Rain Perry

Rain Perry has just released her third album, Men, on her own label, Precipitous Records.

Approaching the quarter century mark of her marriage, the singer/songwriter from Ojai, California created Men as a tribute to a two of the most important men in her life: husband, Bill Slaughter, and musical soul mate, producer Mark Hallman.

What does Bill think about being a focal point in his wife’s album? Proud. “After 25 years I am used to the embarrassing part of being part of songs,” he says.

Men is the sort of album you would expect from the writer of “Beautiful Tree,” which is still getting online love as the theme from the television show, “Life Unexpected.” Perry has a knack for taking the small tears in life’s fabric and turning them into a tapestry of heart-felt, poignant songs. She’s taken top honors in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition (folk division) and the ROCKRGRL Discoveries competition. She has managed all this despite a battle with debilitating rheumatoid arthritis.

We asked Rain what fans can expect from her latest musical foray – and more about Rain’s Men.

How do Mark and Bill feel about inspiring an entire album?

Bill and I have been married for 25 years this year and I’m still in love with him. Our relationship never feels settled. Sometimes we are fighting and wondering if we’re ever going to understand each other or be properly appreciated. Sometimes we are still finding out new things about each other and don’t take each other for granted. He’s an intense, devoted, good man and a great dad. I am grateful I’m not married to a jealous person. He doesn’t worry about all these male musicians, which eliminates a huge potential stressor for both of us.

I looked all over before I found myself in Mark’s world, and now he’s my musical other half. We have a mind meld. We independently named our pets the same name the same week. Mark is equally perceptive and supportive with all the women he works with – and he works with lots of women. He’s freakishly talented and intuitive and a wonderful human being. Can you tell I love him? He, too, is blessed with a beautiful, brilliant, understanding wife who adores him.

Are there other men in your life that inspired the title and the idea?

It’s a given that I’ve been inspired by many women. I’m just not talking about Carole King and Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris and Carla DeSantis [aww, shucks!] and Sara Hickman and Julie Christensen.

My dad raised me so he was obviously the main one. My album Cinderblock Bookshelves is all about growing up with and losing him. This project made me reflect on that question, and I recognize that there has been a series of men who encouraged me.

Our friend David Gamble used to let me play his pianos for hours when I was a kid. He hosted extended jam sessions at his house. My dad carried me out to the Volkswagen late at night. That taught me that music was important and I had permission to play it.

When I was a teenager, my dad’s pal Ozzie Ahlers was in some big Bay Area bands including the Jerry Garcia Band. I have a memory of going with my friend’s Deadhead brother to see him at the Stone Theater in San Francisco when I was 13. He let me sit on a crate on the side of the stage. He was cute and there were girls languishing backstage smoking. I distinctly remember thinking “I don’t want to be that. I want to be in the band.” He critiqued my earnest songs and took me seriously. \

Then there were the two teenaged guys I wrote about in “Girl in the Boy’s Room, ” Danny One and Danny Two. I hung out in their garages playing guitars for a summer during high school. After I got rheumatoid arthritis, I spent a couple of years not doing music at all. Then my friend Michael Bolotin said, “You need to be in a band,” and I sing in his. I learned a lot from him about musicianship, showmanship and not being scared to be onstage.

Tom Russell has been very encouraging and supportive. He was the first artist to record one of my songs, with Nanci Griffith on backup vocals no less!

I no longer play an instrument but I have lots of guitar players in my life. I’ve had the chance to perform with some of the best: Andrew Hardin, Danny B. Harvey, Martin Young, Alan Thornhill and the late great Jonathan Raffetto.

Somehow I’ve managed to avoid or ignore the most sexist aspects of the music I listened to growing up. I naturally gravitated to guys who were more female-friendly, like John Lennon with his epic love/dependence on Yoko and Paul McCartney with his cute, awkwardly x-rated obsession with Linda (“I just can’t get enough of that sweet stuff my little lady gets behind!”) and especially Bob Dylan. I guess I just grew up expecting to be treated as an equal.

I was influenced by all the songwriters who taught me how to write by attempting to copy them when I was a kid: the folk rock pantheon like John Prine and Randy Newman and Jackson Browne etc. but also Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen and - MEOW Online

Rain Perry has just released her third album, Men, on her own label, Precipitous Records.

Approaching the quarter century mark of her marriage, the singer/songwriter from Ojai, California created Men as a tribute to a two of the most important men in her life: husband, Bill Slaughter, and musical soul mate, producer Mark Hallman.

What does Bill think about being a focal point in his wife’s album? Proud. “After 25 years I am used to the embarrassing part of being part of songs,” he says.

