Victoria Celestine leads tomorrow's music scene

When I first saw Marcus Rubio perform, he was a skinny, beardless teen whose one-boy orchestra blew me away at Blue Star in 2004. He was 16, and there was no Gospel Choir of Pillows then — just him, his voice, guitar, violin, and a looping pedal that did wonders. But there was more: there were songs. Actual, good songs, better than the material written by the average adult. (I would later learn he could write too, and he's becoming a regular Current contributor.)

Juanito Castillo, blind from birth, was three when he picked up the first of his 14 instruments. He was Esteban Jordan's drummer during the last two years of El Parche's life, and he so blew me away that I've been working on a documentary about him since 2005. People like Flaco Jiménez, Max Baca, Jordan's brother and Jordan himself has called him a "genius," and his music hasn't even matured yet.

Eighteen-year-old power singer/bassist Jennifer Espinoza (see "How Southside's Jennifer Espinoza became Freddy Mercury" December 21, 2011) was handpicked by Roger Taylor himself to tour North America with "The Queen Extravaganza" starting in May. Her siblings are musical too: Jessica is 21 and Oscar is 23; old by comparison, they've already been playing together for years.

Frequently, people feed me names of young performers or send me MP3s with the music of boys and girls who can't legally drink or drive but who can nevertheless outplay most musicians that cross their paths.
Here's just a handful of new faces we recommend. If you have other names, send them our way ... preferably before they grow up. — Enrique Lopetegui

Victoria Celestine

"Oh wow," exclaimed producer Gordon Raphael (the Strokes, Regina Spektor) upon seeing Victoria Celestine perform at the G.I.G. in 2011. "I am watching someone who may be a new Patsy Cline set into the modern world!" With such high praise, an album already released, and several gigs performed around the city, the only thing singer/songwriter Victoria Celestine is missing is a driver's license. At a mere 15, she's already performed at the Indie Music Channel Indoor Music Festival at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., won the Jack Skiles music scholarship from the Texas Music Coalition, and been nominated for Best Singer-songwriter in Hollywood's Artist in Music Awards

After spotting Celestine at the G.I.G., Raphael produced a handful of tracks for her at his studio. Later, Jacob Sciba produced the full-length From the Outside, featuring artwork entirely done by Celestine (reviewed at the Current on November 22, 2011). "Her music's tight and original … informed by the singer-songwriter style, but there was a little of Texas/country honesty in there," Raphael told the Current via email. "Her songs have witty, intelligent observations, and a whole lot of accomplished musical ambition on display."

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