Of course this information may not be of any concern to some, but for me, I'm very happy and excited by the news: Heidi Newfield, Ira Dean, and Keith Burns, known collectively as Trick Pony, have reunited!
I've been a fan of Trick Pony since they first hit radio airwaves with "Pour Me" back in 2001.
I honestly can't think of one song the band put out to radio that I didn't like. "On A Night Like This", "On A Mission", even their cover version of Bonnie Tyler's "It's A Heartache" was great. Then came 2006, and Heidi left the group.
Ira and Keith tried to keep the trio going, replacing Newfield with Aubrey Collins; however the band never really got back on track at that point.
By 2007, Dean and Burns disbanded Trick Pony. Ira went on to write songs for other artists, and Keith joined up with Michelle Poe, (former guitarist for Dierks Bentley), to form the duo, Burns & Poe.
Ira had ample success with songwriting, including the Gary Allan hit, "A Feelin' Like That".
Except for hearing that Keith had joined up with Michelle Poe, I never heard anything more about the duo, whether they actually performed, or recorded together.
Meanwhile, Heidi seemed to be the most visible of the three, releasing her first solo album in 2008, which provided her with the top 10 song, "Johnny & June", and garnered her various music award nominations.
Newfield went on to have another hit or two, touring extensively as a solo artist, though subsequent releases never quite achieved the success of "Johnny & June".
Though the three kept busy during their time apart, none of them were sailing smoothly in their personal lives.
Burns' daughter was having medical issues, Dean battled a drinking problem, and Newfield went through a divorce. In fact, Heidi's divorce was the last "big" news that I'd heard about any of the three; until today.
I follow Heidi on Facebook and Twitter, and just happened to see a post she'd made about the "first day of rehearsal". There was a photo with the post, and it was of her with Ira and Keith.
Of course this got me curious, so I had to go check what was going on. Sure enough, there's a new website for Trick Pony, with several new photos of the trio, and a write up of how the band reunited.
At this point, there are no tour dates listed for Trick Pony; but I'm sure that will change soon enough; hopefully by the summer concert season. I, for one hope that when Trick Pony does start touring again, that they make it out here to the Pacific Northwest.
Having been a fan of the band's past success, I can't wait to hear what they have planned for the future!