Men is the sort of album you would expect from the writer of “Beautiful Tree,” which is still getting online love as the theme from the television show, “Life Unexpected.” Perry has a knack for taking the small tears in life’s fabric and turning them into a tapestry of heart-felt, poignant songs. She’s taken top honors in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition (folk division) and the ROCKRGRL Discoveries competition. She has managed all this despite a battle with debilitating rheumatoid arthritis.

We asked Rain what fans can expect from her latest musical foray – and more about Rain’s Men.

How do Mark and Bill feel about inspiring an entire album?

Bill and I have been married for 25 years this year and I’m still in love with him. Our relationship never feels settled. Sometimes we are fighting and wondering if we’re ever going to understand each other or be properly appreciated. Sometimes we are still finding out new things about each other and don’t take each other for granted. He’s an intense, devoted, good man and a great dad. I am grateful I’m not married to a jealous person. He doesn’t worry about all these male musicians, which eliminates a huge potential stressor for both of us.

I looked all over before I found myself in Mark’s world, and now he’s my musical other half. We have a mind meld. We independently named our pets the same name the same week. Mark is equally perceptive and supportive with all the women he works with – and he works with lots of women. He’s freakishly talented and intuitive and a wonderful human being. Can you tell I love him? He, too, is blessed with a beautiful, brilliant, understanding wife who adores him.

Are there other men in your life that inspired the title and the idea?

It’s a given that I’ve been inspired by many women. I’m just not talking about Carole King and Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris and Carla DeSantis [aww, shucks!] and Sara Hickman and Julie Christensen.

My dad raised me so he was obviously the main one. My album Cinderblock Bookshelves is all about growing up with and losing him. This project made me reflect on that question, and I recognize that there has been a series of men who encouraged me.

Our friend David Gamble used to let me play his pianos for hours when I was a kid. He hosted extended jam sessions at his house. My dad carried me out to the Volkswagen late at night. That taught me that music was important and I had permission to play it.

When I was a teenager, my dad’s pal Ozzie Ahlers was in some big Bay Area bands including the Jerry Garcia Band. I have a memory of going with my friend’s Deadhead brother to see him at the Stone Theater in San Francisco when I was 13. He let me sit on a crate on the side of the stage. He was cute and there were girls languishing backstage smoking. I distinctly remember thinking “I don’t want to be that. I want to be in the band.” He critiqued my earnest songs and took me seriously. \

Then there were the two teenaged guys I wrote about in “Girl in the Boy’s Room, ” Danny One and Danny Two. I hung out in their garages playing guitars for a summer during high school. After I got rheumatoid arthritis, I spent a couple of years not doing music at all. Then my friend Michael Bolotin said, “You need to be in a band,” and I sing in his. I learned a lot from him about musicianship, showmanship and not being scared to be onstage.

Tom Russell has been very encouraging and supportive. He was the first artist to record one of my songs, with Nanci Griffith on backup vocals no less!

I no longer play an instrument but I have lots of guitar players in my life. I’ve had the chance to perform with some of the best: Andrew Hardin, Danny B. Harvey, Martin Young, Alan Thornhill and the late great Jonathan Raffetto.

Somehow I’ve managed to avoid or ignore the most sexist aspects of the music I listened to growing up. I naturally gravitated to guys who were more female-friendly, like John Lennon with his epic love/dependence on Yoko and Paul McCartney with his cute, awkwardly x-rated obsession with Linda (“I just can’t get enough of that sweet stuff my little lady gets behind!”) and especially Bob Dylan. I guess I just grew up expecting to be treated as an equal.

I was influenced by all the songwriters who taught me how to write by attempting to copy them when I was a kid: the folk rock pantheon like John Prine and Randy Newman and Jackson Browne etc. but also Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen and - MEOW Online

RAIN PERRY
Men
Precipitous Records
rainperry.com

The nicest things about writing music reviews mostly for my own blog – as opposed to for newspapers and magazines, which I did for decades and still do on rare occasions – is that I only have to write about music that I really care about and about albums and artists that whose praises I want to sing. I don’t have nearly enough time to write about all that I’d truly like to write about so I don’t spend any time writing about music and artists I’m not enthusiastic about.

I say that because Men by California singer-songwriter Rain Perry is not the kind of album I generally like. I generally don’t care for recordings where all of the tracks are layered on by one musician playing most of the parts, or where many of the instruments are synthesized. I much prefer the sound of real instruments, particularly acoustic instruments, being played by different musicians, preferably at the same time. And like every rule, there are occasional exceptions: Leonard Cohen’s albums like I’m Your Man that were built around keyboards and drum machines or some of Laurie Anderson’s work, for example.

