KENAN RAINWATER
The River Flows
Primary Sound Studio session with Sarah Kenny, Dan Bilger, Kenan Rainwater, Darrick Day, and Laura Wanner. photo by Cindy Steele
~ by Lee Edgren
Thin and intense, singersongwriter Kenan Rainwater has direct blue eyes and a voice that has been compared to Johnny Cash’ s. It’ s a deep baritone that can carry a hard edge, but it holds enough raw longing to qualify for the comparison. As one of the Indiana Boys( IB), Rainwater has been adding electricity to the Brown County and central Indiana music scene for the last four years. And now, he’ s stepped out on his own with the New Year’ s release of his first solo album, The River Flows.
Electric guitar throughout, and the doo-wop rhythms and harmonies of the first three songs, tell you that Rainwater is definitely into something new. The music is danceable and light, filled with the nostalgic sound of the seemingly more innocent 1950s.
All the songs on the album show blues guitar influences, bends in notes and shifts in rhythms that are a definite step away from the bluegrass-rooted sound of the Indiana Boys. His harmonica playing is more soulful, less confined by the beat. Yet, IB fans will feel at home with songs like“ Harlan County” and the album’ s title song,“ The River Flows.” The genres are tied together through the instrumentation and the energy Rainwater and his band bring to every song.
Rainwater is all about local music and all but one of the members of his new band are
Brown County-based musicians:“ Picker” Dan Bilger of the White Lightning Boys, Darrick Day( of the Cox brothers) and Monroe County’ s Laura Wanner— the“ Wall of Sound” with the Vallures.
“ My current passion is local music. I’ m more and more listening to Dakota Curtis, Dave Sisson, John Bowyer and Jayme Hood, Coot Crabtree, Barry Elkins, Cari Ray.” He’ s also spending time with local roots legends Tim Grimm and Jan Lucas Grimm after playing in“ Hoosier Prine,” one of the Grimm’ s productions featuring local musicians playing the songs of legendary singer-songwriters.
Over the past few years, his growing friendship with“ The Rev,” of The Reverend Peyton’ s Big
20 Our Brown County • Jan./ Feb. 2015