|
 Shana
Joy Petrone was born on May 8 in Parkridge, IL and grew up in
the sleepy beachy city of Hollywood , FL. Sandwiched between
the multi-cultural influences of Miami and the hyper
sexualized and decadent environment of Ft. Lauderdale exposed
Shana to different lifestyles and unique people throughout her
life. These details are relevant simply because they have
shaped the person she is, and the music she has made.
While
Shana’s parents were always supportive of her musical
interests, she was never really all that musical. Her mother
noticed that she could carry a tune when she was around five
singing Glen Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy,” so she was
encouraged to sing and perform whenever and wherever she
could. She was also taken to musical theatre classes that she
loved; acting,
dancing, and piano were also part of her training but singing
was really what she wanted to do.
When
Shana was a freshman at South Broward High School she and her
best friend Stacey were hanging out at the Broward County Fair
and saw this cool karaoke booth where you could go inside,
pick a popular song, and sing along with the track while
everyone walking by could see and hear you performing. It was
so cool! So they sang a few Madonna tunes, and people were
stopping and listening and cheering them on. The guys that
owned the booth were Ron Albert and Steve Alaimo who were
music producer’s and performers. They were just starting
their own record label called Vision Records. They gave Shana
their card, Shana’s mom called her uncle, Paul Geallis who
was a record promoter out of Chicago and knew everyone- he
verified Ron and Steve’s resume and soon after Shana was at
their recording studio cutting the vocal tracks to “I Want
You.”
Some
time passed, Shana went to Vision to record a few more songs
with a few different producers over the course of a year or
so. She went on the nationally televised talent show “Star
Search” and lost- (with 3.75 stars out of 4) and basically
just lived life like most teenagers in Hollywood, Fl -going to
school, getting a tan, working at the mall….and then one day
Shana’s friend John came to school and told her that he had
heard her song on the radio the night before. He was able to
record it so they went to his house at lunch to hear this song
that was supposedly Shana. Sure enough it was her- singing
“I Want You” in a mix with some other popular freestyle
songs. It was
truly unbelievable! How had this happened?! Who decided to
play it? Why?!
The
guys at Vision had sent the demo tape to Power 96- the popular
dance music station- months before and Frank last name? the
program director decided to play it. That evening Shana was
driving in a car with her high school sweetheart, Keith, and
for the very first time heard her name announced on the radio.
She was sixteen.
People
started requesting the song, the radio started playing it more
and Shana started performing locally in night clubs and then
began traveling all over the US to promote and support the
song. “The song had a life of it’s own and I was just
along for the ride,” says Shana. “No one could have
planned the success of that record and no one could have
prepared me for the life that was laid in front of me. I was
so ignorant of the music business. I just assumed that anyone
who recorded a song could have it played on the radio. I had
no idea how lucky I was. I just did what I was told to do
where I was told to do it.”
 Shana
suddenly had fans and a fan club. She would pull up at school
and she would hear her song blasting out of the speakers in
the parking lot. It was an exciting, fun and still an innocent
time in her life. She was a bit lonely being on the road every
weekend. She missed home and her friends but she wasn’t
complaining- she didn’t know that she was allowed to.
In
the midst of the success of “I Want You” the guys at the
label pushed for Shana to sign an actual recording contract
and then rushed to record an entire album. Once again, Shana
did what she was told. “I didn’t know that I was allowed
to have an opinion,” says Shana. “I was no push over
generally speaking but when it came to recording, imaging and
promoting myself, I was completely clueless. In the beginning,
the owners of the record label were taking the bulk of my
performance money and calling it a management fee. It wasn’t
until I met Sal who was outside of their circle and who
subsequently became my manager, that I found out what they
were doing was completely unscrupulous. Bastards!“ But
anyway….
The
story goes on…The single peaked at #40 on the Billboard
singles chart. The following singles didn’t perform very
well, Shana kept traveling and performing but was exhausted
and bored by the one song and Vision wasn’t so in love with
her anymore. Shana wanted out. They wouldn’t let her out.
They tricked her and locked her into an obligation to record
another album with Vision. She vowed to never sing again, but
if she didn’t perform the songs they asked for she would be
in breach of her “contract” and then be held up even
longer. She hated the music business. “It is a very valuable
life lesson to learn that success is fleeting, family and
friends keep you grounded and that you are disposable to most
other people. Some may have considered that cynical but that
was my reality.”