Rain’s Men is another exception. Although there are other musicians and singers making an occasional cameo on some of the songs, most of the songs are just Rain’s vocals on top of layered arrangements with producer and occasional songwriting collaborator Mark Hallman playing all the instruments – usually five or six different instruments per song.

But, there’s something about the quality of the songwriting and the warmth of Rain’s singing, that makes Men a rewarding collection.

Among the highlights are “Get in the Car,” a breezy rock ‘n’ roll tune for mature adults that includes a great Gram Parsons reference, “One of Those Days,” a mostly acoustic country-folk tune done as a duet with Matt the Electrician, and “Runaway Train,” a terrific rockabilly tune about a man who can’t be tied down that features several guest musicians, including Andrew Hardin, one of my favorite guitar players.



But the most extraordinary piece is “Atlas,” a combination of spoken beat poetry and quietly hypnotic electronic music somewhat reminiscent of Laurie Anderson’s best work, in which Rain fantasizes about what happens to Atlas, and to the world, when the Titan of Greek mythology gives up on holding the world on his shoulders in modern times.

As well as eight of her own songs, Rain also includes a couple of covers including a terrific version of “Then Came Lo Mein,” Robert Earl Keen’s story of a nervous breakdown in a Chinese restaurant.

Listening, I soon forgot my prejudices about the way this album was produced, and managed to lose myself in Rain Perry’s fine singing, her equally fine songs, and even in Mark Hallman’s arrangements.
- Mike Regenstreif

RAIN PERRY
Men
Precipitous Records
rainperry.com

The nicest things about writing music reviews mostly for my own blog – as opposed to for newspapers and magazines, which I did for decades and still do on rare occasions – is that I only have to write about music that I really care about and about albums and artists that whose praises I want to sing. I don’t have nearly enough time to write about all that I’d truly like to write about so I don’t spend any time writing about music and artists I’m not enthusiastic about.

I say that because Men by California singer-songwriter Rain Perry is not the kind of album I generally like. I generally don’t care for recordings where all of the tracks are layered on by one musician playing most of the parts, or where many of the instruments are synthesized. I much prefer the sound of real instruments, particularly acoustic instruments, being played by different musicians, preferably at the same time. And like every rule, there are occasional exceptions: Leonard Cohen’s albums like I’m Your Man that were built around keyboards and drum machines or some of Laurie Anderson’s work, for example.

Rain’s Men is another exception. Although there are other musicians and singers making an occasional cameo on some of the songs, most of the songs are just Rain’s vocals on top of layered arrangements with producer and occasional songwriting collaborator Mark Hallman playing all the instruments – usually five or six different instruments per song.

But, there’s something about the quality of the songwriting and the warmth of Rain’s singing, that makes Men a rewarding collection.

Among the highlights are “Get in the Car,” a breezy rock ‘n’ roll tune for mature adults that includes a great Gram Parsons reference, “One of Those Days,” a mostly acoustic country-folk tune done as a duet with Matt the Electrician, and “Runaway Train,” a terrific rockabilly tune about a man who can’t be tied down that features several guest musicians, including Andrew Hardin, one of my favorite guitar players.



But the most extraordinary piece is “Atlas,” a combination of spoken beat poetry and quietly hypnotic electronic music somewhat reminiscent of Laurie Anderson’s best work, in which Rain fantasizes about what happens to Atlas, and to the world, when the Titan of Greek mythology gives up on holding the world on his shoulders in modern times.

As well as eight of her own songs, Rain also includes a couple of covers including a terrific version of “Then Came Lo Mein,” Robert Earl Keen’s story of a nervous breakdown in a Chinese restaurant.

Listening, I soon forgot my prejudices about the way this album was produced, and managed to lose myself in Rain Perry’s fine singing, her equally fine songs, and even in Mark Hallman’s arrangements.
- Mike Regenstreif

Rain Perry - Photonegative of Love - From the album Men - Killer song with trippy, psychedelic lyrics, Rain Perry's haunting vocals and an arrangement that uses an iPad guitar, all kinds of percussion and a cello that floats in the background like a fog. This album reminds me of times when bands like The Eurythmics and Bryan Ferry were swimming against the tide with daring music. It's contemporary, imaginitive and damn well done! - Alternate Root

Rain Perry - Photonegative of Love - From the album Men - Killer song with trippy, psychedelic lyrics, Rain Perry's haunting vocals and an arrangement that uses an iPad guitar, all kinds of percussion and a cello that floats in the background like a fog. This album reminds me of times when bands like The Eurythmics and Bryan Ferry were swimming against the tide with daring music. It's contemporary, imaginitive and damn well done! - Alternate Root

Rain Perry
Men
(Precipitous Records)

