Tehachapi News

Tracy Newman and the Reinforcements

By: Anthony McDemas

Start: Jun 18 2009 - 22:00
Time: 7:00pm
Price:
Contact: 822-2326

Tracy Newman and the Reinforcements will be performing Friday, June 19 at 7 p.m.

The group is made up of Tracy Newman, Lorie Doswell and Gene Lippmann. The beginnings of this satisfying combination were completely organic. Three years ago, Tracy was performing at the Talking Stick in Santa Monica, and Lorie and Gene were sitting near the front, at separate tables. They began harmonizing with Tracy in the chorus of the song "Laraine." It sounded great. Tracy invited them to come up on stage with her, and the rest is history.

"Like any songwriter, Tracy Newman writes from her own experience. But her imagination is also fired by her musings about the lives of others. Her first song, for example, written around age 13, was called 'Betcha Have a Ball'. It was inspired by a girls' name and number she saw sprawled on a bathroom wall.

And a recent composition, 'Diane Wants a Man', is about a woman she saw on TV who's addicted to plastic surgery. You would think with such keen powers of observation, Tracy's creative energy would spill over to other media as well, and indeed it does. For the past 15 years or so, she's worked very successfully in the television industry, as a writer and sitcom creator.

She's written for “Cheers,” “Ellen” (for which she won the Emmy and a Peabody Award -- for co-writing Ellen's 'Coming Out' episode), and “According to Jim,” which she co-created in 2001 and is still going strong. But throughout her years in television Tracy remained a songwriter, and would put her own songs into the episodes whenever possible. As a result, her compositions have been sung on TV by k.d. lang, Ellen Degeneres, Eddie Fisher, and many others! This may seem a bit self-serving, but having heard a number of them, I can tell you that Tracy's songs are always clever, well-written and beautifully crafted -- the mark of a true professional.

Tracy is the sister of legendary SNL alumnus Laraine Newman, about whom she wrote a song that I think is just about the sweetest tribute one could write to a loved one. The 'Reinforcements' are Lorie Doswell and Gene Lippmann, both of whom used to attend Tracys' shows, sit in the front row and harmonize, until Tracy just invited them up one night, and they've been performing together ever since.

Check out Tracy’s You Tube video at: http://mamahillybeans.com/calendar.html#061909

Tracy Newman will be playing at Mama HillyBean’s Café on Friday June 19 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at show time and can be purchased at Mama HillyBean’s located at 426 E. Tehachapi Blvd. or on line at www.mamahillybeans.com. For more information call 822-2326.