StreetcredMusic: Rita Castor, The Music 'Business'.

First off thanks to my friend, Pete Carma, for again opening up his blog to let us speak out, when, and take it from me...nobody else will.

Pete likes to be brief and to the point on this blog, so here it is.

 My name is Rita Castor, no wait that's a lie. I work for a music corporation. So for me to be on social media as my 'real life' self, would lead to gosh knows what.
I have been selling, promoting, producing and working hand in hand with musicians, singers, songwriters, and wannabe's for 11 years...under the corporate structure.

Me, 1982

I call it the music 'business' because if you think you are an artist, especially if you are indie, think again. It is a business like all others, I like to think of it as selling shampoo, you may have great hair, but who will see it, who will by your shampoo?

My goal here is to follow Pete's idea when he created this blog, and always be positive.
But as he and I talk all the time, I see so many young people aspiring to get ahead by, if you excuse the Wharton, spending more than they earn. This is a no win situation in so many ways.

Here are a few: and keep in mind, if you have a day gig and make a great salary, and music is a hobby or a pastime...stop reading here.

If not, think about this...if your expenses are too high, like paying a manager, a publicist, producers, mixers, and the return on all that is less then the cost, you are operating at a loss ( business sense) not only in money...
you are probably living in a place not suitable, not being able to play the non paying gigs, because you have to pay your band, so getting 'out there' is a problem...your creativity suffers when you have to take work that takes you from what you love...to PAY OTHERS!

I'll be writing again here on Streetcred....but let me leave you with this thought, cause I have to be brief... Pete Carma had his butt sitting down with three CEO's of record factories, two years ago, and he never wrote a song, or performed anywhere, what he did was believe in the women he was trying to help break out...so I guess he believes in some of you more that you believe in yourselves????
No?
...then stop paying people who say they can help, for a part of the income you don't have to spare...get a subway pass and knock on some doors. Send emails, but get in the face of some people who can help. Jump over the PR expense, I know! I do this for a living, and if someone contacts me directly, I will give them a shot, I will listen to them.

Grow a pair, for every gig, make phone calls, send emails, NOT FORMAL PRESS RELEASES, personally plead you case to get the people you want to see you to your show!!

Not a bad idea to greet people on their way in and out, instead of hangin with your friends who got in free and will never buy your shit!!

Bye.

The Missing Links Part II. Cezara Lucia Vladescu, Jade Simmons

She calls herself the missing link between classic and jazz. and "The face of the new era"
I agree.  Cezara Lucia Vladescu
She is a breath of fresh air in music, outspoken, creative and beautiful.

"They were coming towards me. Looking worried. I didn't understand "why". Obviously they all knew the answer. So why worry when you know. My worriedness suddenly became pleasant. I guess one can always fight the unpleasant by having bigger worries.
Bigger worries became the key to all my problems.
Thank God I have a lot of those. "

 Cezara Lucia Vladescu

 GR8 video, Enjoy this wonderful musician:: 'It Looks Like Rain'

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Jade Simmons  Entrepreneur, teacher, writer, motivator, mom, amazing pianist. Her latest project in music is 'Rachmaninoff to Rap'.

"We're only human. We have a ton of excuses. Just do your best to constantly misplace them so that you can never find them when you're most desperately looking for one"

'Superwoman' Jade Simmons

        GR8 video, Enjoy::'Boss's Nova'


          Check out......  Missing Links Pt 1

Follow, Cezara Lucia Vladescu:: HERE           Follow, Jade Simmons:: HERE


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StreetcredMusic: Photo of the Year 2014

This is it, my choice for best photo of 2014.

>My photo of the year?? Every year it's the photo with the most meaning, time and place, people involved and the significance it had on the blog...Emotion is most important, the quality of the photo is secondary.

............AND the winner is:

Me and Greta Panettieri, Rockwood Music Hall, Nov 2014

 This to me is who we are. Eye to eye, shoulder to shoulder. For five years we have worked together, and been friends. We have had things fall apart, plans that we made, but we always made them turn out better in the long run.

Whether her messages started out 'bad news' or 'top secret', we were always on the same page.
She's one of those people who 'get' life. She inspired me to do this blog and as a result I have helped two hundred or so artists. We have always supported each other.....and most of all this blog never would have gotten off the ground without her contributions.
         That's just a few of the many reasons this is my
                  ............ 'Photo of the Year' 2014.
                                            Grazie di tutto, mia stupenda amica
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Here's her: FB page  give her a 'like' and tell her I sent you!

Photo by: Sam Teichman

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StreetcredMusic: Three Final Pics, for Photo of the Year 2014

Got it down to 3......... the three photos in the running for StreetcredMusic's Photo of 2014.
Chosen by me. I'll choose the winner in a day or two.

