On the threshold of that open door, Heidi Newfield and Trick Pony band mates Keith Burns and Ira Dean poured out what she calls “My ode to the group” in what would be the threesome’s final songwriting session together. Days before announcing her departure from the platinum-selling band that had earned four top 20 singles, an ACM Best New Artist award, and an army of fans for their rabble-rousing honky-tonk brand of country music, Heidi had a lot on her mind. “I love the road— but when I stopped wanting to pack my bag and get on the bus, that was a telltale sign it was time for a change,” she recalls.

The diminutive blond who became famous for her explosive voice, rambunctious stage antics, and trademark unruly curls points out, “That was still me. But I felt that I had been painted into a corner, and I wanted to be able to branch out. I wanted to depart from that simply because I felt that I could do more. ” So with a heavy heart, a deep respect for where she came from, and an artist’s hunger to evolve, Heidi Newfield flew the Trick Pony coop.

She alighted—as fate would have it—in the capable hands of famed producer Tony Brown. “He wouldn’t have time for me,” she remembers thinking, “between George Strait and Reba and Brooks & Dunn.” Yet Brown was intrigued by the project, and after giving Heidi three hours of his undivided attention, he was in. “Right away we just clicked. Right away I think he got my song sensibility, and was right on track with it. Loved that I wanted to step out from what I had been doing, kind of get out of the bar room for a minute.” The resulting ten-song collection is a reflection of that shared vision. “That’s the way I feel like a record should be made,” Heidi declares. “It’s been creative, and fun, and professional, and just a total joy.”

Brown and Newfield’s great alliance is never more evident than in the album’s crowing jewel and lead single, “Johnny & June.” Written by Newfield, Stephony Smith and Deanna Bryant, the song wasn’t even born until the album was sixty percent finished. “From the moment that we started in on it, we all three just sort of looked at each other and went ‘ok wait a minute—this is really a special song,’” Heidi recounts. “I still listen to Johnny & June right now, after all the writing it and going through it and living with it, and I still get chills up my spine.” Using country’s legendary First Couple as a muse, “Johnny & June” yearns for a love that is “powerful and big, and crazy and wild. Everybody wants to find that kind of a big love in their life,” Heidi says with a smile.

She’s thinking, obviously, of her NFL agent husband, whom she married in June 2004. “It takes a special man to watch their spouse get on a bus and go up & down the road,” says Heidi. “This job takes a lot out of you and it is very time consuming, and even when I’m home, I’m not ‘really’ home sometimes. My wheels are always turning, always thinking about a song, what I need to do better, what I should do more. Thankfully, he understands, as he is very passionate about his job too. But then we have our time together and we try to keep that sacred. We do a good job of supporting one another.” Married shortly after Heidi’s mother passed away, the couple’s support system is certainly tried and true. “2004 was a year of transitions,” she recalls. “Interesting, and sad—the ultimate joy and the ultimate pain and sorrow at the same time…But my mom, it’s weird, because I really feel her. She’s with me very much. She’s right there with me.”

Growing up on a horse farm in Healdsburg, CA, in the heart of Sonoma County wine country, Heidi’s talent was lovingly nurtured by her mother and father. Every trail ride, every horse show and rodeo was set to a soundtrack of Ernest Tubb, Loretta Lynn, Patsy Cline and all the great traditionalists. Later—to her mother’s dismay—Heidi’s two older sisters turned her on to the great rock bands of the 60’s and 70’s: The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and AC\DC. Heidi also fell in love with traditional blues, and began playing the harmonica at an early age, attracted by what she calls “the most lonesome sound on the planet.”

From the first time she ever picked up a microphone at the age of 5 or 6, Heidi was blessed not only with enormous vocal talent, but the conviction that she was meant to be a singer. “I never really veered off that path,” she explains. “And my parents, fortunately, were very supportive.” She remembers her first trip to Nashville at age 13 to record a demo: “We didn’t know what we were doing, and we certainly didn’t have the money to be running me all over back and forth between Nashville, but they did their very best to try to support me.”

