Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Renner and Carissa Schroeder.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Josh and Carissa. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
JR: I grew up in rural Missouri/Illinois surrounded by music from my Grandpa, Uncles and Father who all played country/western swing music. I picked up the guitar at 13 years old and really got in to classic rock and the blues. I eventually moved to California where I rediscovered country music and began to write and sing songs. I played in a punk country band called Pushin’ Rope, where I honed my skills. In 2015 I met Carissa and we began writing music together and formed Rosa’s Cantina.
CS: I started out singing classical when I was a little kid, got into theater in high school, and studied Jazz Vocals at the University of Miami. I did just about every kind of gig along the way you could imagine. Later into my twenties, I was feeling quite a bit of burn out and I decided to try my hand cooking. After three years training in Restaurant kitchens (I cut my teeth at Herringbone in La Jolla) I was feeling the itch to sing again, and more specifically, to write.
This bluegrass influenced, roots-country was the kind of music that was calling out to me at that point. I had confessed this to my hair stylist (Alisa Kautman/The Parlor Salon) who is a friend of Josh’s. She introduced us, we started writing together, and then we discovered we are both from Missouri. As our musical and personal connection developed, I decided to hang up my apron and start playing washboard!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
CS: Haha. Not a smooth road. I mean, every musician trying to make their way has struggles, but for me, there was one incident in particular that created a giant hurdle in my personal and professional life. In 2011, the man that I had been dating for about three years passed away in a skydiving accident. He was involved in a training jump with the Canadian military when he and another instructor collided with one another while piloting their canopies. They were both killed in the accident.
Even with the intrinsic danger involved in his profession, I never in a million years thought that I would end up a 28 year old woman helping to make funeral arrangements with people I had never met in Massachusetts. The grieving process was arduous, and created ripples into places in my life that I could not have foreseen. Coming into the music that I create now, there is a lot of death present, lyrically and tonally, but it is definitely underlined with a feeling of joy. Rosa’s Cantina has been a huge evolution for me in the healing process. I’m so grateful to be in a good place.
JR: Well there were and are an awful lot of struggles in this business for sure, as well as our own personal struggles, but with out that we probably wouldn’t be writing these amazing songs. Everything that we have been through is presented in our music and helps us to continue growing both musically and as a band.
Rosa’s Cantina – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Rosa’s Cantina: We specialize in honky tonkin’ good times! San Diego is flush with awesome musicians, but our harmonies and musical style are what set us apart. Besides Josh (guitar, vocals) and Carissa (vocals, washboard), our band, Nick Shores (upright bass), Adam Ainsworth (fiddle), Brent Gutzwiller (banjo), and Ben Zinn (pedal steel), definitely up the ante when It comes to live performances. We play music inspired by roots country, bluegrass, folk, western swing, and blues.
We are very proud of our first record (self-titled), which you can download from our website with the “name your own price” feature. We funded the project with tips from our live shows – we figured this way, we could give the music back to the people who already paid for it, and also allow people to invest in our future records by allowing them to give as much as they want.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
CS: Speaking for us both, I think being put on the same bill as other artists we enjoy and respect feels like success.
Alternatively, when we bring in other musicians to play with us and they say, “I really like that song.” As we sit and write this, we are out on a tour of the US South; having strangers from other parts of the country listen to the music and then offer up their stages for us is incredibly humbling. So, yeah, we feel pretty successful already.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rosascantinatheband.com
- Email: rosascantinatheband.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosas.cantina/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosascantinaband/
Image Credit:
Dennis Anderson, Eric Distel, Dan Chusid, Sierra Colt
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