Heidi Newfield Ready for Las Vegas

Heidi Newfield on the Orange Carpet at the 43rd Annual ACM Awards, Sunday, May 18, 2008 in Las Vegas, NV. Photo by David Vespie.

March 31, 2009 — It’s a big week for Heidi Newfield, whose first solo single, "Johnny And June," got a huge industry response leading to five nominations for Sunday’s "44th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards".

Heidi is set to perform the song on the CBS telecast of the awards from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. It’s all heady stuff for her — particularly because when she left Trick Pony for a solo career at the end of 2006, there were no guarantees that any of her plans would work out.

"For the album to be so well-received, to have written with such amazing writers on this record and to be one of the night’s performers on the ACM Awards is really just thrilling," she says. "I have waited a long time, and man, was it worth it. This ride is too cool."

The performance and the nominations are great. But Heidi’s not getting greedy. She’s the first to tell you she’s likely to go home empty-handed.

"I am so the dark horse on all of these," she told Dial-Global. "I am the underdog in the biggest way on all of these categories. But, how would I celebrate? Oh, I fear for the people in Vegas. I'm telling you, I'm going to take that town and turn it upside-down that night. I know they have a great after-party. So I'll probably get up and just rock it out and just have a ball and then from there on, I don't really know where the night will lead me, but I can assure you it will be a late one."

Before she ever gets to the after-party, Heidi has plenty going on. She appears Wednesday on "The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson," joins Reba McEntire and host Drew Carey on Friday’s edition of "The Price Is Right" and appears Friday at the GAC-sponsored Country Thunder festival in Florence, Ariz., with Tim McGraw, Tracy Lawrence, Jason Michael Carroll and Hal Ketchum. Also look for her on Wednesday’s ACM-related edition of GAC Nights and on Sunday’s ACM Orange Carpet Special, live on GAC.