Those of you who have my CD ( A Place in the Sun ") or have seen my live shows, know my song "Laraine," but others of you out there may not. My sister is Laraine Newman from the original "Saturday Night Live" - Not Ready For Prime Time Players. (The women were Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman. The men were Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd and Garret Morris.)My song talks a little about those days, and then you get a glimpse of Laraine's life these days. It's pretty nice, and you might want to check it out.The cool place to hear it right now is on an amazing site I've joined -- www.myrecordlabel.net . I highly recommend this new place to be heard and seen. Their video quality is astonishing compared to other places, and it seems to get better each day. See for yourself - check out my video of "Laraine" right above this blurb!
-Tracy
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"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. For more on Tracy, visit her website, www.tracynewman.com."
-Garret Swayne for the Cafe Bellissimo Main Street Songwriters Showcase newsletter