Between the loss of a parent and her new marriage, Heidi Newfield is in a very different place now than when hard-partying, good-timing Trick Pony hit the scene in 2001, and her new album reflects that. “There are parts of this record that are not just about a man and a woman for me,” she explains. “They’re about my experiences all the way around, like leaving the group, and my feelings about that, the pain and the hurt, or the joy of being independent and standing on my own two feet. Everybody who listens to this record can take these songs, and place them in their lives, and relate to them.”

The diversity of the song selection is striking: from to the bleak melancholy of “Wreck You,” the sweaty desperation of “Can’t Let Go,” and the angry wail of “Nothing Burns Like A Memory,” Heidi reaches not just new heights as an artist, but new depths as well. She gracefully leads us through the sweet, breathy yearning of “All I Wanna Do,” the simple hurt of “Love Her And Lose Me,” and the retro groove of “Tears Fall Down.” Closing with the “redneck-clever” anthem “Knocked Up,” the album whirls its way through a 360 degree tour of Heidi Newfield.

“I wanted to create a really important body of work, no matter how long it took me,” Heidi explains. “I had no interest in going in and making another Nashville country record that just gets thrown out there and quickly forgotten. I was only interested in cutting a record that was going to step out and have some relevance in this day and age, when we are head-to-toe in pop culture with videos, the internet, and imagery. We don’t always listen with our ears and our hearts—we, more often, listen with our eyes. So I wanted to make a record that stood out. I wanted people to begin to get to know me in a way they’ve never known me before. I wanted to showcase with humility and pride that God made me different…without ‘trying to be different.’ I hope that people will open up their hearts and minds to me and this music because it has soul— my soul. For that, I have high hopes, and always will.”

(CSC) 1. You’re back on the road, and have a new solo album set for release on August 5th. How have you utilized your newfound freedom as a solo artist?

(Heidi Newfield)

I’m having the time of my life! I’m madly in love with this new music and I’ve reached a little bit deeper down inside to find these songs and write them. I feel like this album is a little more introspective and it’s relatable to myself. They are all songs that are extremely relatable to people no matter what they are going through in their lives. The whole transition has been a challenge and a little scary at times, especially towards the beginning, but now I’m stepping into my own, and I feel like it’s a brand new day for me.

(CSC) 2. The albums first single, “Johnny & June” was inspired by real-life events. Please share with us the story behind the song.

(Heidi Newfield)

I had the good fortune of getting to know Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash the last several years of their lives; I wish I had known them longer, and when they were younger. I recorded with Johnny on the first Trick Pony album, and that’s how I met him initially, and then he introduced me to June, and our relationship just blossomed from there. I was able to spend some really special times with them. We usually just sat around on the porch, drinking ice tea and telling stories; the stories that they told me weren’t things I could read in a book or see in a movie. I spent Christmas with them one year at their beautiful home in Montego Bay, Jamaica. It was a very intimate and quiet Christmas. They were two extraordinary people, and they shared the kind of love that the song was written about and certainly inspired by. They were like any other couple. They had their dark days just like any normal marriage. I just feel so lucky to have known them. When I was writing the song with my co-writer, I wanted to write it with appreciation for the kind of love that they shared, but it’s really a love song for all of us. For you, for me, whether you’re young or old, married or single. It’s a song about the kind of love that we all hope to have.

(CSC) 3. I’d like to talk to you about your new album “What Am I Waiting For.” What styles of music can listeners expect to hear?

