Trick Pony may be a group on a mission in more ways than one. For starters, the uptempo country trio of Heidi Newfield, Ira Dean and Keith Burns obviously would like to top their debut when they scored with the single "Pour Me" and avoid a sophomore slump, which could kill a career.

And they want to gain a foothold in the country marketplace with the driving, but raw sounds of their second album, "On a Mission." They perceive their music a bit different during the holiday season when folks named Tim, Faith and Shania are also releasing new albums.

But with a few hit singles under their belt, Newfield, 32, says in a telephone interview from Nashville that she was not to worried at all about falling down the second time around. "There were so many people that approached us - radio - and worried about the sophomore slump, and we'd always laugh and go 'not until you mentioned it.'"

"Really, with this album, we tried to write great songs. We tried to find great songs. We went in and worked really hard on the album. We had a great effort on all the songs...We went in and had fun."

"If there was any pressure, it was only within our own selves," says Newfield, a California native. "It was to try to be better, to improve. That's good for anybody to have. I always feel a little bit of pressure. A small amount. Not enough to be unhealthy. It keeps you on your toes. You don't take anything for granted."

"On a Mission," which is also the first single, contains a dozen songs produced once again by Chuck Howard. The trio wrote nine of the songs, one more than on their debut. Neither is exactly typical where the norm is to record songs penned by others, especially for a new act.

"It's a key part of creating your own sound," she says of writing your own songs. "When you pick up a Van Halen record or a Beatles song or an Eagles album, all songs are written by the artist, that's kind of what defined them - by writing their own material."

Once again, a river song is part of the mix. The debut contained "Big River," a song with backing vocals from the Man in Black, Johnny Cash, and the late Waylon Jennings. Trick Pony managed to get Cash because Dean had befriended Cash's son and lived for a time with Johnny. He asked him at the time about recording vocals for "Big River" should Dean ever make an album, and Cash kept his word.

This time Trick Pony tackles "Whiskey River," with Willie Nelson lending his chords. The song is a staple of concerts for Nelson, who has started his shows with the song for decades.

"I don't know what that's all about," says Newfield with a laugh of the water theme. "I think we're going to ask Bruce Springsteen next time to cut 'The River.' It certainly wasn't something we meant to do."

The inclusion of "Whiskey River" is part of a determined effort to play to the band members' roots. "We had decided what we were going to do every album that we are fortunate to put out is to find an artist who has influenced us and listened to and find a song of theirs if we can...We want to find a song that we can do justice on and ask them to come in. It's our our way of paying tribute to those people. In the second album, it was sort of a given. All three of us were talking about who we would want - Willie Nelson - without a doubt, no question."

And picking the song did not prove too difficult either.

"It's funny because with such individuals, you'd think we'd pick three different songs that Willie had recorded over his career," says Newfield. "When we were talking about songs, almost immediately and simultaneously the three of us said 'Whiskey River.' It's one of those songs that is just universal. We use it as one of our encore songs. It's just one of those songs that all three of us have loved and worn that record out since we were kids. When he came and said he'd 'love to come and record with you,' he was very gracious and sweet. He's truly one of the most down to earth, real people I've ever met."

Newfield says Nelson asked what song they wanted to record and when told "Whiskey River," "he laughed, kind of looked down at the ground and said, 'well, I know it.'"

Newfield approached Nelson at a BMI awards show a year ago and asked him to sing on the album. "At the time, I didn't even think he'd know who I was. I thought, 'Oh gosh, he's going to look over my shoulder to talk with someone far me important than this chick.' He wasn't that way at all. He was the complete opposite. He spoke with me for about 10 minutes."

"He said, 'I'm aware of what you did.' The fact that he even knew who I was, I was blown away by that."

Trick Pony has proven to be entertaining and interesting, in part because of the make-up of the group. Besides being female, Newfield owns a powerful set of vocal chords that can get down and dirty.

But her band mates also can handle vocals, offering a rarity of diversity within a band setting.

"We kind of let the song decides who sings it," Newfield says. "With 'The Devil and Me,' that's a song that Ira wrote and is very autobiographical. That song shows another side of Ira. It's a little bit of a dark song. I think that's great. The song adds a lot to our album...It was obvious who was going to sing the song."

