Heidi Newfield photo by Erick Anderson, courtesy of Curb/Asylum Records.

Well I’m 5 years in to a 2 year plan
Still standing here with the walls closing in behind this open door
What am I waiting for?
Oh what am I waiting for?
-"What Am I Waiting For?"

On the threshold of that open door, Heidi Newfield and Trick Pony bandmates 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 blonde 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."

Heidi Newfield photo by Erick Anderson, courtesy of Curb/Asylum Records.

Brown and Newfield’s great alliance is never more evident than in the album’s crowning 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 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.