Long Time Friends Collaborate on a Holiday Song
Singer/songwriter Tracy Newman and actress Lynne Marie Stewart have been friends for over 40 years, having first met at the famous Groundlings Theater in Hollywood, CA. Within that time, Newman became an Emmy and Peabody award winning TV writer/producer. Stewart became a staple on Saturday morning TV as Miss Yvonne on Peewee's Playhouse and currently playing Charlie's Mom on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The friends collaborated on Mama, I Know You Ain't Santa, a heartfelt holiday tribute to single mothers as seen through the eyes of a child.
“Dolly Parton was the inspiration for this poem which I wrote after hearing her sing Me and Little Andy,” says Stewart. “I performed it at The Groundlings. Tracy loved it and said 'let’s turn your poem into a song.' Tracy was a wonderful writing partner. She’s so disciplined. I just wanted to stop and go out to eat! That poem would still be in a drawer, if it wasn’t for Tracy.”
According to Newman, “I saw Lynne recite it at The Groundling Theatre, ala Dolly Parton. I teared up. I felt lucky she was willing to turn it into a song with me. Collaborating with me is hard because when I think it will be something great I get obsessive and want to work long hours without eating or taking a break. It must have made Lynne crazy, but she stuck with me. Fortunately, Lynne knows how to stay true to the emotional core of a story. So do I. So this final product is the very best of both of us, and we’re deeply proud of it.”
The song has been well received. The LA Times' Randy Lewis deemed it as "one of the saddest Christmas songs ever, " along with Judy Garland's Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas and Merle Haggard's, If We Make Through December among others. (LA Times 11/28/12.) Even Dolly Parton weighed in saying, "It is one of the best songs I have heard in years... especially a Christmas song. I cried!"
Mama I Know You Ain't Santa is on Tracy Newman's album, A Place in the Sun which is available on Apple Music and Amazon . For more info on Tracy Newman visit her website at tracynewman.com.
Tracy Newman has been playing guitar since she was 14. In 1965 she did a TV series for PBS called "What's New." Look up those "What's New" YouTube videos, especially the song "Cripple Creek where she plays banjo." Fun! Tracy was a successful TV comedy writer for 20 years, and won an Emmy and a Peabody Award for co-writing Ellen DeGeneres' ground-breaking coming-out episode in 1997.
She has three CDs out for grown ups that she did with her band The Reinforcements, and three solo CDs out for children, under the company name Run Along Home. The song submitted here, "Mama, I Know You Ain't Santa," was written up in 2012, by critic Randy Lewis, at the Los Angeles Times, as one of the saddest Christmas songs ever. Keep a hanky close by!
She has three CDs out for grown ups that she did with her band The Reinforcements, and three solo CDs out for children, under the company name Run Along Home. The song submitted here, "Mama, I Know You Ain't Santa," was written up in 2012, by critic Randy Lewis, at the Los Angeles Times, as one of the saddest Christmas songs ever. Keep a hanky close by!
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