"The Devil and Me" is a drinking song, but it ain't no party song. Dean wrote and sang: "I've battled with the bottle/All alone for years/I've lied a thousand lies/And I've cried a million tears."

The chorus describes a man who is "too tired to fight it/Too ashamed to pray/And I'm sure the Lord must be bored/With the promises I've made/So I sit here with my secret/Where no on else can see/I'll just keep it/Between the devil and me."

"It was something that Keith and I said that there was no doubt that Ira needs to sing that," Newfield says.

"None of us really hoard our material," says Newfield. "Most of the time, it's really obvious who will sing what."

"Each of us brings our own instrumentation to the group," Newfield says.

The Healdsburg, Cal. native wanted to move to Nashville since "I was a little itty bitty girl. It's very difficult to get started in country music and not be in the heart of music. It was kind of imperative that I move there, that I work here, night work and start getting my name out there."

Burns and Dean had gigs with other artists prior to forming Trick Pony. Burns was a guitarist in Joe Diffie's band, while Dean was a member of Tanya Tucker's group.

The pair talked about starting a band.

Burns, an Atlanta native, has his ex-wife to thank for discovering Newfield. Burns' wife at the time heard Newfield sing and apparently liked what she heard. "She approached me actually and said, 'my husband's putting together this trio, and you really fit the bill,'" Newfield says.

Newfield handed over a demo, and Burns called the next day.

He then thought about forming a trio with one female and two female members.

"We had been friends since about 1991," says Newfield of Dean. "I had not seen him in a long time, and I had worked in Nashville doing demos, waiting tables, basically doing anything I could do to make ends meet. I was doing my solo thing, but when Keith approached me about putting the group together, we hit it off."

"I loved the idea of three individual singers, three individual looks and having family harmonies," says Newfield.

The three shared similar musical tastes of Waylon, Willie, Johnny, Loretta, Merle and Tammy.

"These are the people who have had the biggest influence on us collectively and individually I think," says Newfield. "When you talk about all of these types of artists, you're talking about integrity. It just so happens they happened in an era where you call their music more traditional."

"They stuck to their guns. They had their own sound. They were originals. They didn't sell out in any shape or form. Those are the types of people in any genre of music that we are drawn to as fans."

Trick Pony played out for about five years, honing their sound.

"I wouldn't trade any of the early days - well I'd probably trade a few - all of the things that I've gone through to get me to the place in my life working with this group, I wouldn't give back," says Newfield. "I feel like I've paid a lot of dues. All three of us have paid a lot of a dues."

"I had a couple of big producers in town that were interested. We'd go in and record. I had a lot of bites, but did never really (get) the big one. The timing wasn't right or whatever. I think that it wasn't because this is what the good Lord meant to be."

"The best advice I got was 'hang in there.' Perseverance. Being so far away from my family and friends was always very very difficult. Staying in Nashville was probably the hardest part."

Producer Howard found the band and managed to get a senior vice president at Warner to see Trick Pony at Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon.

"There were other labels in Nashville that were willing to sign us if Ira cut his hair and put a hat on or I sang every song, which was to compromise our sound," she says, but they thought "if we stuck by our guns, somebody would believe in us the way we were."

"Pour Me" was the band's first single, almost hitting the Billboard top 10. But it got the band's name out there, especially Newfield's raw sounding vocals and the energy for which the group is known.

A follow-up single, "On a Night Like This," did even better, hitting the top five last year.

But in this fickle world where you're only as good as your next hit, Trick Pony is hoping they offer something a bit different.

"Certainly nothing would please us more than for everyone to love our music and love the album and go and pick it up - that would make us as happy as could be," says Newfield. "The fact is that if something is a little bit different, it's a bit of a harder sell. It can be a little tougher, but that's okay with us. But that's a challenge that we're up for. We'd rather create our own niche in this business and certainly creatively than doing the easy thing that follows in the footsteps of so many others. That's not knocking any of the other records you hear on country radio. I think there's room for all of us out there."

"There's a lot of new country music and a lot of new performers and writers out there that are sort of carrying the flag for country music and carrying it on that would make a lot of the legends and a lot of the guys we listen to and still listen to proud," says Newfield. "Even though we are newer, there are some of us out there who still believe in musical integrity, those who do believe that way. The cream rises to the top. It maybe it takes a little longer."