Teresa was born in Herkimer, New York before moving to Hartford, Ct.
http://www.teresa.com/
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 didnÃt learn to sing in church. She didnÃt grow up wanting to be Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton or even Reba McEntire. She hasnÃt come up through the honky-tonk ranks. She came to Music City with money sheÃd earned running her own business; sheÃs 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 donÃt even know exists, the college crowd.
œMine 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, IÃm the first one whoÃs 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. SheÃs 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.
œI hear new artists talk about radio tours, and how grueling they are. YouÃre talking to someone who has been playing in cafeterias to people eating their lunch. IÃve played restaurants, clubs, places with peanut shells on the floor, fiddle contests, parties, country jamborees, city parks, you name it. IÃve 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.
œHe asked me, ŒCan I bring you something?Ã I said, ŒA guitar.Ã I donÃt even know why to this day. ItÃs 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 œsquare" in school. Teresa became so obsessed with the instrument that within weeks she was proficient. Her early songs were Peter, Paul & MaryÃs œStewball," John DenverÃs œLeaving On A Jet Plane" and Carly SimonÃs œAnticipation." That summer, she backed a violinist girlfriend at the New England Fiddle Contest.
œThe 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 œPop 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.œStorm: All Weather Rock. ThatÃs how we were billed. ItÃs 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 1980Ãs. Teresa became one of the converts. One of the areaÃs 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. œThere 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. IÃd go into places and audition, just me and my guitar. TheyÃd ask me how much IÃd want and IÃd say,Ã I want $150 if you make money and you like me. If you donÃt like me, donÃt pay me.Ã And I never didnÃt get paid."
Between 1981 and 1986 she had run her own sound company, working concerts for everyone from Boy George to Emmylou 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. œAll I did was work," she deadpans. œIt 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 NewtonÃs œLoveÃs Been A Little Hard On Me." œI got his phone number and called him: ŒHi, my name is Teresa. I just won this radio-station contest and IÃd like to use the money to go in and make a little tape and I donÃt 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, œWell, 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 heÃd 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. œI 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. IÃm 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 wouldnÃt be given to others to sing. Teresa was confident sheÃd 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, œThe 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. œFantastic Fire of Love" finds her delivering with rhythmic punch. œNiagara Falls" shows she can handle an in-depth lyric with subtlety and assurance. œBrave New Girls" and œThe Playground" reflects the stylistÃs feisty charm. If itÃs a country weeper youÃre after, step right up to her aching reading of œWay Down Under."
I am so ready for this album," says Teresa. œIÃve been ready. I think I have an audience out there and I canÃt wait to meet a new one. œ
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