(Heidi Newfield)

It’s a really cool departure from what I was doing with Trick Pony. It’s not quite as honky tonkin’ like I was doing with the guys, but it still rocks, it definitely still has an edge, and it still has that energy to it. I dug a lot deeper on this record and wrote some songs that allowed me to open myself up to everyone on this record. Some of the songs are extremely vulnerable, some are very strong, and some are angry… its songs about everything and for everyone. My producer Tony Brown and I discussed that a great record should be like a really great live show. It should be dynamic and get you out of your seat making you want to pump your fists up in the air, and then it should make you want to sit down and almost make you want to break down in tears raising the hair up on the back of your neck and give you goose bumps. I really felt that our mission was accomplished. We didn’t follow a formula, but we did use the majority of the same band because I felt like we had the perfect band for what I was going after. It was a really unique creative vibe in the studio. It was comfortable, respectful, and professional, but really fun at the same time. The entire team was pumped up, and I just really saw their “A” game shine through on this record!

(CSC) 4. You were raised on a horse farm in Northern California, what was that environment like for you growing up as a young girl?

(Heidi Newfield)

I grew up on a pretty big working quarter house ranch in a small town in Northern California. Growing up in that lifestyle I grew up listening to a lot of traditional country music until my sister corrected me and brought that good rock & roll into the house to my mothers dismay. For some reason I was always influenced by the blues; traditional styles like real Delta and Chicago blues. I was drawn to that because I loved the harmonica. I picked up the harmonica at a young age and started playing it pretty seriously. As far as growing up on a ranch, I had different horses that I used to show and rodeo with, and they were all special to me. It was the most wonderful quality way to raise a child, and a great lifestyle to grow up in. We had to work really hard; we didn’t just come home from school and lounge around. I think that really helped create my work ethic. We had cattle and horses to feed, and responsibilities that were expected of us. Growing up I was in 4-H since I was a little kid all the way through High School, and we raised our own money through that. People could laugh and think it was dorky… but it taught me how to handle my own money because I’ve worked a real job since I was fifteen years old. I always wanted to be a business woman as well. That’s another thing I’ve enjoyed since going solo as an artist. I’ve been able to put my fingerprint on every single thing from being a part of creating the website, choosing the t-shirts and merchandise, building the fan base, picking the songs, and being a lot more involved. I’m responsible for it and it feels good because I am challenging myself. For things that I don’t know, or my weaknesses, I found really amazing people to surround myself with that are really knowledgeable about things that I’m not as good at doing. Getting back to your question, growing up on a horse ranch was the ultimate lifestyle. If I had my choice of raising my children down the road, it would certainly be around horses and livestock. I’d like to teach them about that wonderful lifestyle and appreciation of where our food comes from, and how to raise a garden. I never realized until I moved to Nashville right out of High School that we were pretty self-sufficient. We raised our own beef and I’ve always had a deep appreciation as to where all that came from. I didn’t just go to a grocery store and pick up a steak without thinking about the entire process that it went through before getting there.

(CSC) 5. You made your first trip to Nashville at just 13 years of age. I’d imagine it was somewhat frustrating for you to be so far away from your dreams. How did you manage to situate yourself as an artist in Nashville permanently?

(Heidi Newfield)

I think sheer determination. I wasn’t going home no matter what, and I was going to make it work no matter how hard it was. You have to have that attitude. I didn’t have any money and neither did my parents, I certainly didn’t know what I was doing or have a specific mentor to teach me the ropes in Nashville. Looking back now it is what it is and everything happens for a reason. I spent time doing demo work and going out to the clubs until 2:00 a.m. on my nights off when I wasn’t working. I would do contests or writers nights; anything I could possibly do to get my mouth to a microphone, to be able to sing, and get exposure. I’d network while meeting other writers and musicians. I did that until I began to build a small network of people that knew what they were doing. When I would make a mistake I would learn from it. I grew up in Nashville playing clubs, and paid my dues a little bit. This is an interesting time in our industry where I really respect a lot of the reality shows that bring talent forward that we may not have heard otherwise, and the fact that we are getting to hear this amazing talent. There’s a lot to that, but there’s also still a lot to the way that people have always done it; by coming up to the clubs and churches and learning to sing in front of a crowd the old fashioned way… just really getting out there and learning the business, and paying their dues.

(CSC) 6. What artists have inspired you in your style of music?

