Notizie
L'artista country nata a
Nashville, ma residente nel
New England, si è imbarcata sul volo 954 della
Southwest Airlines diretto a Las Vegas, dove avrebbe dovuto aprire il concerto di
Bill Maher al famosissimo
The Desert Inn. L'equipaggio, amante del divertimento, ha notato la sua chitarra e le ha chiesto se poteva suonare qualche canzone per i passeggeri.
Teresa, che non si tira mai indietro, ha tirato fuori la chitarra e ha iniziato a intrattenere passeggeri ed equipaggio con il suo nuovo singolo "Brave New Girls (Cady's Song)". Teresa ha anche indetto un concorso a bordo per i passeggeri, con l'obiettivo di vincere una copia del suo album,
THE PLAYGROUND, e due biglietti per il suo spettacolo al The Desert Inn. Il vincitore doveva indovinare i nomi delle due astronaute che avrebbero compiuto lo storico viaggio della scorsa settimana con la missione
STS-93 dello
Space Shuttle Columbia. La risposta corretta: BRAVE NEW GIRLS, il Colonnello Comandante
Eileen Collins (prima donna comandante nella storia) e il Tenente Colonnello
Catherine G. Coleman, alias "Cady", amica e ispirazione del primo singolo di Teresa. Venerdì 23 luglio
Steve Robinson, astronauta CAPCOM, ha telefonato all'artista della BNM, Teresa, dal
NASA Houston Space Center, informandola che "Brave New Girls (Cady's Song)", il primo singolo del prossimo album di Teresa "THE PLAYGROUND", sarebbe diventato ufficialmente la canzone di sveglia per gli astronauti della missione STS-93. L'evento sarebbe stato trasmesso sul canale televisivo della NASA.
Domenica, Miles O'Brien della
CNN ha trasmesso un'intervista pre-lancio con Teresa, registrata dal vivo a
Cape Canaveral. Anche l'astronauta, Tenente Colonnello Catherine G. Coleman (alias Cady), amica di Teresa per la quale è stata scritta "Brave New Girls (Cady's Song)", ha portato con sé il CD "Teresa-The Playground", lanciando letteralmente l'album nello spazio! Tornando sulla Terra, la data di lancio della radio country è ad agosto!
Biografia
Gettate ogni cliché sulla musica country dalla finestra prima di conoscere Teresa, perché niente di questo brillante talento rientra nei canoni tipici di Nashville. È un'italoamericana del New England. Non ha imparato a cantare in chiesa. Non è cresciuta desiderando di essere
Patsy Cline,
Dolly Parton o persino
Reba McEntire. Non ha fatto carriera nei locali honky-tonk. È arrivata a
Music City con i soldi guadagnati gestendo la sua attività; non ha mai fatto la cameriera. Non ha mai cercato di convincere altri a cantare le sue canzoni. Invece, Teresa ha fatto 100-200 date all'anno come artista in tournée.
Questa è una donna intraprendente con enormi riserve di intraprendenza, personalità, grinta e capacità. Quando si tratta di musica, Teresa è una forza della natura inarrestabile. Si è guadagnata da vivere per quasi un decennio portando le sue canzoni a un pubblico che la maggior parte degli artisti country non sa nemmeno che esista: il pubblico universitario. "La mia non è la tipica storia country", disse davanti a una tazza di tè caldo un pomeriggio a Nashville. "È davvero comune per i R.E.M. di tutto il mondo svilupparsi nei campus universitari, e per i musicisti folk. Ma i gruppi country? Per quanto ne so, sono la prima ad arrivare dalla scena universitaria a
Music Row."
Teresa è stata nominata Artista Country dell'Anno dalla National Association of Campus Activities (NACA) nel 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 e 1999. Ha un fan club fiorente da quasi cinque anni e ha già registrato due album da sola. Un disco con una major è semplicemente il passo logico successivo.
Sento nuovi artisti parlare di tour radiofonici e di quanto siano estenuanti. Stai parlando con qualcuno che ha suonato nelle mense davanti a persone che mangiano il loro pranzo. Ho suonato in ristoranti, club, posti con gusci di arachidi sul pavimento, gare di violino, feste, raduni country, parchi cittadini, e così via. Ho fatto di tutto per vivere della mia musica."
Teresa ha una delle storie più insolite della moderna Nashville. È una storia di determinazione, duro lavoro e perseveranza, ma la racconta con tale entusiasmo e umorismo che il tutto sembra un'unica, spontanea, scorribanda.
I suoi genitori sono gli immigrati italiani Agostino e Antonietta Pugliese, provenienti da un paesino, PIANOPOLI, Catanzaro, in Calabria, per stabilirsi a East Hartford, nel Connecticut. Ogni anno, la famiglia tornava in Italia per delle visite. Ma quando Teresa aveva 13 anni, suo padre partì senza di lei.
