Reshana Marie

                          

 

     Reshana Marie was born in Fort Wayne Indiana and grew up in a musical family. Her earliest memories are of being a very young child play-acting and dreaming about being a performer. Reshana, along with her younger sister Tasha would sit on the basement steps together and watch her father's country band practicing. She would dream about being a singer in the band (when they both weren't swooning over the bass player in the band!). During other times, she along with sister, Tasha, would go to their Hallway’s large built-in closet and fling open the wide doors, emptying out the top of it they would climb up into it and she would sing her heart out with her pretend microphone or sometimes holding a toy guitar.

     Later in those childhood years, and shortly after the family moved to Florida, Reshana would receive her first real experience singing in front of others outside her family.  At age nine, she and sister were invited to sing for their church's congregation. They sang the song “Give Me That Old Time Religion” and intermingled that tune with some lyrics from the song “Standing In The Need Of Prayer”, each taking parts. She remembers feeling very relaxed and at ease and totally loving it. Years later she had her first opportunity to sing totally by herself at her middle school for a graded assignment in music. Her father accompanied her with a guitar while she sang “Amazing Grace” to the tune of "House Of The Rising Sun". She relates “I really thought I would die, I was so scared, but I loved music and singing so much that I just pushed through it”.  It would take years of stage performances as a teenager to overcome her fear and eventually feel "right at home" on the stage.

 
    * Note: all gospel recordings in the Links below were recorded when Reshana was 15 years old  be sure to hit your browser's back button to return to this Bio

     Those years of stage performances happened when as a young teenager she started traveling the nation with her parents, four sisters and three brothers for seven years. She and the older ones performed over 200 dates per year singing leads and harmonies on original and classic Southern Gospel music. Years later and now with the rest of the family traveling in two buses, one was soon married, and then another yet engaged, the decision was made to localize themselves back in the state of Florida. Just months after that, another decision was made to go back to their father, David McDowell's original roots of country music which was instilled in him by his father, Porter McDowell. For years after, the family performed singing country music together as Sweet Water Junction Band, before deciding to retire the family band in mid 2019.

   In the spring of 2016, Reshana was diagnosed with a large inoperable cancerous brain tumor and had to undergo high dose Chemotherapy at Duke University Hospital in Durham NC. Her last treatment was in April of 2017. The next month she was found to be cancer-free and the brain tumor completely gone!
    
     Following this recovery, Reshana had an intense desire to perform more often and to share her love of music with others. In July of 2017, she put together her own band. She asked some of her family to be in her band, her youngest brother, Chase McDowell on fiddle, guitar and mandolin, her father, Dave McDowell on bass, and a very good friend, Cody Strickland on drums and
Tim McGatha on lead guitar.  Along with her originals the band performed classic and modern country with a touch of classic rock sprinkled in. Reshana plays acoustic guitar but one of her favorite things to do was to trade instruments with her father while saying "I let my daddy sing so he lets me play his bass!"  The band featured Reshana Marie and adds some variety & spice with some male lead vocals & harmonies from the guys. Original  band members before the Covid shutdown. The 2020 Covid shutdown shut down her band along with other artist in the entertainment field for some time. In March of 2023 Reshana Marie, again started experiencing some health and personal issues which she is working on. She is currently accepting 2024 bookings to perform only as an acoustic duo shows with her father, sometimes her brother may sit in as well. Check her 2024 show schedule for her appearances.
 

                                                                                * Note: all recordings in the Links above were recorded when Reshana was 15 years old.
                                                                               Listen to a chat with Reshana Marie sharing her family's musical legacy and her entrance
                                                                                    into music...at Northwest Corner Podcast. 
   Part 1 Chat    and    Conti  Part 2 Chat
 
                       
Reshana Marie                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             
           
Copyright © 2023, all rights reserved