Forging an illustrious music career & constantly taking the stage with her Father & siblings, - Mr. Pete Escovedo & Family - at various concerts & festivals, Ms. Sheila Escovedo took some precious time to hang out a little bit with Terrill & speak on the upcoming "Angels In The Vineyard" event coming Sat. Aug. 8th in Temecula, Ca., Her recent performances & lots more! We welcome Sheila to T.U.M.S.!!

(Interview held June 2009)

TERRILL:      I got Sheila Escovedo in the house! What’s up Sheila?

SHEILA:        How are you doing?

TERRILL:     I’m hanging tight, girl. I’m trying to do my thing, how about you?

SHEILA:        Working hard.

TERRILL:     Working hard, huh? Getting ready for that Playboy Jazz Festival next week?

SHEILA:        Uh, not getting ready but I’m ready to play!

TERRILL:     You’re always ready to play.

SHEILA:        Absolutely.

TERRILL:     So what should we come to expect from you next week?

SHEILA:        It’s going to be pretty exciting. I’m going to be performing with my family – my dad (Pete Escovedo), my brother Peter Michael, and my brother Juan. So it’s going to be pretty exciting. We have a lot of fun. This is our second time playing the Playboy Jazz Festival with family. So we’re really excited about it.

TERRILL:     Cool. I know that numerous times in your performances with the family and Ispoke to your dad, Mr. Pete Escovedo in a previous interview, that you guys tend to go up on stage and do things spontaneous.

SHEILA:        Oh yes. That’s part of how … I think the blessing and the gift of what we have, I guess for playing with each other for so many years. That we’re able to go on stage and not really say anything to each other and kind of follow each other in a way and make up stuff and be able to come out of it at the end together.

TERRILL:     That’s right! I caught you last year at the L.A. Jazz Festival. We noticed that you … and of course the family, came up and put out some real nice material . Then you’ll fade back to the old school groove and drop some of "The Glamorous Life” and some recordings you had back in the day on the fans. Are we going to expect to see some stuff like that again?

SHEILA:        I don’t know. You have to show up to find out.

TERRILL:     Oh, Sheila, I’m going to be there!

SHEILA:        Oh good.

TERRILL:     I look forward to meeting you hopefully.

SHEILA:        Good.

TERRILL:     Well, also talk to us about some of the things you got going on now in terms of current projects. You got anything boiling, a new project coming out?

SHEILA:        Yes. There’re a lot of things going on, but I don’t like to sit here and talk about it . But I’d rather talk about my foundation – Elevate Hope Foundation. People can go to the Web site elevatehope.org and check out to see what we’re doing. We have a new campaign that’s going on now called the “Dollar Campaign,” and anyone who gives a dollar, just a dollar donation, makes a huge difference. And I mean I think everyone has a dollar that we can give.

TERRILL:     Right.

SHEILA:        And we’re really continuing to support the kids in foster care and that’s what we do - we raise money for them. We use music and arts as therapy to help these kids. So, we’ve now recently partnered with Vista Del Mar here in Los Angeles and we’re going to have an event here in Temecula, August 8^th, 2009 as well for the foundation. So we look forward to a lot of things - to assist the kids that really need us. We are their voice. So please go on the Website elevatehope.org and help us support the foundation.

TERRILL:     How long has the foundation been in existence?

SHEILA:        About eight years.

TERRILL:     Eight years now?

SHEILA:        Uh huh, yeah.

TERRILL:     Great, great. It’s doing well?

SHEILA:        It’s doing well. It’s doing as well as it can be. But at this point, I mean again because the economy … we’re all challenged and we have to come up with more creative ways to try to raise money. Like I said about the dollar campaign: If    everyone has a dollar it makes a big difference. So …

TERRILL:     That’s great to hear. Well I hope that we as a Web site can play a part in supporting your foundation.

SHEILA:        Absolutely.

TERRILL:     Please let me know after the interview in what ways we can. We definitely like to participate in many of the different ways to contribute to different foundations for the right cause.

SHEILA:        Absolutely.

TERRILL:     And I think that’s very important like you stated about this economic time - it s pretty tough out there.

SHEILA:        It really is, but you know these kids don’t have anyone to look up to …and a lot of times they don’t know how to communicate that they do need help. This is why we’re here and this is pretty much is really our focus and has been our focus for along time. We have to continue to just really educate people about the kids in foster care, because they’re kind of like the ones that are left behind.

TERRILL:     Right. Is this a foundation you founded?

SHEILA:        Yes.

TERRILL:     Wow, go Sheila. Go Sheila, God’s blessing you.

SHEILA:        Thank you so much.

TERRILL:     He’s definitely blessing you and I appreciate you correcting me in the interview that we should … it’s obvious that your music career has spanned a pretty long time. A lot of people already know what your contributions to the music industry have been; but to bring some sort of importance, an awareness shall I say to Elevate Hope. It definitely should be included. I thank you for instilling this in the interview.

SHEILA:        Thank you very much for allowing me to do that.

TERRILL:     Anything for you Sheila. But moving right along,  we have Elevate Hope. Again, that’s going to be – the event is August the 8^th, 2009?

SHEILA:        August 8^th in Temecula (Ca.) at the South Coast Winery.