Shana
languished for a while. She went to community college to study
mass communications, something to fall back on? She was
waiting tables on the beach, then she started bartending which
was pretty funny because she wasn’t a drinker and barely
knew what went into a vodka and soda- she thought soda meant
cola…not so much! Well, after overcoming the challenges of
learning drink recipes and watching people go from sober and
normal to drunk and disgusting she appreciated to education
that being behind the bar afforded her. “You watch people
make all kinds of mistakes and blame it on alcohol and drugs.
I could not relate to it. I always knew the bartending was a
great education on human behavior but, I was dying to get out
from behind that bar.” it was also a good way to avoid
having to go on a first date with someone. “I could get to
know someone who I might think was cute or interesting and
after a couple of visits or
even just a conversation, determine that I didn’t
really want to be on an official date with them.” That was
useful.
While
working at the bar at night she began going on commercial
castings and being seen for print jobs during the day when she
wasn’t in class. She began to book jobs for everything from
Diet Coke in Canada, gum in Italy, beer in South America,
to bathing suits and shoes. She eventually booked
national commercials for Nexxus Humectress, Head and
Shoulders, and Budweiser right here in the USA. All of this
work allowed Shana to be able to rely solely on the income she
brought in from the acting and modeling and finally stop
bartending. Meanwhile, she had run into an old
musician friend named
Orly Penate who was the entertainment at the bar where she
worked. Orly was a great singer and bass player who was always
working in the area. One of those guys who can play any
instrument, sing has ass off and make it look easy. He and the
owner of the bar where Shana worked encouraged her to get up
and sing. Now this would not
seem like much of a stretch for someone with Shana’s
experience but, she was having trepidations about wanting to
be singer ever again. She knew that singing was really the
only thing she was good at but, the thought of dreaming about
it again- of wanting success, dealing in the business of
music, facing the scrutiny of people who didn’t know her or
care about her was a challenge. But, in the end singing won
out and she began singing a couple of nights a week at the bar
with Orly and his partner Rick. Shana was happy with that.
During
those few years as Shana just waited out her contract with
Vision records her musical taste took a different direction.
She loved the freestyle music that she had recorded as a teen
but that wasn’t on the radio anymore. There was grunge rock,
r and b (that she always loved), hip hop (we called it rap
back then), regular pop music and country.
Shana’s
mom was always a fan of country music. She was a city girl
from Chicago but loved listening to the country music she
would hear during her summer trips to visit her cousins in
Wisconsin when she was a teenager.
So,
Shana was always aware of and listening to country because of
her mother’s tastes. But she became a fan on her own when
she heard Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Garth Brooks,
Randy Travis, and The Judd’s to name a few. Their style of
blending traditional instruments with more soulful and pop
sounding vocals and production elements appealed to Shana. The
artist’s looked younger, and cooler than the traditional
image of country music. Their performing styles were more
dynamic and exciting. Shana allowed herself to dream again.
Shana
was 22 years old now. Her legal obligations to Vision were
finally over. She was working steadily as a singer at local
bars and also working as a commercial actress and model. She
booked a job in a music video for a popular country music
singer named Tracy Lawerence. Shana totally dug his music and
his voice so, she was excited to be in his video. That is
until she found out they were shooting on a boat in the middle
of the ocean all day. Now, for as much of a beach girl as she
was, she was very much a landlubber. Shana knew that she would
be facing seasickness the whole day of this shoot but, decided
she needed to buck up and do the job.
In between takes of literally walking a plank over the
water and holding on for dear life, Shana would do breathing
exercises and hum to herself to keep from throwing up and
embarrassing herself in front of the director, Tracy, and his
whole band. Tracy’s drummer, Alex Torrez and Shana started
chatting during this whole day on the water. He had overheard
her humming to herself and inquired about it. They discovered
that they had common interests and personalities and decided
to stay in touch after the shoot wrapped. Alex was
on the road with Tracy, he had a family back in
Nashville and was also starting a music publishing company
with a friend of his from Texas where they both were from.
When
Alex returned home to Nashville he sent Shana some demos of
songs and asked if she would be able to get there to record
some vocals and just see how it would go. He found her a place
to stay for the weekend, got them into the studio, all Shana
had to do was get a plane ticket. Shana had certainly been
around long enough to know when something was legitimate or
not. She had faith that Al was not trying to do anything
unscrupulous and not making any false claims. He seemed like a
hard working guy from Texas who wanted to make something
happen for himself. Shana
recalls, “I could totally respect that and Al and I formed a
good friendship over time. He was always a man of his word and
he was someone who would work his butt off to get things
done.”
