Calvin Rainwater

Calvin Rainwater is a true-blue, Arizona born and bred country music artist. Gifted with musical prowess (and a perfect name for a country artist), singing, writing, and performing is what he does best. Calvin believes in “the power of music and how it can bring people together,” and he’s making music all right – the kind that grabs hold of your soul and doesn’t let go.   Starting out as a kid with his grandfather’s guitar, Calvin has been... More

Calvin Rainwater is a true-blue, Arizona born and bred country music artist. Gifted with musical prowess (and a perfect name for a country artist), singing, writing, and performing is what he does best. Calvin believes in “the power of music and how it can bring people together,” and he’s making music all right – the kind that grabs hold of your soul and doesn’t let go.   Starting out as a kid with his grandfather’s guitar, Calvin has been drawn to music his whole life – “it’s just part of who I am.” Describing himself as “enthralled” by the guitar, Calvin began playing around with the instrument, picking things up by ear and singing Don Williams. By age eight he was taking lessons from a friend’s father and, as time went on, Calvin would seek out other guitarists and try to learn from them, stealing any riff or trick he could. Now, the skill in his playing is evident, and his sense of rhythm and cadence apparent – all earned over those early years.   Fast-forward a couple of decades and Calvin is doing music – his passion – full-time. He says, “I'd rather starve doing what I love than sell my soul for fame and fortune” – but he has a robust and growing fan base that allows him to spend his days creating music. Calvin’s fans are everything to him; he credits them as his inspiration above all else. His goal is to inspire people and, after developing his brand and performing for fans around North America and other parts of the world, to help other artists.   Calvin’s most significant moment thus far was the release of his EP, ‘Sinners and Saints.’ Full of country goodness, it is a collection of excellent musicianship and lyricism. Rich gruff vocals carry the melodies over a steel string guitar, sometimes stripped down, sometimes as part of the full production. Calvin personally wrote each of the songs featured – and you can tell. He values himself as a storyteller and, listening to the EP; a person cannot help but get swept up in the story of each track – they ooze authenticity. When it comes to writing songs, Calvin says, “most of the time it’s not even that I want to, it’s that I need to.” That kind of conviction renders perfectly into music, and the result is spectacular.   Calvin’s brand of country is true to the genre’s roots. Far from the popularized country-pop crossover, Sinners and Saints has an old-school country sound, and the tales it tells are born from real-life experience. On the title track, a ballad, Calvin sings the goosebump-inducing “I found faith in a loaded pistol; I found fear right in my own head.” Each song has a distinct narrative – on the poignant ‘The Boulevard,’ Calvin sings, “they just look away and hand me their loose change, and it all feels so strange.” He has a real perspective and understanding of the world, which translates effortlessly into his music.   “In the end we all become stories, I want mine to be interesting,” Calvin says. It sure seems like his story is pretty interesting already – and it’s only going to get more so, this country artist is on one hell of a journey.     Less