TERRILL:     Okay, okay. And there will be performances?

SHEILA:        There will be performances. There’s dinners & packages. There’s all kinds of stuff and again you can find out all the information on the Website.

TERRILL:     Go directly to www.sheilae.com.

SHEILA:        Sheilae.com or elevatehope.org.

TERRILL:     Great! Now hey, let’s talk about your recent victory on The CMT.

SHEILA:        Sure.

TERRILL:     On the CMT 3.

SHEILA:        Oh sure the Country, yes.

TERRILL:     The Country Music , ahhh …

SHEILA:        Yes, The Country Music Channel. I just won “Gone Country 3.”

TERRILL:     “Gone Country,” right.

SHEILA:        “Gone Country 3”...Yes.

TERRILL:      How did it feel to win an award in the country music genre?

SHEILA:        Well, it was pretty good. It was more like we … part of the challenge was to be able to write a country song, which I never really done. I have attempted on my third record called "Wednesday Like A River", but this was a little bit different. We were in Nashville. We were in a house with six other artists, under the same roof for about 10 or11days. And they threw different challenges with us, to us, but we also had to write a country song with the idea and then perform it. So  it was a lot of fun. I had a great time, a lot of great experiences. I got to do things I thought I’d never do or be challenged to do.  I was able to spend time with the men and women in service who serve our country. Get their vibes which was really awesome. And I learned a lot about myself and other people that I thought I knew, but you don’t know until  you live with someone. I was able to shoot a video and the song is called “The Glorious Train.” (see video below)

TERRILL:     “The Glorious Train?”

SHEILA:        Yes. You can go onto the Web site at sheilae.com and see the video, the new video so …

TERRILL:     How about doing any other reality music challenges in the future? I mean are you always open to try different music genres other than R&B or maybe even gospel?

SHEILA:        I’ve done just about everything except polka. It’s the only thing I haven’t done yet. I grew up listening to Latin Jazz and I find it in R&B artists and then I crossed over to pop.  I’ve played Salsa music, I’ve played with you know a lot of gospel artists. I’ve done gospel songs on my records and country music definitely was something that I always wanted to do. And also growing up I played the violin. I played classical music for five years....so I just love really good music. Music is inspiring and it makes me feel good. And it makes part of actually who I am in my life. So, it’s really important for me to listen to really good music, to play good music and be inspired by it.So you know if there’re other opportunities out there for me to do something that I would have a great time doing, I’ll definitely do it. I’m open to do it.

TERRILL:     Going back a little bit to Salsa music, and playing salsa music and growing up on Latin jazz, you’re also a co-owner of the now very popular club Conga Room in Los Angeles.

SHEILA:        Yes.

TERRILL:     How’s that going for you?

SHEILA:        It’s going good.

TERRILL:     I hear that the Conga Room has taken on a lot of different activities and I guess there’s a big Salsa competition going on over there.

SHEILA:        There is right now. There’s a Salsa dance competition going on right now and it’s doing really well. We’ve been open since December now I think,um,but it’s doing well. I mean it’s in a great location, 'cause it’s right in downtown Los Angeles, right in the L.A. Live area, right next door to the Staples Center. Right next to the Nokia Club, Nokia Theatre, the ESPN building. I mean, we’re right there in the heart of the Mecca of now... the new hang out place/spot. It’s doing really well and now we try to bring a variety of different music there. It’s kind of like world music I should say. Because it is not just Latin or Jazz or Salsa, but we got R&B artists coming in. Prince has played. They can also go on the Web site the Conga Room and see who’s going to perform – we have different Latin bands Thursday, Friday, & Saturdays. And so, we’re doing pretty good. We’re having a great time. Trevor Ariza is one of the investors as well from the Lakers, which I am excited about.

TERRILL:     Oh good for you. That’s right, that’s right. And Will.i.am?

SHEILA:        Will.i.am is there right.

TERRILL:     And Jimmy Smits?

SHEILA:        Yes, Jimmy Smits and Paul Rodriguez. So, it’s a really good group of people.

TERRILL:     Yeah, Jennifer Lopez too, huh?

SHEILA:        Uh… She was there at the beginning, but I haven’t seen her in a while. But shes till is one of the owners.

TERRILL:     Oh cool. Congratulations on that venture!

TERRILL:     It just sounds like you’re really getting out there and putting a lot of effort in following your passion.

SHEILA:        Yes.

TERRILL:     This interview is really not all about so much your music but a lot of the things that you’re spiritually passionate about doing. I think that’s a very important detail about you in terms of your character and how people really enjoy you more as a person as opposed to a well defined musician. I can’t wait to see you at the Playboy.

SHEILA:        Thank you so much. Thank you.

TERRILL:     I love your music.… every time you get down girl, I mean you get down and I really enjoy it.

SHEILA:        Oh cool, thank you.

TERRILL:     Would you mind talking about whether or not you have any projects coming up or would you like to save that for a part two of an interview down the line?

SHEILA:        We can do a part two, 'cause there’s tons. So we can absolutely do a part two!

TERRILL:     Okay, we’ll do that and I won’t take too much of your time.

SHEILA:        Okay, thank you so much.

TERRILL:     'Oh Sheila', thank you.