{"id":69797,"date":"2018-06-18T02:00:21","date_gmt":"2018-06-18T08:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=69797"},"modified":"2018-06-18T02:00:21","modified_gmt":"2018-06-18T08:00:21","slug":"rose-angelica-hits-milestone-with-platinum-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/18\/rose-angelica-hits-milestone-with-platinum-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Rose Angelica Hits Milestone With \u2018Platinum Award\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Rose Angelica hits milestone with \u2018Saturday Night Is Girls\u2019 Night Out\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n

At AirplayExpress You Are Now a Platinum Artist and a Cut Above the Rest<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Word came earlier this month that the Mingo Junction songwriter and recording artist on Century II Records in Nashville went platinum with her hit song\u00a0\u201cSaturday Night Is Girls\u2019 Night Out,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0recorded with Donna Cunningham.\u00a0\u201cReaching the No. 1 position on the AirplayExpress Country Top 40 is no easy task,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0reads her notification of the personal milestone.\u00a0\u201cTo be No. 1 means you have a song that is special, it has that something that others don\u2019t have, that being the magic of a hit tune. A No. 1 song could become No. 1 because it is well written, it has a good beat that makes people wanna\u2019 dance, a singer who is just so good that no matter what he or she sings it hits the No. 1 slot, it has an amazing melody that no one can ignore once heard, or it is a combination of all the above,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0the congratulatory acknowledgment continues.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cYour song has all these qualities, and that is why it made it to the top of the country charts, and therefore, we at AirplayExpress want you to know that we acknowledge this achievement and therefore present you with this award.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt AirplayExpress, you are now a platinum artist and a cut above the rest.\u201d AirplayExpress<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For Angelica, whose music has been on Internet radio, AM\/FM radio, satellite radio and music video channels since 2011, the desire to head to Nashville and make it in the music industry comes more than three decades after she\u2019d initially toyed with the idea. What stopped her then was the practical advice of her father, the late Albert Gron, who urged her to put her music education degree to use, a decision she respected, appreciated and never regretted. But the death of her mother, the late Joanna Gron would revive the dream in a now-or-never kind of fashion.<\/p>\n

Angelica rewinds to tell the story of her musical journey, a story in which singing was always a part of her life. She grew up on a farm in Smithfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sang in church with the choir and at Smithfield High School, and I always sang country music, oldies, all the great Temptations music and \u2018Under the Boardwalk\u2019 and stuff I still do,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Angelica said.\u00a0\u201cMusic has always been there \u2014 I was always into music pretty heavy,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0said the Elvis fan.\u00a0\u201cI can still remember when Elvis went to the service. I remember sitting there crying, \u2018we\u2019re not going to hear him on the radio any more.\u2019 I was like 5 years old.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She graduated from Buckeye North High School in Brilliant in 1973 \u2014 its first graduating class after Smithfield High School had closed \u2014 and headed off to Ohio State University on a music scholarship, earning a bachelor\u2019s degree in music education. In the interim, she became one of the first women to make the Ohio State Marching Band and continues to be active in the alumni band.<\/p>\n

She wrote songs, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI started writing in college,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0she said.\u00a0\u201cWhen I graduated, I wanted to go to Nashville and see if I could make it, but my dad said you\u2019ve got a job, a teaching offer, and it\u2019s a safe route to go. You have an income, why go chance it, why go there, and then have nothing?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Angelica said she heeded her father\u2019s advice and taught, first at Buckeye South, then Mingo High School for 10 years, where she initially was assistant band director, then director. She earned her master\u2019s degree in music at OSU, served as a music education consultant for Gerrero\u2019s in Steubenville and Wheeling for 20 years, teaching lessons there as well, and also taught at Bethany College and the former Jefferson Community College.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI kept writing and playing local around town, here and there, writing country, a little bit of everything, dabbling,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0she said.\u00a0\u201cAs I heard country music evolving, it was no longer country music, and I\u2019m thinking what happened, it\u2019s like garbage. It just changed,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Angelica said.\u00a0\u201cI thought, man. I\u2019m better than most of these people. My songs sound better than that. I know music and how to write it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The death of Steubenville native Dean Martin on Christmas Day in 1995 would redirect Angelica\u2019s attention as she would come to serve as chairman of the local Dean Martin Festival for 21 years, a leadership role that wrapped up at the 2017 observance. The event has helped raise money through the years for music scholarships awarded at Steubenville High School. A visitor to the festival moved music back into Angelica\u2019s thoughts with increased conviction.\u00a0\u201cWhat really dove me into music was a friend of mine who came here from Virginia,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0she said, referring to Dale Kennedy, who she met at a Dean Martin festival in the late 1990s. Casual conversation about country music brought the revelation that Kennedy had played bluegrass with Ralph Stanley and had played fiddle for Hank Williams Jr. Angelica was impressed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The two made good on a let\u2019s-get-together-and-play promise.\u00a0\u201cHe says, \u2018You\u2019re great \u2014 you gotta\u2019 go to Nashville\u2019 \u2014 and I said, \u2018You\u2019re crazy!\u2019 but I played him some of my songs, and he said they are good enough,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Angelica continued with her story.\u00a0\u201cBut what really sent me to Nashville was in 2010 my mother died suddenly, and I made my mind up, I told Richard, my husband, that I am going to put something out there, a song I wrote called \u2018The Wish.\u2019 I am going to put it out on the Internet radio. I recorded it at Studio L in Weirton and put it on Internet radio, and it was out there about a week, and I got five or six hits from recording studios in Nashville wanting to sign me, so I researched them, and I found Lamon Records, and that\u2019s who I was with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The company liked the song, which Angelica wrote and sang about a child\u2019s wish to be adopted at Christmas. What else did she have was the next question. Angelica explained she had other songs, but not recorded. She did seven songs on a cassette recorder and sent them on request.<\/p>\n