Rain Perry’s honed her talents well over the past few years, releasing four exemplary albums while still managing to maintain a presence that sadly lingers well below the radar. Her latest, auspiciously entitled Men, affirms those talents, and the presence of producer Mark Hallman further assures the fact that recognition will finally be accorded any day now. Or at least it ought to be. From the first effusive notes of “Get in the Car,” Perry procures a buoyant pop style that blends well with her sturdily crafted singer/songwriter stance. She exudes the requisite sensitivity required by songs like “Done,” but she never falls into the mopey melancholia exuded by her less able contemporaries. Mallman’s production helps keep things on an upward spiral, and even her most despondent moments retain an aura of resolve and resilience. “Umami” is an ideal example; whereas the basic tone boasts a stealth-like stance, the feisty pulse prevents the proceedings from falling into a lethargic haze. Likewise, contributions from such stellar players as Matt the Electrician, Sara Hickman, Scrappy Jud Newcomb and others help maintain the studio sheen, even though it’s also clear that it’s Perry’s purposeful approach that instills the inspiration. “You are a wreck today, shaky and sad,” Matt sings on the soothing duet, “One of Those Days,” but given the evidence presented herein, the truth is you’d never know that at all. - No Depression - Lee Zimmerman

Rain Perry follows up Internal Combustion (2010) with the equally impressive Men (Precipitous Records-July 30 2013). She kickstarts (pun intended-see the interview) the disc with "Get In The Car", a rocking song about rejuvenating a relationship, seduction and maybe almost abduction on a road trip to "where they burned the Grievous Angel". A talented genre-jumping singer-songwriter-folkster Rain somehow weaves the five tastes: sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness, and umami into a sizzling song, "Umami", into metaphor about falling in love. But Men isn't really so much a disc about falling in love or out of love but more staying in love and working to make it work. "And the old couple on the front porch, Who's starting to look the same" in "Happily Ever After", if you believe Rain, will be you and yours, will be me and mine. The dark side/bad love rears its head on the soul-flavored "Photonegative of Love" complete with strings and funky guitar. Rain also demonstrates her ear for great songs written by others with covers of tunes from Chuck Prophet and Robert Earl Keen. Produced (and a whole lot more) by Mark Hallman (Carole King, Eliza Gilkyson, Ani Difranco). Men is an intelligent infectious rewarding disc that proves Rain belongs in the company of Tift Merritt, Vanessa Peters and Aimee Mann. But you don't have to believe me. Tom Russell has covered a Rain song. Enough said.



HB-Congratulations of your new disc "Men" and a successful Kickstarter campaign. Kevin Gordon, Sam Baker (and many others) have used it to release their music. I think fans would rather send their money directly to a favorite artist than to a big label. Kickstarter campaigns make sense to me in this new recording world order.

Rain-I'm not completely convinced anything makes sense in this new world order. But I have a "same as it ever was" theory about that, which is that the 20th century music business was an outlier, and the natural order of things is that musicians are minstrels, traveling from town to town, bringing the news of the day and singing for our supper. Except that now we are doing so online. If we're lucky we get a benefactor. In the old days it would be a wealthy patron, and now it's a spot on a Nike commercial.

That historical observation aside, I will say that my Kickstarter campaigns - the one for this record and a previous one for a music video - demonstrate that people are willing to shell out money for artists they like, just under different circumstances than they used to. They want experiences and connection with the artist. So my Kickstarter philosophy is "give the people what they want" and let "helping the artist" be a bonus. And what people want are baked goods and chocolate covered bacon. So I baked about 44 batches of cookies and canned a lot of strawberry jam and knitted twelve scarves. I was required to sing Freebird as one of the premiums. And at the eleventh hour I had a sweet and generous friend spring for my big "Austin Extravaganza" spectacular.

But the great benefit to me aside from the money from pre-selling the record is that I have approached the release date knowing that I've got a group of supporters who are excited about and feel invested in what I'm doing. Indie art can be a lonely thing, and that is very heartening.

HB-The other side of the shifting equation: The lack of ownership of music. My kids don't think of buying a CD. I read a blog post you wrote about Spotify and the amount of money an artist receives per play. I guess somebody profits but it doesn't sound like it is the artist.

Rain-Yeah, well, Spotify seemed cool but in the end all they are offering is "exposure." And as my friend Andrew Hardin likes to say, "you can die from exposure." I was stoked when I got a statement and had 50,000 plays between Pandora and Spotify, and then I noticed that it added up to about $26.00. But I have to be honest: as a consumer of music, I love Pandora. I buy music because of Pandora, which I continue to hope is the end result of having my own stuff there. But more likely it's what David Bowie predicted - that music would be like water. You turn on the tap and it's there.

