“ I think we have a lot of venues that really appreciate music at all levels— full bands, little duos, and solo acts. There’ s a lot of different levels for people to play— from open mics up to theater shows.”
— Dave Sisson
Sisson was set to play in August with Caitlin Spangler.
“ She’ s another good song writer, and she has a good voice. Just another person you meet and collaborate with.”
Spangler got her start playing with Mickey Harden as the roots / blues duo“ Spank’ n’ Mickey.” Sadly, Harden passed away earlier this year at the age of 45.
Sisson also had praise for The Hammer and The Hatchet, John Boyer and Jamie Hood.
“ We used to have a little side-project band,” he said.“ I feel like they are another one of the real representatives of local songwriting.”
Another bright light who came up around the same time as Sisson is Kenan Rainwater. He performs but also explores and promotes other musicians. His Rainwater Studios’“ The Stream” features performers from throughout Southern Indiana and surrounding areas.
Live streaming allows artists to build their content collection by capturing live performances to disc
as fully mixed stereo. The studio also offers help with post-production and publishing.
As a bonus for local live music fans, artists who deliver the best live performances on Rainwater’ s“ The Stream” are featured live in showcase performances at the Brown County Playhouse.
“ He’ s been around since the Muddy Boots days, we’ ve kind of come up together,” Sisson said.“ I’ m
Sisson and Sam Love in Bean Blossom. photo by Cindy Steele glad to see him collaborating with the Playhouse. It’ s good for a lot of these up-and-coming artists to have these videos so they can show then world what they can do.”
Sisson said“ Kenan has been very generous to me” with his latest project, an album of original songs, due out later this year.
“ It’ s finally to the point where I need to have my own album,” he said.“ So, I’ ve got eight or nine alloriginal songs. Some of them are collaborations with my friend Sam Love. I’ ve played with him since high school. He’ s a killer harmonica player and a good songwriter.”
“ I’ d say it’ s self-produced. Keenan and myself are doing all of the engineering and mixing, capturing everything. It’ s pretty stripped down.”
“ It will feature my songs and Sam’ s songs. He’ s playing harmonica and we brought in Frank Jones to play bass on a few tracks.”
Sisson considers Jones, from a generation earlier in the local music scene, as“ probably my biggest influence.”
“ Frank is just the best,” he said.“ If you want to see a true legend songwriter, you should catch him. He’ s always just at the top of his game.
“ I’ m excited to get the word out on my CD,” Sisson said.“ I think this will be a good calling card for me as a songwriter and a little local go-to guy. I want to make it available to stream, but I also want to have a physical album that I can sell at shows.” •
Sept./ Oct. 2023 • Our Brown County 25