(Heidi Newfield) 

Growing up as a young girl it was almost strictly country music in our house, and it was very much the traditional type. One of my biggest inspirations as a female artist was Loretta Lynn. I remember the first movie my family ever took me to was, “The Coal Miners Daughter.” I was just a tiny little girl when it came out. I loved her honesty in her writing. I loved that she came up from nothing, and made something of herself. Stories like that about the Dolly Parton’s, Loretta’s and the Ray’s; people like that that came up from absolutely nothing with this god given talent and somehow or another it was just meant to be that they were heard. Those people, their stories, and their perseverance really inspired me. I really grew up with a lot of traditional country music like Hank Sr., Ernest Tubb, Marty Robbins, Loretta of course, and Merle Haggard. When I was a little girl, the outlaw country music movement was coming in and you heard people like Willie, Johnny Cash, Waylon, and Conway Twitty. Waylon Jennings was one of my biggest heroes. My older sister Kelly was going to college at the time and she was ten years older than me, she would bring home music from The Eagles, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, and all the great rock bands of the 70’s. I fell in love with that style of music. I began to become influenced by that really great rock & roll. As I began to acquire my musical tastes, which is very, very broad, I realized that good music is good music; it doesn’t have to have a name. I love the blues, the rhythm and blues; and I love soul and R&B, like Otis Redding and Al Green. That music inspires me as well. One thing that really freaked me out and caught my attention was women who could get up onstage and take the crowd by the palm of their hand and command their attention by being an amazing talent. I started paying attention to people like Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, and I was a huge Bonnie Raitt fan and still am, because I loved the redheaded white girl who was a fan of the blues. It’s my dream to play with her one of these days. It’s a big wide range because my musical taste runs wide open but good music is good music!

(CSC) 7.  You went through some challenging hardships a few years back with leaving Trick Pony. How did you find the strength to move on with your career?

(Heidi Newfield)

With Trick Pony there were a lot of really good years and a lot of really good music made, and I feel very proud to have been a part of something that had its own stamp; it’s own brand. We did something a little bit different and I’m proud of that. I loved our chemistry for a long time. It was always really cool to be able to look to my right and look to my left, and see the two guys, and we worked off of each other day in and day out. When you’re in a band like that, you go through a lot together. We moved on up and started to have the taste of success, and saw each other through a lot of things. You’re closer than most marriages, and tighter than most families, and you share a lot of emotions together. To go from that to making the decision to leave was an extremely difficult decision. That was the difficult part for me. It took me about year and a half to two years to really make up my mind that leaving was the right thing to do. A misconception is that I didn’t leave Trick Pony specifically to go off and start my own solo deal; I left for my piece of mind and for the health of the band. People change and evolve and I reached a point in my life where I wanted to go a certain way creatively, and I wanted us to branch out and let our music broaden our horizons. I don’t think everyone in the band had the same idea. I didn’t see us going to a different level, I knew we were capable of it, but I didn’t see that we were ever going to make it to that place. That wasn’t the view of everybody else. I felt that we had grown a bit stagnant creatively. I don’t think all three of us were having as much fun anymore; everyone started to be for themselves, instead of being the team we started out being. I don’t know why that happens; I don’t know why that takes place. I think some people get a little taste of success and certain people can get that little taste of it and they keep their feet firmly on the ground and it makes them work even harder. Other people get that little taste of success and then they think they don’t need to work harder any longer. I’m not saying specifically who that was, but just simply that we all began to change. I really wanted to go forward so I left for my own piece of mind. There was a lot of dysfunction and it was an unhealthy place to be. I found myself not wanting to have to pack my bag anymore, and I love the road. Simply put, it was time for a change. Finally one night enough things had happened, and while I was driving home I had an awakening. A lot of ridiculous things had happened, and I had a conversation with God. I was finally listening, and I knew it was the right thing to do for all of us, but much less for myself. I had to move forward, I didn’t know what was on the other side of that. I wasn’t sure if the industry as a whole and all the relationships I had built in the past years would welcome me back again. (Radio, media, and the fans especially) When I finally made the decision to return, it was amazing how much positive feedback I received from my supporters in the industry. They gave me their support and showed their love. It helped me realize that I could do this, and in fact it built up my confidence. When the doors started beginning to open, that was when I started to believe in myself again. I thought to myself, “I do know how to do this, I do know how to run a show, I’m going to make this happen.” I was able to begin to work with my #1 choice of producers, rebuild part of my team, and I got new management. These individuals are really great people to be around.