And anyway, it doesn't matter if I like it or not. It's the way it is. I'm trying not to waste too much time bemoaning the way things used to be.

HB-Can you talk about the album artwork?

Rain-I'd love to! The CD was designed by Amy Schneider and David Reeser, and they did a beautiful job of incorporating an old photograph of my grandfather's Marine buddies. (My grandfather appears on the disc itself.) Amy does amazing collages - making old photographs current with vivid colors and paint strokes.

Once I realized I was making an album called Men, I had this idea of some kind of ic - No Depression - Hal Bogerd

Rain Perry follows up Internal Combustion (2010) with the equally impressive Men (Precipitous Records-July 30 2013). She kickstarts (pun intended-see the interview) the disc with "Get In The Car", a rocking song about rejuvenating a relationship, seduction and maybe almost abduction on a road trip to "where they burned the Grievous Angel". A talented genre-jumping singer-songwriter-folkster Rain somehow weaves the five tastes: sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness, and umami into a sizzling song, "Umami", into metaphor about falling in love. But Men isn't really so much a disc about falling in love or out of love but more staying in love and working to make it work. "And the old couple on the front porch, Who's starting to look the same" in "Happily Ever After", if you believe Rain, will be you and yours, will be me and mine. The dark side/bad love rears its head on the soul-flavored "Photonegative of Love" complete with strings and funky guitar. Rain also demonstrates her ear for great songs written by others with covers of tunes from Chuck Prophet and Robert Earl Keen. Produced (and a whole lot more) by Mark Hallman (Carole King, Eliza Gilkyson, Ani Difranco). Men is an intelligent infectious rewarding disc that proves Rain belongs in the company of Tift Merritt, Vanessa Peters and Aimee Mann. But you don't have to believe me. Tom Russell has covered a Rain song. Enough said.



HB-Congratulations of your new disc "Men" and a successful Kickstarter campaign. Kevin Gordon, Sam Baker (and many others) have used it to release their music. I think fans would rather send their money directly to a favorite artist than to a big label. Kickstarter campaigns make sense to me in this new recording world order.

Rain-I'm not completely convinced anything makes sense in this new world order. But I have a "same as it ever was" theory about that, which is that the 20th century music business was an outlier, and the natural order of things is that musicians are minstrels, traveling from town to town, bringing the news of the day and singing for our supper. Except that now we are doing so online. If we're lucky we get a benefactor. In the old days it would be a wealthy patron, and now it's a spot on a Nike commercial.

That historical observation aside, I will say that my Kickstarter campaigns - the one for this record and a previous one for a music video - demonstrate that people are willing to shell out money for artists they like, just under different circumstances than they used to. They want experiences and connection with the artist. So my Kickstarter philosophy is "give the people what they want" and let "helping the artist" be a bonus. And what people want are baked goods and chocolate covered bacon. So I baked about 44 batches of cookies and canned a lot of strawberry jam and knitted twelve scarves. I was required to sing Freebird as one of the premiums. And at the eleventh hour I had a sweet and generous friend spring for my big "Austin Extravaganza" spectacular.

But the great benefit to me aside from the money from pre-selling the record is that I have approached the release date knowing that I've got a group of supporters who are excited about and feel invested in what I'm doing. Indie art can be a lonely thing, and that is very heartening.

HB-The other side of the shifting equation: The lack of ownership of music. My kids don't think of buying a CD. I read a blog post you wrote about Spotify and the amount of money an artist receives per play. I guess somebody profits but it doesn't sound like it is the artist.

Rain-Yeah, well, Spotify seemed cool but in the end all they are offering is "exposure." And as my friend Andrew Hardin likes to say, "you can die from exposure." I was stoked when I got a statement and had 50,000 plays between Pandora and Spotify, and then I noticed that it added up to about $26.00. But I have to be honest: as a consumer of music, I love Pandora. I buy music because of Pandora, which I continue to hope is the end result of having my own stuff there. But more likely it's what David Bowie predicted - that music would be like water. You turn on the tap and it's there.

And anyway, it doesn't matter if I like it or not. It's the way it is. I'm trying not to waste too much time bemoaning the way things used to be.

HB-Can you talk about the album artwork?

Rain-I'd love to! The CD was designed by Amy Schneider and David Reeser, and they did a beautiful job of incorporating an old photograph of my grandfather's Marine buddies. (My grandfather appears on the disc itself.) Amy does amazing collages - making old photographs current with vivid colors and paint strokes.

