CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland’s Diana Chittester is about to start her first “international” tour. Canada makes it international, right?
But don’t worry; the Pennsylvania native singer-songwriter with the poignant songs and sometimes-percussive acoustic guitar isn’t about to abandon her adopted hometown for the allegedly more lucrative climes of Los Angeles, New York or Nashville.
“I’ve had years of experience, going to other cities, and sometimes half the battle is getting [the audience] to look up,” said Chittester, who with Fighting Chance Records business partner and wife Jessica Rosenblatt had a brief foray in Portland, Oregon, before moving back “home.”
Cleveland music fans are a lot better at paying attention, she said.
“I have a lot of confidence here in Cleveland for our live music scene,” Chittester said in a call to her Lakewood home. “This is where you want to be to have a good career in original music.”
For a lot of musicians – and especially music fans – that’s a good thing to hear, and especially because it’s true. This may not be like the 1970s classic-rock heyday of the city, but for Americana, alternative rock and even Chittester’s indie acoustic folk rock, the entirety of Northeast Ohio is a burgeoning, bustling land of opportunity.
Especially for people who hustle as much as Rosenblatt, who acts as her agent and advocate, and Chittester.
This tour, which she’ll be doing with Royal Wood, a native Canadian who has been nominated for a Juno Award, his country’s version of the Grammys, is just one more step along that well-worn path.
“We both take the storyteller route,” said Chittester. “On my end, I’m animated and engage the audience through personal journeys [with] my songs, stories of isolation or family struggles to even personal challenges I’ve had to overcome to help me grow personally and professionally.”
Wood is a similar kind of artist, she said.
“He’ll give you the background and make you feel like you’re part of his band onstage,” Chittester said.
The two met while giving showcases at the Ohio Artist Presenters Network conference, and hit it off professionally.
“We have a very similar style, but we’re different enough that we complement each other well,” said Chittester when asked how the pairing should play out for an audience.
The tour will take them across North America (Canada’s still part of that, right?) into venues that usually seat about 300.
It’s a big step for an artist who has been playing a lot of folk clubs and smaller venues. But Chittester, with a big voice and bigger dreams, isn’t going to shy away from any challenges of larger rooms.
“The particular vibe I bring is, I talk as if there’s only one person in that room,” she said. “The audience feels like I’m their new best friend.
“If it means getting off the stage, unplugged and singing off-mike, I would do that to make sure we’re connected,” Chittester said.
That takes a certain amount of guts, a commodity which is hardly in short supply with Chittester. That shows up in a new album she’s working on. Its predecessor, “Find My Way Home,” was a stripped-down collection of cuts that featured only her guitar and voice.
“There are couple of things to this new record [that] I’m going to take a little bit of a different path [with],” she said. That includes performing all the instruments – bass, percussion, guitar and vocals – and a lot more production.
“Themes? The word we toss around there is almost a duality,” Chittester said. “A new song called ‘Freedom’ is very much about breaking away from the track of life we all think we need to be on and pursuing what we love, because you only get one shot at life.
“I was at a friend’s party and listening to the complaints about how much everybody hated their jobs,” Chittester said. “One person said they regretted waking up in the morning.
“I thought, ‘People chain themselves to a track they think they have to be on, hoping that someday they’ll be able to do what they want to do,’ ” she said.
“A lot of us, we are always waiting, and we never take action,” Chittester said. “In life, there are no second chances.”
Her advice?
“Break far from that plan and go free.”
To a large degree, that’s what happening to the new album that eventually will be the home for “Freedom.” The earlier “Find My Way Home” was produced with crowd funding. This one, she and Rosenblatt are financing, and without public or major label “help.”
“I pay close attention and read a lot about the music business,” said Chittester, who views Ani DiFranco, who started her own label at age 18, as a sort of heroine. “Record labels do not always work in favor of the artist.
“Around 98 percent of the artists that choose the label direction fail – they get dropped and go in debt,” she said.
But she’s not going it alone, not with Rosenblatt by her side. The couple wed in October 2015, their seventh anniversary together.
“I know I would not be where I am without her,” Chittester said. “We are always in each other’s corner, and that’s the biggest thing.”
Not that it’s been easy. Any couple who have worked together know the kinds of trials and tribulations just doing that can cause. For either relationship to survive – business or personal – you’ve got to have communication and trust.
Sometimes, that means saying things that could hurt, and realizing they’re not being said with the intention of hurting.
“If I have a show that isn’t good and she told me what could have been better, she’s usually right,” Chittester said with a chuckle.
Chittester’s next local gigs will be on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 10 and 11, at the Stocker Arts Center in Elyria. She’ll be in Cleveland with Wood on Thursday, March 2, at the Music Box Supper Club.
And you can bet Rosenblatt will be right there, too. With her critique.
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