When Sarah Stivers
says, “Hey do you know this one? Sing it with me,” she often gets an all-out
chorus going. Mustang Sally and other songs of the 50s and 60s beg for audience
participation. Fun groups move the furniture and make room for dancing – encouraged
by the tall attractive brunette with the microphone. Stivers engages a packed house every weekend
in the Power Plant Bar & Grill.
Sarah and the guys
will play a jazz standard such as How High the Moon followed by Little Big
Town’s Pontoon. She definitely knows how to work the room and keep the crowd
entertained with her clean, clear, sexy sound. Her smooth delivery transcends
genres.
“You cats ready to
get started?” she asks the musicians and they launch into Teach Me Tonight. To
the audience, “Where y’all from?” she says letting her Louisville dialect ooze.
Sarah makes the spotlight look easy, but in reality she puts a lot of effort
into laying out charts, selecting musicians, energizing the crowd and
orchestrating (pardon the pun) every detail.
Occasional shows
became a standing gig that grew into her own booking agency. But her dream of
going to medical school called. In 2010, she enrolled and the prerequisite
classes for non-traditional students did not keep her attention. In the
evenings, she was booking gigs instead of hitting the books. The week before
the next term began she knew what her decision had to be. She contacted the
school and said “give my spot to someone else.” Sarah could have easily been
working on her bedside manner instead of her stage presence.
Beyond performing in
the West Baden Springs Hotel atrium in the afternoons and the Power Plant at
night, she schedules all resort entertainment from jazz in the library to a
1920s trio on the veranda. It’s her unwavering professionalism, attention to
detail and organization that would have served her equally well as a physician,
but we’re happy her office is here.