Once I realized I was making an album called Men, I had this idea of some kind of ic - No Depression - Hal Bogerd

Angular guitar notes and razor sharp chords start “Get in the Car”, the lead track from Men, the latest Rain Perry album. The song picks up speed as it takes the quickest highway route out to the glory of the desert; feeling the heat and the burn from breathing in the hot air. Rain Perry songs are, at times, poetic (“Atlas”), folk country (“One of Those Days”), orchestral (“Photonegative of Love”) and always seem personal (“Done”). Her words are dipped in heart ink, keeping the stories familiar. Rain is our inner voice, parcelling out the issues in our lives with one line phrases that move the clouds of doubt away so that action can thrive.
Men delivers a ten-song storybook of what has worked well in the life of the author. Rain’s voice coaxes and pulls along as she teases with a countdown and searches for satisfaction in “Umami”, and she traces a line between now and the future in “Happily Ever After”, letting the good feeling from a hug stretch to sitting on a front porch in old age. Rain Perry uses Folk Rock to create her song foundations. Her website features her music, and expands on her art with stage work, reviews of her book, Cinderblock Bookshelves: A Guide for Children of Fame-Obsessed Bohemian Nomads, and her views on life outside of the song. Rain’s tune, “Beautiful Tree”, is the theme for the CW Series Life Unexpected.
- Alternate Root

Angular guitar notes and razor sharp chords start “Get in the Car”, the lead track from Men, the latest Rain Perry album. The song picks up speed as it takes the quickest highway route out to the glory of the desert; feeling the heat and the burn from breathing in the hot air. Rain Perry songs are, at times, poetic (“Atlas”), folk country (“One of Those Days”), orchestral (“Photonegative of Love”) and always seem personal (“Done”). Her words are dipped in heart ink, keeping the stories familiar. Rain is our inner voice, parcelling out the issues in our lives with one line phrases that move the clouds of doubt away so that action can thrive.
Men delivers a ten-song storybook of what has worked well in the life of the author. Rain’s voice coaxes and pulls along as she teases with a countdown and searches for satisfaction in “Umami”, and she traces a line between now and the future in “Happily Ever After”, letting the good feeling from a hug stretch to sitting on a front porch in old age. Rain Perry uses Folk Rock to create her song foundations. Her website features her music, and expands on her art with stage work, reviews of her book, Cinderblock Bookshelves: A Guide for Children of Fame-Obsessed Bohemian Nomads, and her views on life outside of the song. Rain’s tune, “Beautiful Tree”, is the theme for the CW Series Life Unexpected.
- Alternate Root

8

Can't live with them, can't live without them

Rain Perry's not a name that gets mentioned very often when discussing female singer/songwriters, but a quick search throws up an interesting and lauded career with her songs covered by the likes of Tom Russell and a host of favourable reviews of her previous albums. Living in the bohemian atmosphere of Ojai, California she's a child of the sixties who recalls sitting in the wings while the Jerry Garcia Band played, wishing she was up there on stage playing along with them. Despite living with rheumatoid arthritis which these days limits her guitar playing, she's managed to release several albums and wrote the theme song for an American TV show Life Unexpected. 'Men' is a Kickstarter funded venture that features her sultry vocals on a fine collection of songs and is very much a collaborative effort with producer Mark Hallman who plays most of the instruments.

Most of the songs are variations on the theme of relationships as Perry sings of strained partnerships, cheating men, and growing old together. The men she sings about are all flawed although some have or had redemptive qualities. The quarreling pair driving to Joshua Tree in Get In The Car may be beyond repair while the 'Photonegative of Love' portrays an empty emotionless affair but 'Happily Ever After' has an air of optimism as love lingers on. While several of the songs recall the earlier efforts of Suzanne Vega, Perry ranges from the zippy pop rock of 'Get In The Car' to the pessimistic folk tinged 'One Of These Days' which resembles Richard Thompson's kitchen sink dramas. The album reaches its zenith with 'Atlas', a lengthy spoken word piece where Perry takes in the broken Titan who held the world on his shoulders hitting skid row once his burden is removed. She describes his redemption as he paints his way out of his confusion until finally he achieves a catharsis and becomes just another working man at the breakfast table preparing for the day ahead. It's a parable of sorts and Perry delivers it with panache.

Rounding out the album Perry covers two songs that fit into the general concept of relationships and their perils. Robert Earle Keen's 'Then Came Lo Mein' captures a couple in trouble with a flashpoint that could make or break them, but ultimately cements their bond. A country lament delivered by Perry in a country style it's a powerful rendition. She closes with Chuck Prophet's 'Let's Do Something Wrong' where routine is stultifying and some excitement is required to reignite the fires of affection. With some rousing guitar squalls from Hallman and a great chorus which features assistance from Julie Christensen it ends the album in fine style. - Americana UK

RAIN PERRY "Cinderblock Bookshelves" (Precipitous Records) four stars

Part of a larger autobiographical multimedia project, singer-writer
Perry's astoundingly insightful song cycle takes on subjects ranging
from growing up with an artistic but irresponsible father (the title
track and several others) to the emotional impact of California's
landscape ("Yosemite"). This is confessional folk-rock at its best:
wise, specific, sometimes harrowing, funny in places, smart about
personal mistakes and truly grateful to those who made her the fine
artist that she is (whether they consciously helped her along or not).
Each cut has a distinctive, pleasing arrangement, and Perry's voice,
though dominantly sweet and wearily dry, is a marvelous instrument of
many supple colors.

