some memories from that that I will carry with me through my life."

Some of these memories are musical ones, in addition to more general friendship remembrances. "That night we sang Christmas carols together," she says. "And then, of course, (June) would pull out her mother's, and Johnny would pull out a guitar, and they'd sing Ring of Fire. And memories like these are really what spurred the idea for the song."

But like many significant songs, which are too important to write flippantly and quickly, Johnny And June didn't happen overnight.

"I had the idea Johnny And June probably five years ago," she says. "It never came to fruition, for one reason or another. I just put it in the back of my mind. One day, and this is absolutely a true story, I walked into the office to write with Stephony Smith and Deanna Bryant for the very first time, having known both of them, but never having written with them. Stephony said, 'Deanna and I know that you knew Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash. Would you be up for writing a tune about them? Something along the lines, 'I wanna love like Johnny and June.' And, of course, my eyes got the size of golf balls, and I said, 'This is meant to be, ladies! We're meant to write this song today. I've had that idea forever.' So, we just started chucking away at it, and that's what came out of it. I couldn't be more proud of the way that song turned out."

Another new song, which is also the last song on the CD, is the extremely straight-to-the-point Knocked Up. Its lyric doesn't at all dance around the issue of pregnancy out of wedlock. Newfield didn't write this song, nor has she ever been, well, knocked up. She was able to get into to character for it, however, by drawing upon the inspiration of another country music hero.

"I grew up a huge Loretta Lynn fan, and I loved the pure honesty in her writing," Newfield explains. "When I heard that song, it reminded me very much of a clever, but very honest and almost funny, version of The Pill. And by gosh, let's face it: in this old world you've gotta have a sense of humor. But if you haven't been knocked up, you certainly know someone who has. It's a very relatable song."

Lastly, Newfield simply loves how intentionally politically incorrect the song is. "It's just so blatant and in your face," she says. "It just says it like it is, you know? 'A belly full of baby and a shotgun wedding.' People can laugh about that, but that really happens to people every day. Sometimes it happens in blue collar families, and sometimes it happens in white collar families. But regardless, it happens every day."

Newfield is obviously knocked out by the musical rebirth these recent solo steps have provided. "I think I'm enjoying playing live now more than I've ever enjoyed it," she gushes. "And that's hard to believe because I always had fun playing; just about my favorite part of the whole job is putting on the live show. And I never thought I'd be able to top what I did with Trick Pony. I've got tell you, what I'm doing right now, with the quality of the music I feel like we made on this record, makes the live show an absolute pure joy. It's like the same feeling I had when I first moved to Nashville; that kind of excitement I had when I first came to town, except now I've got a lot more experience under my belt - I've been doing this a while now. It's pretty cool to have that kind of fire underneath you, when you're inspired again. That's a really cool feeling."



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