Mi chiese: "Posso portarti qualcosa?". Risposi: "Una chitarra". Non so nemmeno perché, ancora oggi. È una cosa davvero strana. Nessuno nella mia famiglia è portato per la musica. Ma non appena portò a casa quella chitarra italiana, mi appassionai. Suonavo con impegno. Suonavo sempre. Era la mia terapia. Era la mia sanità mentale.
A scuola si definiva "quadrata". Teresa divenne così ossessionata dallo strumento che nel giro di poche settimane era diventata brava a suonarlo. Le sue prime canzoni furono "Stewball" di Peter, Paul & Mary, "Leaving On A Jet Plane" di John Denver e "Anticipation" di Carly Simon. Quell'estate, fece da spalla a una ragazza violinista al New England Fiddle Contest.
Il primo pubblico davanti al quale suonai fu di 50.000 persone al Bushnell Park, nel centro di Hartford. Ero come un metronomo con il tempo, e molti altri violinisti cercavano la stessa cosa. Così ho partecipato a quei concorsi di violino fino a 16 anni. Ricordo di aver suonato con questo tizio, Maurice, che aveva circa 8000 anni e faceva musica pop.
**********************************************************************
News
The Nashville-based, New England born country artist boarded Southwest airlines flight 954 bound for Las Vegas where she was to open for Bill Maher at The World Famous Desert Inn. The fun loving crew noticed her guitar and asked her if she could perhaps play a few songs for the passengers.
Never one to turn down a gig, she whipped out the guitar and proceeded to entertain passengers and crew with her new single "Brave New Girls (Cady’s Song)". Teresa also initiated an onboard competition for passengers to win a copy of her album, THE PLAYGROUND and two tickets to her show at The Desert Inn. The winner had to come up with the names of the two female astronauts to make the historical journey last week on The Space Shuttle Columbia STS-93 mission. The correct answer: BRAVE NEW GIRLS, Colonel Commander Eileen Collins (First female commander in history) and Lieutenant Colonel Catherine G. Coleman, a.k.a. "Cady," friend and inspiration of Teresa’s first single.
Steve Robinson, Astronaut CAPCOM, telephoned BNM Recording Artist, Teresa, on Friday, July 23rd from NASA Houston Space Center, whereby informing her that "Brave New Girls (Cady’s Song)", the first single from Teresa’s upcoming album "THE PLAYGROUND," would officially become the STS-93 mission astronaut wakeup song. The event would be seen on the
NASA TV channel.
On Sunday, CNN’s
Miles O’Brien ran a pre-launch interview with Teresa recorded live at Cape Canaveral. Astronaut, Lieutenant Colonel Catherine G. Coleman (a.k.a. Cady), Teresa’s friend for whom "Brave New Girls (Cady’s Song)," was written, also took Teresa-The Playground CD up with her literally launching the album in space! Back here on earth country radio launch date is in August!
Bio
Toss every country-music cliché out the window before you get to know Teresa, for nothing about this bright talent fits the standard Nashville mold.
She is an
Italian-American from New England. She didn't learn to sing in church. She didn't grow up wanting to be Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton or even Reba McEntire. She hasn't come up through the honky-tonk ranks. She came to Music City with money she'd earned running her own business; she's never been a waitress. She has never tried to get others to sing her songs. Instead, Teresa has been working 100-200 dates a year as a touring act.
This is a can-do lady with gigantic reservoirs of resourcefulness, personality, spunk and ability. When it comes to music, Teresa is an unstoppable force of nature. She has earned her living for nearly a decade by taking her songs to an audience that most country-music acts don't even know exists, the college crowd. Mine is not the typical country story," she said over hot tea one afternoon in Nashville. œItÃs really common for the R.E.M.s of the world to develop on college campuses, and for folkies. But country acts? As far as I know, I'm the first one who's come from the college scene to Music Row."
Teresa was named the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA) Country Artist of the Year in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999. She's had a thriving fan club for nearly five years and has already recorded two albums on her own. A major label record is simply the next logical step.
I hear new artists talk about radio tours, and how grueling they are. You're talking to someone who has been playing in cafeterias to people eating their lunch. I've played restaurants, clubs, places with peanut shells on the floor, fiddle contests, parties, country jamborees, city parks, you name it. I've done everything to make a living with my music."
Teresa has one of the most unusual stories in modern Nashville. It is one of determination, hard work and perseverance, but she tells it with such gusto and humor that the whole thing seems like one effortless romp.
Her parents are Italian immigrants Agostino and Antonietta Pugliese, who came from a village, PIANOPOLI, Catanzaro in Calabria to settle in East Hartford, CT Each year, the family would return to Italy for visits. But when Teresa was 13, her father traveled without her.
He asked me, Can I bring you something? I said, A guitar. I don't even know why to this day. It's a really weird thing. No one in my family is musical. But as soon as he brought that
Italian guitar home, I was into it. I played hard. I played all the time. It was my therapy. It was my sanity.