- Bob Strauss, LA Daily News - LA Daily News

“Rain Perry’s guileless lyrics and infectious melodies remind one
of Dar Williams’ best work...the arrangements add organic
ornamentation without drawing attention from the innate power of the
songs.”

-Vintage Guitar Magazine, July 2008 issue

- Vintage Guitar Magazine

Rain Perry has a story to tell. Actually, the Ojai singer-songwriter has a story she must tell, of a life battered early by the sudden death of her mother, followed by an endless trip with a father who seemed stuck in the most irresponsible corner of the counterculture. It's that relationship that colors the rest of her experience.

Her multimedia memoir, "Cinderblock Bookshelves," developed with and directed by Kim Maxwell for Theater 150 in Ojai, deals with the ebb and flow of coping with the only parent she truly knew.

Traveling with a man of many talents but few achievements, Perry experienced life from the undercrust. Moving from one shabby home to another, always in settings where her father tried to get along on his wits and drugs, Perry learned to cope with having little and expecting more of the same. Even when her father fell heir to funds from the upper middle-class roots he'd left behind, he frittered it away, choosing lobster and artichokes or frivolous gadgets over the welfare of his child, or her education.

Left mostly to cope for herself as her father ran through a continuous series of women and dreams, Perry still shared her questions and concerns with him. Until she didn't. Their alienation came when she was nearly an adult and stopped asking her father for advice or following him in his attempts to "live freely, or live for free."

Perry's lifeline turned out to be her mother, who died at 27 but had achieved early success as a songwriter. Perry got a hand-me-down guitar from her father, but already ingrained was an ability to express her thoughts and emotions musically. She garnered success as a songwriter and performer before rheumatoid arthritis grasped the guitar from her hands. She was a grand-prize winner in the folk division of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest and the ROCKRGRL Discoveries Award, and a finalist at the Telluride Troubadour competition. Married and the mother of two daughters, Perry is known in Ojai as a performing artist and for her concert promotion.

In "Cinderblock Bookshelves," onstage through Sunday, Perry tells and sings her story with the aid of mostly happy family photos and the sensitive accompaniment of guitarist Danny B. Harvey, a distinguished musician in his own right.

Perry speaks of innocence gone too soon, of a bottomless well of tears, of finally being "Airborne." The interlaced songs are thoughtful and evocative, with a sure sense of image and emotion. The songs are available on a CD that Perry is launching simultaneously with the performance piece.

Perry's story is so intimate and sad, yet so braced with humor and common sense, that it's impossible not to feel at some level that you know her, even at first encounter. Somehow she has survived a chaotic upbringing that colored her most impressionable years to come out a winner.

Warm, deep and brave, Rain Perry is someone you won't regret getting to know, if only for 90 minutes of her fascinating life.

--Rita Moran, Ventura County Star - Ventura County Star

Cinderblock Bookshelves is just one instalment of a 3-part ‘multi-media memoir project’ including a one-woman stage play and a forthcoming book. So, Rain Perry obviously either has an overly healthy sense of self-importance, or feels she has a story worth telling.

With colourful experience on her side, the latter soon proves to be the case, as just two tracks into this album she has already grabbed you. There are the odd moments here that just suck you in and captivate you. “I said goodbye from the hospital doorway…” she begins on the folky title-track as we follow her from the sudden death of her mother to sharply observed travels, trials and tribulations charting adolescence on the road with her free-spirited artist father. It’s an enthralling 5 minutes of autobiography and from then on in Perry’s sharp writing and keen observations to the minutiae of life keeps the attention for the rest of this finely crafted and richly melodious record.

As with a lot of the albums best moments, highlight ‘Girl In The Boys Room’ returns to Rain’s formative years, charting her observations & acceptance into the male-orientated 1970s teenage world of rock n roll pin ups and slavishly learning to play along to Neil Young and Led Zeppelin albums. The boy’s bedrooms where this forbidden art occurs observed as a ‘secret, foreign land’ which she manages to conquer. “They dragged me to some guys house so that I can demonstrate, ‘Stairway to Heaven’ or something equally clichéd...I know I’m not that great, but I play pretty good…for a girl” It’s a superbly warm, nostalgic and witty pop song that elevates the album above the average.

