Enjoy a Wide Range of Music from Rainbow Missy and the Grin Reapers in the Carman Community Room
The trio Rainbow Missy and the Grin Reapers promise a versatile set when they open the figurative doors to the outdoor concert season with a show on the Dinosaur Garden Lawn.
For one thing, says bandleader Melissa Seiling, all three musicians were born in different decades. Throw in the fact that they come from wide-ranging musical backgrounds. She is more of a classically trained performer, while Paul Powers’ history comes with rock and blues bands, and Bill Seiling made many Central New York wedding receptions happy places with his dance-band/jazzy style.
“We have unique musical resumes,” she says. “Very different experiences, training, styles. … The chemistry between us is good because we love those differences. We benefit from them and use them to make us a better trio.”
Those differences usually show up in the audiences that attend their shows, too, she says. So they craft a set list to reflect all of this.
“We love our intergenerational audiences, very typical at family-friendly festivals, great restaurants and private parties,” Seiling says. “We want everyone to walk away humming a tune they loved once upon a time and hearing a few new ones they can love now.”
They’re discussing what to play, she says.
They know there will be original songs. They love to write their own material. Melissa is host of the LPL’s monthly Wednesday night Words and Music Songwriter Woodshed.
“We are birthing songs at the Woodshed,” she says. “Most of the ‘babies’ are born naturally and come with the expected efforts needed to get out of the womb and into the arms of loving parents. We help each other make that happen. A show is different. Now we take songs we raised from birth and send them off into the world. Like graduation or maybe a wedding. And we really want you to like them! The Songwriter Workshop helps us craft the song, but the shows are where we release them, and it is an incredible rush to see people tapping their toes and smiling to songs we wrote.”
She says their original songs these days are in a style they label New Americana. Both Bill Seiling and Powers play guitar. Powers also plays mandolin. Melissa plays upright bass, keyboard and more. They all sing.
“Songs that make you think,” Seiling says. “Call them modern social justice folk songs.”
As for the covers …“We are still arguing,” she says. “Paul wants the diva set (Linda Rondstadt, Carly Simon, Joan Baez) and I want to do my covers of Kenny Chesney’s ‘Save It for a Rainy Day’ and Taylor Swift’s ‘You Belong with Me.’ Bill is definitely doing Jack Johnson’s ‘Sitting, Wishing, Waiting.’ He nails the vocals and rhythm guitar on this, one of the best tunes we play. That and he just has to do ‘Whiskey in the Jar.’
‘His version is perfect. He’s a dramatic guy always hamming it up, so he adds the fun factor there! Paul will sing lead on a Grateful Dead cover of ‘I know you rider’ and a blues cover ‘You Got Me Running’ (Jimmy Reed) and my personal favorite ‘Euphori” (Youngbloods). He sings these while playing some pretty amazing guitar. Not an easy task but he makes it look so.”
Rainbow Miss and the Grin Reapers perform from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, June 14, in the Carman Community Room if the weather is bad.