(CSC) 8. As a songwriter, what type of songs are you attracted towards, and what is your ideal environment for writing?

(Heidi Newfield) 

My favorite environment for writing tends to be more when I’m at home. When I say home, I mean it’s harder for me to write out on the road, than when I’m home and I can collaborate or write by myself at any given time. I try to schedule my writing sessions when I’m at home. When You’re out on the road you sort of put your mind in “road brain.” You’re thinking more about the live show than anything else. As far as what inspires me to write a song...everything! I could be sitting right up in the front of my bus and read a sign on a billboard that says something that triggers a thought in my mind, and then I’ll write it down and keep a hold of it. Watching a movie, reading a book, or hearing someone saying something that maybe they’ve gone through; you think you’ll never forget, but you will, so I’ll write it down. Country music in particular is very much about life, and it’s real. If it is good country music, it’s not just a bunch of fluff. When I see things happening all around me I try to keep my eyes open and pay attention.

(CSC) 9. What’s one important thing that you’ve learned from your musical hero, the legendary Loretta Lynn?

(Heidi Newfield) 

I’ve learned so much from her, and I’ve had the good fortune of working with her a couple of times and meeting her several times. She is almost like a mother to me. She is extremely encouraging and very complimentary of my singing, which has been very inspiring to me. The number one thing about Loretta is her honesty and her down home flat out not trying to be anything she’s not. What it is… is what it is… with her sheer honestly and those are the kind of artists that I am drawn to. She is fantastic and incredible. I know she has a lot going on and she is still out on tour. She’s at an age where she should be enjoying this time in her life, and I hope she is. She’s just an amazing lady!

(CSC) 10. What are some of your career goals that you would like to achieve within the next few years?

(Heidi Newfield)

First of all, my immediate goal is as I put this new album out August 5th, I really want people to connect to it, and that’s my biggest hope, that they begin to connect to the music like I have, and my producer have. I hope that they are able to connect to me through the music. Up to now people have only known me as the fun “party girl” and the lead singer of Trick Pony. I want to begin to have a relationship with the fans, and the industry people on a whole different level as a solo artist. I want them to get to know me and this new music; I’d love to get to know them in a more personal way than ever before. As far as a long term goal, I want to reach as many people as I possibly can and I feel that there is something really special about this music. This isn’t your typical run-of-the-mill country record, and that was my goal when making it. I will continue to feel that way about future records as well. I don’t want to make an album that had one or two songs that are worth a damn and the rest are just throwaways. I want to make great records and I’m looking for a career, not just a hit song, I’m looking to build a big career. I don’t look at myself as being a writer and a musician, or want to be known as another chick singer, certainly not meaning that to be against anybody else. I just feel like there is something really unique and special about what I’m doing now. Hopefully that translates to the people and to the fans, and I hope to bring it to a really large audience.

(CSC) 11. You are known for giving highly energetic performances, what’s your pre-show secret?

(Heidi Newfield) 

I warm my voice up a little bit and then we sit in the back and get the guitars out and warm up vocally. It gets everyone fired up for the show. My new band is just fantastic, the morale, the energy level on stage, and the talent level on stage is ridiculous. I have so much fun drawing off of these guys as much as they are me, and in turn we feed off of the fans as much as they do us as well. I say a little prayer to myself and amp myself up. We all get together and high five and look each other in the eye and then say “Get up there and kick some ass, and have a great show!” (Laughs) We get each others psyche up and the music just takes you away!

Check out our promo from Heidi Newfield below;