 >My photo of the year?? Every year it's the photo with the most meaning, time and place, people involved and the significance it had on the blog...Emotion is most important, the quality of the photo is secondary. The three remaining are:

Yula Beeri at the CD release extravaganza, for Kiss Slash Crooked Smile's 'Ethereal Dance'

               

Photo by Erin Pellnat

Me and Greta Panettieri, when she returned to New York City, 5 years after we first met.
     ...At the place we met Rockwood Music Hall. November 2014.

Photo by Sam Teichman

....and last but not least, a selfie, no story here, just friends.
                       ...me and Yuli Beeri

Photo by Yuli

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StreetcredMusic:: Tessa Lena, Strange Love in the Time of Kali Yuga.

Tessa Lena, my friend who writes so wonderfully, and has amazing insight that is really hard to find in young artists today, shares this with us::

Tessa Makes Love

Strange Love In The Time Of Kali Yuga::

You live until you are a fully developed, grown-up. And then you start asking questions.
Like, why do I believe in things that I believe in? All those things: love, society, religion, money, death?
Pause it for a sec. I was so smart, so carefree and so lucky, how did pain happen? No, seriously. To me? To me. No.

When my parents paraded their wounds and taught me that life was hard, I laughed. My life was easy, I knew all the answers. They warned me that I should get my head out of the clouds. I laughed.
I moved all the way across the ocean to get away from their gloom, their unfulfillment. Life is full of irony – I repeated many of their mistakes. I turned out to be their daughter.

And when I faced real fear and real loneliness (the type that doesn’t go away after you mutter “Om, Om goddamit!”, my parents’ fears were ever so happy to re-unite with my own. Then I understood.
Through pain, I learned that everything came at a price. I learned  that my freedom was a very expensive thing. I should’ve known that it wasn’t just a metaphor.

So many things have happened since I ran away and into my future. My future has started a long time ago. A simple enumeration of my life’s facts reads like a Hollywood movie – as if I did it on purpose, and it freaks me out. I didn’t.  It was not supposed to be me. My life was supposed to be smooth and easy. Is it the way it works for… everyone?
Wait, God. Why did my parents parade their wounds? And my parents’ parents? And so on, like a Russian doll? From one generation to another, passing a bowl of poison with the best intentions in the world?

My parents… Were they happy when they were younger? Did they also assume that their lives were going to be different? I don’t even want to think about it. I know the answer and it is giving me chills.
“Break the spell,  – I whisper to my heart. -  I should be fearless. I should break free. I will bite, I will love, I will love and I will bite. Because without love, nothing makes sense. And if they try to steal my strength, I will bite like a street dog. I am all worked up. You can unpause...

You live until you are a fully developed grown-up. And then you start asking questions.
Like, why do I believe in things that I believe in? All those things: love, society, religion, money, death? And suddenly, facts hit you like a fist of steel.
You realize that most of the things that you have taken in with your mother’s milk, are a collection of folklore. Random approximations, inaccurate statements seeded with a possibility for love.
Kali Yuga is not a joke.

Your heart is visibly bleeding as your perfect self is absolutely calm and unshakable. You look around. You keep a tally:
Religion::: tampered with.
Society:::a sum of individual dreams and fears. A drive for respect. Beautiful people. Largely clueless, and often envious.
Love::: photo shopped.
Sex:  medicated.

>>And there you stand, agape and alone, as a thousand commercials for panaceas for broken people are trying to invite themselves to the party.
This is not good, you think. And you realize that you are your own god, in addition to the one above. But even that, even that – you have already heard that somewhere, and the privilege cost you $1,999 plus hotel.The speaker was charming.

...And you realize that you are your own god, in addition to the one above. That you are one, and you are all. That you know nothing and it’s a promise.
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 Tessa Makes Love, is #1 on the Reverb Nation Experimental music charts in NYC.
To view all Tessa's articles here on my blog, type 'Tessa Lena' in the search box above.

Photo credit: D. Sharon Pruitt

follow me:: Pete Carma

StreetcredMusic. I'd like you to meet, Susana Raya, Songstress

 'Wind Rose' is the new project of the Spanish singer and guitarist Susana Raya.

Pete, thanks for your support.

 "I have been learning, touring and making music around the world for the past 15 years. Now I want to share my own songs, influenced by all the treasures I have found on my way"

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Considered by the jazz critic and historian Ted Gioia as “the Andalusian Eva Cassidy”, Susana Raya is a songwriter, classical trained on guitar, European awarded winning jazz singer and jazz guitarist, a graduate of the  Conservatory of Amsterdam.

 

Ms Raya has a new creation, and we all can be part of it::

 

 Enjoy this video:

Susana Raya

This wonderful project (album) is being funded here:: 'Wind Rose' by Susana Raya

We will be posting more on Ms Raya, for sure..         follow her here: Susana Raya FB page

 

follow me:: Pete Carma