of a songwriter showcase last year at the Brown County Playhouse. One of her latest gigs is hosting a monthly, first Friday open mic event at Mike’ s Music & Dance Barn, complete with a live band for those taking the stage. The next date is 7 p. m. March 6.“ People really like the whole band experience, and it works incredibly well,” Sharianne said.
She also just began hosting an open mic every other Sunday afternoon at Country Heritage Winery in Nashville.
She hardly looks like a person who recently pushed through painful cervical fusion and disc-related surgery requiring doctors to carefully work around her voice box as they installed a steel plate on her spine. The result has left the registerednurse-by-day without a long plague of vertigo which sometimes necessitated that she held onto something onstage to remain physically stable.
When her medical work once included making home visits, she sometimes would bring her guitar for a bit of music therapy if the patient wished.“ Sometimes they would cry,” she said. She retained her sense of humor through her lengthy medical ordeal. In fact, when she completed her physical therapy, tradition required that patients ring a bell at the area clinic to symbolize their restorative victory. As Sharianne rang, she joyfully sang a few bars of Anita Ward’ s 1979 pop hit,“ Ring My Bell.”
And when social media became abuzz with chatter— later determined to be a lie— that a local fast food customer received a meal order with a once-bitten hash brown, Sharianne put the crazy controversy to music in a tune,“ Hash Brown.”
Don, Jenny Sue, and Sharianne at the Brown County Inn. courtesy photo
A family friend affectionately gave her the nickname of Sweet Pea as a toddler, and it stuck so well that most of her music promotion flows under that moniker.
“ Some people know who I am more from that nickname than my actual name,” she said.
On her website at https:// bcsweetpeamusic. com she describes her original songs, including on her album release,“ Free Flowin’ Poet,” thusly:“ If Loretta Lynn and Jewel met at a hippy fest, it would sound like this.”
Truth be told, the girl who first embraced music at the family piano generally sounds more folk or Americana than Lynn, but she also boasts a Jewel soft pop sensibility. She does like to change it up, though. For instance, some tracks, such as“ Anesthesia,” offer an unmistakable, bluesy, honky tonk vibe.
“ I try to make sure some of it sounds country, some of it sounds pop, some of it sounds like blues,” Sharianne said.
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