A self described square" in school. Teresa became so obsessed with the instrument that within weeks she was proficient. Her early songs were Peter, Paul & Mary's Stewball," John Denver's Leaving On A Jet Plane" and Carly Simon's Anticipation." That summer, she backed a violinist girlfriend at the New England Fiddle Contest.
The first audience I played in front of was 50,000 people in Bushnell Park in downtown Hartford. I was like a metronome with time, and a lot of the other fiddlers were looking for that. So I worked those fiddle contests until I was 16. I remember playing with this one guy Maurice who was, like, 8000 years old doing Pop Goes The Weasel" and the place went nuts."
She joined a short lived band called Little Sister when she was 17, then made a local mark as a member of the rock group Storm.Storm: All Weather Rock. That's how we were billed. It's laughable. I had braces, but I auditioned and got the gig. Our repertoire was Foreigner, Pat Benatar, Heart, the Motels, Toto, and Styx. The closest we got to country was Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks and Linda Ronstadt." But when country reached out to young people in the 1980's. Teresa became one of the converts. One of the area's major rock stations switched to country during the boom and she started to listen. Almost overnight, she was singing the hits of Patty Loveless, The McCarters and The Judds in her 1986-1987 band, T and The Rangers. There were country bars popping up all over. We played VFW halls and the functions of the C.C.M.A. Connecticut Country Music Association. I never stopped playing. I needed to play. I made a living. I'd go into places and audition, just me and my guitar. They'd ask me how much I'd want and I'd say," I want $150 if you make money and you like me. If you don't like me, don't pay me. And I never didn't get paid."
Between 1981 and 1986 she had run her own sound company, working concerts for everyone from
Boy George to
Emmy lou Harris. In 1985-1987 she was a solo regular in the Manhattan bar The Back Fence, a nine-to-five worker at a property management company, a performer in assorted duos and trios and the winner of several regional country talent contests with her band. All I did was work," she deadpans. It was great." Teresa earned enough to buy her own home.
At this point she learned of the NACA circuit. But to get on it, she needed a tape. The only country notable in Connecticut was songwriter
Gary Burr, then fresh from his success as the writer of Juice Newton's "Love's Been A Little Hard On Me." I got his phone number and called him: Hi, my name is Teresa. I just won this radio-station contest and I'd like to use the money to go in and make a little tape and I don't know how hard it would be to get a song from you and if you have any how could I get one?" I was just babbling on. He simply said, Well, I guess you could come over and pick one out." At the time Burr was about to move to Nashville.
The gentlemen who were her bosses at the property management company adored her. They wanted to finance a record. So Teresa called Burr again, to see if he'd produce her. He urged her to come to Nashville and arranged for Great Plains to back her in the studio in 1989. Three months later, she moved to Music City to stay. I went to The Bluebird Cafe every night the first week I visited. I saw Vince Gill, Pam Tillis, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Hal Ketchum and Michael Johnson. I was just blown away. I remember thinking, ŒI can live nowhere else. God lives in this room every night.Ã I started driving around. One day I took out my guitar at Radnor Lake and started playing. This jogger stops, listens and goes to get his car to get his mandolin. It was Jimmy Ibbotson for The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I'm thinking, ŒMan, music is just dripping from everywhere here."
But Teresa, herself, has performed only occasionally in Nashville. By the time she moved, she was already a regular on the college-campus circuit and working steady out of town. When she was home, she wrote songs constantly. In 1991 she signed with Warner/Chappell Music on the condition that her tunes wouldn't be given to others to sing. Teresa was confident she'd have her own day in the sun.
She did a second homemade album, Homestead Your Heart, in 1993. She married entrepreneur, Ross Suber in 1995 and joined the National Street Rod Association with him because of their affection for the 1940 GMC flame-red pickup she drives.
Teresa's current album, "The Playground" co-produced by legendary queen of song, Linda Ronstadt and Nashville Record producer/songwriter, Adam Mitchell. The record will also feature Linda on background vocals and was released in June of this year, on TeresaÃs independent record label, BNM Records.
Teresa has a straight-as-an-arrow vocal power that bowls listeners over easily. "Fantastic Fire of Love" finds her delivering with rhythmic punch. "Niagara Falls" shows she can handle an in-depth lyric with subtlety and assurance. "Brave New Girls" and "The Playground" reflects the stylist's feisty charm. If it's a country weeper you Ãre after, step right up to her aching reading of "Way Down Under."
I am so ready for this album," says Teresa. I have been ready. I think I have an audience out there and I can't wait to meet a new one.
+Frank,+Margaret,+Anthony,+Joseph,+Orlando-+dec+1961-50th+wedd.Anni.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Giuseppe Mastroianni, wife Giuseppina Madia
.JPG)
.jpg){kind=link}