That was 2011.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Angelica was signed for a five-year contract and put out her first four-song promotional EP. On it was her first big hit,\u00a0\u201cGirls Just Want to Drink Beer,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0a song she\u2019d written during her OSU days.\u00a0\u201cThat song was written in 1975. My girlfriends all knew it, so when it came out, they went nuts,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt went straight to No. 1. People loved it,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Angelica said. \u201cI was shocked. I couldn\u2019t believe it, because my music is like old country music from the Loretta Lynn era and Dolly Parton, what I sing and write, and here it took off like wildfire. I am on the charts with Taylor Swift and Billy Ray Cyrus and Big and Rich, and I can\u2019t believe this, and it goes to No. 1.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThen they brought \u2018The Wish\u2019 back at Christmas, and it was on the charts for 48 weeks, and I went to the CMA Fest that year, and everyone was going crazy,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0she said with a smile, recalling those events of 2012.<\/p>\n

Angelica said she and her husband were eating when Billy Ray Cyrus approached them and said it was an honor to meet her.\u00a0\u201cPeople were starting to recognize my writing,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n

Come June, Angelica will be participating in her seventh CMA music festival, a Nashville tradition.\u00a0\u201cAll the fans come to town and what we do as artists is play all around town all week, and they charge like $10 to get in, and all the money \u2014 nobody makes money or gets paid \u2014 all the money goes to music education to buy instruments for poor kids,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Angelica explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year is huge because my latest song, \u2018Saturday Night Is Girls\u2019 Night Out,\u2019 went platinum on AirPlayExpress charts,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0she said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The song\u2019s appeal, she believes, is it\u2019s good dance beat.\u00a0\u201cPeople really like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The CMA Fests are occasion to be in the company of many big-name stars. Angelica has opened, for example, for Phil Vassar.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to going back. It\u2019s a great time,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0she said. Beyond Nashville, Angelica said her itinerary will include performing at the Riverside Casino in Laughlin, Nev., and at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also working on a song for Latino star Nuby.\u00a0\u201cI ran into her agent, and he was so thrilled because I went platinum, he wants me to write a country song for the two of us to do a duet, so that is what I\u2019m working on \u2014 an upbeat country song,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Angelica is glad she listened to her father.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first went to Nashville, what shocked me the most was how many people were living on the street who went there with a dream and everything they had in their pocket and were flat broke living on the street, and there are tons of people there. <\/span><\/p>\n

You can\u2019t believe it,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0she said.\u00a0\u201cI met a lot of these people, and they were good people, and a lot of people go there with a song and a dream, and a lot of times their songs are stolen,\u201d<\/span>\u00a0Angelica said.<\/p>\n

Her takeaway message, she said, is \u201cnever give up your dream.\u00a0\u201cDreams do come true. You\u2019re not going to live forever so you\u2019d better do it now. If you have something unfinished, you\u2019d better finish it. You\u2019d better go for it \u2014 go for the gusto.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0– Janice Kiaski, Herald Star Newspaper<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rose Angelica hits milestone with \u2018Saturday Night Is Girls\u2019 Night Out\u2019 At AirplayExpress You Are Now a Platinum Artist and a Cut Above the Rest Word came earlier this month that the Mingo Junction songwriter and recording artist on Century II Records in Nashville went platinum with her hit song\u00a0\u201cSaturday Night Is Girls\u2019 Night Out,\u201d\u00a0recorded with Donna Cunningham.\u00a0\u201cReaching the No. 1 position on the AirplayExpress Country Top 40 is no easy task,\u201d\u00a0reads her notification of the personal milestone.\u00a0\u201cTo be No. 1 means you have a song that is special, it<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}