Teresa Peterson

The new featured artist this week on the Catholic Playlist show is Teresa Peterson. Based in Philadelphia, Teresa is a singer/songwriter and worship leader who is set to release a new EP titled “Freely Fully” on February 10, 2015. It’s been a journey of perseverance and discovery for Teresa to reach this point in her career. As she describes it, “I had my own idea of how my music was going to go. My career. My path. My future. When that didn’t happen in the way I planned, I thought perhaps God didn’t want to use me. That my dreams were meant to die and stay buried, deep below the ground. But thankfully, our God is a God of resurrection. Our God is a God of hope. Our God is a God of faithfulness. It was in this resurrection process where these songs came from.”

Freely Fully from Teresa PetersonWe’re pleased to debut the first single “Calling Me Higher” from her EP in Catholic Playlist Show #71 coming out on Friday, January 30, 2015. We also had the opportunity to interview Teresa to discuss her background, music and inspiration for the new EP. Catch an edited version of the interview in the show or listen to the full interview.

You can learn more about Teresa and her music at www.teresapetersonmusic.com, plus pre-order her music right now on iTunes or Amazon - The Catholic Playlist

It was not the kind of music you generally hear in an airport. It was a piano, and it didn’t sound like a recording. A woman sang.

There, near a security checkpoint at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, was Teresa Peterson, singing and playing a 9-foot Steinway concert grand piano as people towed wheelie bags and electric beep-beep carts passed her on all sides.

She had not been hired to perform; she was hustling her music.

She said she felt a little like a panhandler. It is quite a change to switch from playing for friends and family to playing in a maelstrom of strangers in a busy hub airport. Peterson said the first time she played, she felt kind of exposed.

She played as her husband, drummer and sales department, James Shackelford, sold CDs to passers-by.

I was on my way to the Associated Collegiate Press‘ Best of the Midwest convention. This was the couple’s third gig like this in the airport. They generally work the afternoons, when they hope traffic will be heavy.

One afternoon they sold 18 CDs for $10 each. They were happy with that. While small successes are nice, they are not the goal. They are hoping for some notice, some publicity, a shot.

Once, a man who bought a CD said he would pass it along to a contact in Nashville, Tenn. That could lead to something.

I asked the couple if it was a hassle bringing a grand piano through security. Wouldn’t things be easier if she were a violinist? The “Airport Steinway” actually is owned by the Airport Foundation MSP and stays put. Peterson had been hired to play it as entertainment in the past. This playing-for-free ploy was a new idea.

Peterson and Shackelford have a lesson for the rest of us. When you transport your skill or talent to a new environment, new things happen. You attract notice, create in a new ways, make new connections.

An example from journalism: When I worked at the Detroit Free Press, many reporters and photographers cringed when editors went to assign coverage of the annual Michigan State Fair. It meant day after day of big pumpkins, blue-ribbon pies and hog calling. Let the interns do it.

But one year a photographer asked for the assignment. He set up a mini photo studio at the fair, where he painstakingly took portraits of individuals he met in the crowd. His faces at the fair project was remarkable because he did something different. He was not the only photographer who used that seemingly mundane assignment as a way to do something new.

A photo studio at the state fair is the very definition of moving outside your comfort zone. So is a grand piano in the airport.

I bought Peterson’s CD, “Say Something,” and played it in the car after my trip. The first song had a few piano chords and then Peterson sang, “You’ve got a plane to catch … “ - Poynter

After kick-starting her music career in Nashville, singer-songwriter Teresa Peterson returns to Minnesota; has concerts planned in Farmington, Eagan

by Andrew Miller
Thisweek Newspapers

Farmington native Teresa Peterson is taking on a new challenge in coming months: Performing in front of a stadium full of people.

Sports fans, no less.

The 27-year-old alternative-pop singer has signed on to sing the national anthem at three St. Paul Saints baseball games this summer.

Is the prospect of singing in front of 6,000 people a little daunting?

“I’ll definitely be practicing quite a bit beforehand,” Peterson said of her Midway Stadium debut at the Saints game on May 29.

The 2001 graduate of Farmington High School has also lined up performances of her own music at south-metro venues in the next month: at the Ugly Mug in Farmington on May 22, and at Pardon My French in Eagan on June 19.

The Ugly Mug show holds a special significance for Peterson: It’s where she cut her teeth as a live performer, before moving to Nashville four years ago to kick start her music career.

During Peterson’s senior year of high school, she began singing country music at The Ugly Mug with her father, Chuck, who accompanied her on guitar.

She went on to attend McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul and earned a degree in vocal performance before heading to Nashville.

Big things happened during Peterson’s Nashville years: She released her first CD, “Say Something,” and she met James Shackelford who became her drummer and manager – and her husband.

She and Shackelford moved back to Minnesota last year in hopes of building a fanbase for her music in her home state.

“Minnesota is an easier place to get out and play music,” she said, noting that it’s tough to book regular gigs in Nashville because the city is saturated with young musicians.

Peterson, who did a five-state tour with her backing band in March and plans to head into the studio next year to record her second album, now lives in St. Paul and works as a piano teacher during the day.

Her album, “Say Something,” is available at www.cdbaby.com/cd/teresapeterson. Her summer performance schedule is at www.myspace.com/teresapetersonmusic.

IN BRIEF: Alternative-pop singer and Farmington native Teresa Peterson will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, May 22, at coffee/wine bar The Ugly Mug, 18450 Pilot Knob Road, Farmington. There’s no cover charge.

Andrew Miller is at andrew.miller@ecm-inc.com. - This Week