Trick Pony - On A Mission
Artist Profile and Website Review by Jim Weaver

I love this band! Heidi Newfield, Ira Dean and Keith Burns make up this little group called Trick Pony and their second album, On A Mission,  is in stores now. Even though I don't know much about this group, (see website review below) I knew I liked them when I heard the first line of "Pour Me" from their debut CD. They have that well-traveled, club-type energy that's hard to find in a studio album, and judging from the title cut from the new CD they haven't lost any of that energy. Heidi's voice is what puts the drive in their country, it's sort of a cross between Tanya Tucker, Loretta Lynn and the power of Ann Wilson from the rock band Heart. If I could describe it in one sentence, to me she sounds like... "I've been a bad girl so let's rock it in the country". Yeah, that works. Listen I know the guys do some lead singing in this band too and I don't want to take anything away from them but it's Heidi that gives this band it's unique sound. I don't know if the whole album is good because I haven't heard it all yet but I have no hesitance what so ever in recommending it to you. Buy It!

Website Review: Trick Pony's newly redesigned website is another site that doesn't give you a low-bandwidth alternative. It's not a honkin'-huge Flash site but it does have a Flash intro that you can't skip and it's a "Singing Site"...  The music loads and plays as soon as the site comes up so turn down those speakers if you're at work. While it's a very nice looking site there are some things that really have me scratching my head. 
1. Why is there no bio information anywhere on this site? Let's say I'm a brand new Trick Pony fan,  I love their music and I want to learn more about them, where do I go? Well it didn't do me any good to go to their website. 2. Why would you have an splash page intro that you can't skip? Even though it's a cool intro, I don't want to see it every time I go to your site. 3. How long do we have to wait before we can hear more samples from the new CD? Shouldn't that be there before the CD hits the stores? Overall it's a good looking site but with no low-bandwidth alternative and my other questions above, this is no thumbs-up site.

Rating: Needs Work! 

Stop by the website and judge for yourself, www.TrickPony.com.