On upbeat moments such as ‘Girl in the Boys Room’, ‘Girl On The Side’ & ‘Dear Dana’ there’s definite Aimee Mann comparison to her vocal and melodic rock sensibility. Elsewhere the stripped-down reflective folk and country-inspired moments like ‘Patty’ and ‘Airborne’, with its lighter-in-the-air refrain, offer some of the most moving and melancholic moments.

If the play and book of ‘Cinderblock Bookshelves’ are as crafted, warm and well-written as this album then they too will be well worth investigating - Americana UK - July 2008

Growing up naked
Ojai singer Rain Perry relives a hippie childhood in song and on stage
By Kit Stolz 02/07/2008

Growing up in the 1960s, Rain Perry had the kind of childhood your grandparents warn you against. As a young child, she had to depend on a hippie dad with not enough money and too many girlfriends. She shared houses with roommates with names such as "Superman" and "Bear," wore hand-me-down clothes from other poor kids, ate rennet-less jack cheese sandwiches for lunch, and was told never to smoke pot - except with her dad.

Was it a tragic experience?

Not really: Perry survived, as children usually survive the excesses of their parents, and along the way grew up to be an award-winning singer-songwriter, becoming the sort of semi-famous artist her late father always wanted to be.

Now, with characteristic good humor, she is opening a theater show about her upbringing, having some fun with her hippie past, but also giving audiences a chance to hear in song (and see in photographs) exactly what it felt like - the joy and heartache of growing up a "wild child."

A new song by that name tells the story of her youth in foggy West Marin County, to the north of San Francisco. Now the area is known for bed-and-breakfasts and well-off tourists, but at the time Inverness was an obscure little town with big farmhouses that could be rented cheaply - ideal for hippies living communally. Perry sings: "Played tag on the ridge by moonlight/Just because it was a lovely night/Everyone in a circle/We had so much time."

The songs she wrote for the show will be part of a new album, her third, but as she began writing the songs after her father died of cancer in 1999, she found she had too much good material to fit into 12 songs.

"I was working with a musical career consultant named Kari Estrin," Perry says. "She told me to write everything out in prose, and figure out later what would work in songs and what wouldn't. I came up with what I thought was a lot of really great material. I knew that it was bigger than an album, but I didn't know what to do with it until I took a class with Kim."
Kim Maxwell, a fast-talking and animated actress who co-founded Theatre 150 in Ojai with her ex-husband Dwier Brown, specializes in helping students find their voice on stage. When Perry took Maxwell's acting-writing class, she found it liberating, both as a performer on stage, and as a writer. It especially benefited Perry's sense of humor, which isn't always easy to fit into songs, but gets plenty of exposure in the show.

The humor also comes out as she rehearses the show with Maxwell, who has gone on to become the director of Perry's show (called Cinderblock Bookshelves, which is also the name of the soon-to-be-released album).

While going over a scene from her teenage years, Perry reveals that when she moved from California to Colorado as a teenager, she found herself going from a hippie world where "everyone was naked - often" and women didn't shave at all to a conservative town where the girls shaved not just their legs, but their arms as well.

"Oh my God, they did not!" cries Maxwell in mock horror. A little later, as she works on the movements onstage with Perry, she decides Perry should return to a central chair on stage, to make a central turn in the narrative clear.

"Run back to the chair," she tells Perry. "Run back to the chair and wait for the arrival of your sexuality!"

Perry smiles with wry appreciation. Looking back at her childhood, Perry sees both good and bad, but one of the worst parts of it was what she called the "too much information aspect." Because her mother died when she was a young child, she grew up sharing everything with her dad, and ended up learning far more than she really wanted to about his personal problems.

"In talking to my childhood friends now, I think we agree that there was an epidemic at that time of parents over-sharing with kids who really weren't old enough to understand adult issues," she says. "I'm trying not to do that with my kids."

Perry stresses that she feels the counterculture brought a lot of good to American culture, much of which she believes we now take for granted. She cites patients' rights, the questioning of authority, natural childbirth, the peace movement, and yoga. On a personal level, she is deeply grateful to her father for believing she had something worth saying and worth writing down.

"My dad taught me to value my expression," Perry says. "A lot of kids aren't raised to value that at all, and it becomes a huge struggle for them as they grow older."

After her father died, as the only survivor she inherited his papers, and spent months reading through his letters, screenplays and diaries. (She didn't worry about prying into his private life, knowing he always wanted to make an "autobiographical epic" movie of his life at some point.) Reading letters from his stern Midwestern father, who wanted him to go to a prep schoo - VC Reporter