After
that weekend in Nashville Shana knew that she was moving
there. She worked hard, saved her money, packed up her car and
drove to Nashville six months later. Then her car broke down
100 miles out of town.
Knowing
that her car breaking down would just be part of a good story
to tell once she was successful Shana arrived in Nashville in
the cab of a tow truck. Car fixed, rooming with a friend of
her cousin’s, and with one other
friend in town Shana was ready for anything. She
thought she would start trying to write songs. She used to
write a little back in Florida but, trying in Nashville where
songwriter’s-great songwriter’s were everywhere was a much
more intimidating proposition. Before she even had a permanent
address in town Alex, who was now working in the A and R
department at Sony got Shana an audition to sing for Blake
Chancey who was a major producer and A and R head. With
Alex’s friend and partner playing guitar, songwriter Brett
Beavers and Shana went into Al’s office and sang a couple of
songs for Blake. She was offered a demo deal. That meant that
Sony would pay for Shana to go into the studio and cut a few
songs with true Nashville session players- the best in the
world- and then decide if they would offer her a full blown
recording contract.
With
Al as her mentor, advocate, friend and co-producer, they
listened to hundreds of songs from publisher’s in order to
find a direction for Shana’s country sound. They decided on
an eclectic mix of songs with interesting lyrics- some were
just silly and fun, but a collection that they thought would
reflect the non-traditional style that Shana really was. She
was a young woman with ethnic roots, who grew up on the beach-
not a farm- who appreciated the organic sounds of traditional
country but needed to sing about matters not so country
related.
At
that time, appearing “country” was very important to the
executives in Nashville. Being authentic was another concern.
In one meeting with executives at Sony, the VP of marketing told Shana that they didn’t want her to
wear cowboy boots or leather pants in any of her promotional
pictures. They thought leather pants would be too overtly sexy
and cowboy boots would not seem genuine considering she was
not from “the country.” Yes, this sounds laughable but
some people have to give their opinions in order to justify
getting paid for their job, I guess.
Shana
recalls, “My first photo shoot was strange. I was so
excited, I just wanted to please everyone. So, I was getting
dressed in all of these clothes that were cool but they
weren’t really me. In fact I didn’t even look at myself in
the mirror for the first couple of set up’s. I just assumed
everyone else knew better than me about what I was supposed to
look like.”
After
getting the proofs back from that day the label and Shana
decided to do a whole new shoot. Even with the best
intentions, tons of effort, experience and money no one,
including Shana, could capture the real girl who was singing
the songs.
Shana
went on to record a lot of songs for the one album she made
for Sony/Epic Nashville. They switched directions,
switched producers, did two grueling national radio
tours, did an awesome showcase for radio in Austin, released
three singles, three music videos, did lots of shows from
Maine to California and well, things just didn’t happen.
 Really,
that is just an example of the challenges that most artists
face once they are lucky enough to get sucked into the music
business machine. It’s not any one person’s fault but, as
Shana has reflected on her past experiences, she realized that
even though she had strong ideas about what she wanted,
knowing what she did NOT want was even more important.
Shana
cherishes the friends she made during her time in Nashville.
Music City is a magical and inspirational place. The creative
and talented people who drive the flow of original ideas and
make them come to life from music row to your car radio will
always represent a special connection between art and real
life for Shana.
So,
Shana lost her record deal with Sony, moved to Chicago where
her boyfriend and extended family were and
just allowed herself to be depressed for a little
while. She regrouped and began writing songs, doing
commercials and print work, and eventually got married and had
a daughter, Eden Marie.
Life
is good and Shana is very grateful for the colorful
experiences that life has presented to her. She will always be
searching for creative ways to express herself through her
work. She admits that she gets lazy sometimes but she knows
that singing and making music are really what she is supposed
to be doing. She is most herself on stage singing. Dreaming
about success has taken a backseat to just enjoying the
process of discovering new ways to say something.
From
the heart,” learn who you are through your life’s
experiences. Listen to where the universe is telling you to go
and live honestly.”
You’ll
be hearing from me!
Thank
you for your interest and be well.
-
Shana |
