thePULSEBy Tine Roycroft
Lori Diamond’s journey to her own record label began with a lot of love, and a lot of energy.
You might have heard of chakras, or small points within the body that are the focal areas for receiving and transmitting energy. According to Hindu and Buddhist belief, there are seven chakras, each with a different color, location, and meaning ~ the violet chakra, for example, is located at the crown of the head and is associated with peace and wisdom.
Diamond, a musician and artist, is very familiar with these mystical powerhouses of energy and is inspired by them; so much so that she decided to name her music label 5th Chakra Records.
“It started as a label I created for my own release, Mystery, back in 2009,” says Diamond. “And the 5th chakra ~ if you know about the energy system of the body ~ is related to purity and self-expression. It’s located in the throat. The name just seemed appropriate.“
Diamond has a wealth of experience in the music business and believes that the Worcester area has a wealth of great musicians. But amidst the talent, Diamond would occasionally come across artists who were, as she puts it, “dis-empowering” others to empower themselves and acting out of jealousy. Diamond felt that the members of the Metro West music community could succeed without clawing at each other. “There’s enough room at the top for all of us,” she says.
About a year after creating 5th Chakra Records, she shared the idea with her fellow artists and dear friends Fred Abatelli, Stuart Ferguson and Carrie Rowan. Together, they helped shape the record company into a cooperative effort that shared ideas, resources, leads and success.
“We promote each other’s shows. I’ll make posters for everybody’s shows, we’ll all send out invitations to our various networks when we need to support events for each other,” explains Diamond. “We just all worked together to complete physical press kits, coming up with various ideas for advertising, doing radio campaigns at the same time. We’ve done a lot of things in a much more streamlined fashion by doing them together. “ 
The record label, which includes Ambient, Soul, Jazz, Folk, Acoustic and Blues music, also has an exciting autumn planned, with the 5th Chakra Festival creating much buzz.
“The Festival will be at Great Brook Farm in Bolton,” says Diamond. “All of the 5th Chakra artists will be playing, but so will several of the artists we often work with. All in all, we’ll be bringing in over 20 musicians.”
The event is an all-day affair that will celebrate music, but also art and energy. Diamond promises featured guests who will specialize in angel cards, tarot cards, energy work, jewelry-making, soap-making and much more.
“And everyone is donating their time,” says Diamond. “The event is a benefit for the Second Chance Fund for Animal Welfare. They’re a great organization.”
For more info, please visit www.5thchakrarecords.com.
