If her name seems
familiar, you're not mistaken. Tracy Newman She is
one of the founding members of the Groundlings and a
television writer, working shows like "Cheers," "The
Nanny" and "Ellen" (for which she won an Emmy and a
Peabody Award). With writing partner Jonathan Stark,
Newman created ABC's "According to Jim." the show is
now in syndication, which has given the Los Angeles
resident the finances to take a break from
television and focus on writing and performing folk
and country music.
Newman handles the guitar
and vocals, leading her band, the Reinforcements,
which includes guitarist and vocalist Gene Lippmann,
vocalist Rebecca Leigh, bassist John Cartwright,
John O'Kennedy on mandolin and dobro and drummer
Doug Knoll. The group released "A Place in the
Sun"(CDBY) in 2007 and regularly performs in
Southern California, with a focus on the L.A. area
four times a week. They play almost anywhere, from
churches to coffee houses, charity events and other
venues.
I'm excited when I dial the phone for our chat and
Newman sounds just as excited to be interviewed when
she answers. Tracy Newman & the Reinforcements
formed over 2005 and 2006, so we begin there.
"Even though I'm older than most people who start a
music career, I started it very late in my life, I
did it the same way a young person would do it, I
started singing by myself in clubs,"
Newman shares. "One night at separate tables there
was a young woman who was there with her husband and
there was a man who was there by himself and they
both started singing harmony with me on the song on
my CD called, 'Laraine,' about my sister. They
started singing harmony to the chorus because it's
just Laraine's name, they didn't have to know the
words because it's easy. I said, 'God, that sounds
so good, why don't you guys come up here?' So they
came up on stage and we continued working together,
we started a band, the three of us.Then a bass
player joined us, he saw us somewhere and asked if
he could sit in. So that's how it's happened with
everybody and now it's a six-piece band."
I ask her about her writing process.
"Ordinarily what I do is, whenever I get up, which
is anytime between seven and nine depending on the
night before, I go to my computer and start dealing
with e-mail," replies
Newman. "As soon as I've finished, which sometimes
is never, with answering e-mails, I start looking at
fragments, things I've started or just ideas. I'll
look at a list of ideas. Then I might go for a walk
and if something starts working on my mind, I'll
come back and work on it."
She also takes songwriting classes, one is a
ten-week course during which you write one song.
"As far as the music goes, I don't understand how
that happens, it just does. I play guitar and I just
sit with the phrase, sometimes (the music and words)
come at the same time," continues Newman. "In one of
the classes I take you have to write a bunch of
melodies for the first verse. I used to do that
religiously and really follow that, but then after
I've written so many songs I don't have to write a
bunch of melodies because the one melody I end up
with really is a conglomeration of a bunch of
melodies by the time I finish."
Newman grew up in L.A.
"I was a kid in the '50s. The music was not as
sophisticated, the standards were, but rock and roll
wasn't and neither was folk music. A lot of it was
three or four chords, so when I started playing
guitar, it wasn't that hard. I was probably
imitating what I was hearing," says Newman, adding
that she began playing guitar at 14. "It's a thrill
for anybody, when you don't play an instrument, to
pick it up and learn two chords and actually be able
to sing a little song. There was never anything as
exciting to me as that and so by that I mean when I
could learn to play a song it was such an
accomplishment back then and I still feel that way.
"Of course when the Beatles came along and James
Taylor and Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, it just
really, really changed music. Things got so
sophisticated musically that it separated the men
from the boys in terms of your ear. I don't read
music and I never really learned it, I can just pick
it up or I can't."
The result of her television show, "According to
Jim," doing so well is that Newman can now do what
she wishes.
"Creating a show on television is like winning the
lottery," explains Newman. "After the show went into
syndication, I thought my days are numbered, I can
leave any time I want because it'll take care of a
certainly a number of years when I won't have to
work. It's hard to be a full-time writer and have a
day job."
So what else is she doing with her time?
"I'm finally redoing my kitchen," Newman says. "I'm
kind of doing what a lot of women my age start
doing, I'm cleaning up, trying to get rid of a bunch
of things, organizing my house and my kitchen and
there's a part of me who could stay at home all the
time and do that and never go out. When I say never
go out, I mean except for a walk, I would never be
performing.
"I happen to love performing, but when I look ahead
a week and I see I've booked a show for every night,
does that thrill me? Not really. It becomes work.
When you're on stage it's not work, it's the getting
there and sometimes we bring our own equipment and
the equipment is at my house, so I have to help. I'm
actually at the point now where I'm thinking of
hiring a roadie and I'm talking about just for L.A."
With so many gigs, Newman may be getting herself
that roadie sooner than she plans.
Find out when and where to
catch Tracy Newman & the Reinforcements live or
check out their music by visiting
www.tracynewman.com