"Being in one of the world's music capitals, there is so much talent here - it's practically lying in the streets, rolling around," she says. "All these new, indie bands from Nashville are breaking out on the music scene and the doors have been blown wide open. Where Nashville music was previously known for country music and Christian music, now it's becoming known for all kinds of music."
"What that means is that more talent is coming here," Newman muses. "And there are more players in Nashville's world of music and so that makes it more exciting and raises the energy in the city, creatively speaking, and that makes the music scene here an amazing playground for an artist."
Her frame of musical reference, being what is essentially a Nashville native (her Texas upbringing, notwithstanding), affords Newman an opportunity to pursue whatever her muse moves her to do: "I've had the luxury of working with some of the best musicians and actors in town - to actually be in that pool for quite some time - that gives me an opportunity to think outside the box."
And it is that very practice of "thinking outside the box" that informs Newman's selections for both of her CDs that have already been released on the GrandVista label.
"I sit around and I listen to hundreds of songs and I weed down the songs and I listen to other artists' interpretations. If I don't hear something done a certain way, the way I've been thinking of doing it, I think I can take it that way," she explains.
For Snowfall, her collection of holiday tunes, Shelean says she chose the songs she did because they somehow speak to her creative side and the artistic direction she wants to take. On the album's list of songs you'll find such traditional holiday favorites as "Sleigh Ride" and "I'll Be Home for Christmas," along with Joni Mitchell's "River" and the somewhat unexpected (and I must confess, my personal favorite) "Moonlight in Vermont."
"'Moonlight in Vermont' is there because of the lyrics, it's a winter song and it fits the album, it just makes perfect sense to me," she says.
There's also a version of "Santa Baby" that just may eclipse Eartha Kitt's inimitable original version with its own very smoky sultriness. Obviously, Shelean Newman knows her way around a torch song. She also knows her way around one of America's best-loved showtunes cum love songs, the Gershwin-penned "Embraceable You," the highest-charting cut from her debut CD Anything Goes.
Last week, "Embraceable You" ranked number eight on the ACQB (secondary radio) charts. ACQB might best be described as "the radio website of all websites." In short, it's the source for radio directors trying to determine what cuts from what albums are being played on radio stations around the country as they work on their own stations' playlists.
Since Anything Goes was completed in Spring 2008, Newman has performed the songs from the album at a series of high-profile shows in Nashville, as well at venues on the West Coast, Chicago and New York City, as well at several talent-buyers' conventions throughout the USA. Response has been exhilarating for Newman, who hopes to attract a wider audience to her unique style.
Both Anything Goes and Snowfall are now available in record stores or from online sources such as Amazon. For more information about Shelean's tour dates and performances, or to get a sampling of her music, visit her website at www.SheleanNewman.com.
