Marideth Sisco

Marideth Sisco, singer-songwriter and author, cut her teeth as an observer of changing times when at 23, she was already singing topical folk songs in San Francisco as the flower children arrived. How she got to San Francisco is another story. Her experiences on the scene at the birth of the free speech movement, the women’s movement, and the civil rights movement, which culminated centuries of work, all shaped her life and her principles ever after.

On her return to her Ozarks roots several years hence, Marideth Sisco returned to school, when she discovered she could write and sing. With the help of mentors Dale Freeman, W.D. Blackmon, Kris Sutliff, and Frank Martin III, she launched into her calling… or as she would say, she just wouldn’t keep quiet. After 20 years as a print journalist, she received wider notice when she appeared on KSMU as host of the radio series, “These Ozark Hills.” Her reputation grew when a small, independent film, called Winter’s Bone, appeared. Her voice began, centered, and ended the film. Marideth Sisco was the music consultant and principal artist on the soundtrack of that Oscar-nominated (2011) film.

Marideth Sisco has since released two, full-length albums with her band, Blackberry Winter: “In These Ozark Hills” and “Still Standing;” and a solo album, “Empty Doors,” on Juneapple Records. In 2015, she was named a Missouri Master storyteller by the Missouri Folk Arts Program. She is the 2018 recipient of the Quill Award from the Missouri Writers Hall of Fame. A memoir recording of her original band, the Davis Creek Rounders at the West Plains Old Time Music Ozarks Heritage Festival in 2007. It is also available from Juneapple Records. Merchandise is available from her Facebook store, Yarnspinner Media.