The Rainy Janes
Gig Seeker Pro

The Rainy Janes

Band Folk Acoustic

Calendar

This band has not uploaded any videos
This band has not uploaded any videos

Music

Press


"Passions equal a plan"

Passions equal a plan

Two folks with a passion for both entertaining and social justice have planned a concert in the woods north of Palmyra to help women in Sudan afford an education.
The concert, titled Wednesday in the Woods 2006, will be held from 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday at Camp Pine Woods, two miles north of Palmyra on Old Forge Road. Admission is free but donations will be accepted. A clothing drive is also part of the event.
Five bands with local followings will perform: Autumn's Rising, Ado, Nevada Tan, Temporarily Speaking and the Green Trees Band.
Kelly Musser, a recent Palmyra High School and Capital Area School for the Arts graduate and a member of Temporarily Speaking, said the bands range from folksy to indie or experimental and reggae.
Organizers Musser and Matt Graves, an Annville-Cleona High School graduate, said they were inspired at a National Youth Conference for the Church of the Brethren in Colorado to do some good in the world.
Money raised at the concert will go to Give a Girl a Chance, which helps pay for education for Sudanese women working in sweatshops. According to the brochure, $120 will pay for a year's tuition and $20 will pay for school supplies. For more information visit www.myspace.com/Temporarilyspeaking.
- The Patriot-News, The (Harrisburg, PA)


"Temporarily Speaking: Sweet Bluegrass"

“Hey, you guys want to hear some sweet bluegrass?” asked Freshman Kailynn West from the Berklee College of Music as the crowd gathered at the Lower Paxton Youth Center (LPYC) on an uncharacteristically warm January night in Pennsylvania.

This wasn’t the kind of question typically posed to the LPYC audience, a mostly high-school-aged demographic raised on pop-punk, hard rock, and metal. Nevertheless, the crowd erupted with cheers as Temporarily Speaking — the bluegrass trio composed of West (guitar), Kelly Muser (upright bass), and Elizabeth Zook (violin) — went through sound check and prepared to play their first song.

“It was kind of scary [playing that venue],” West said. “I knew they were all hard rockers at the show....But at LPYC, the kids are all really open minded….”

A small, cinderblock structure adorned with kids’ colorful artwork, the center opens its doors on varying nights of the week to allow Harrisburg area youth a showcase for their musical talents.

I first visited the venue earlier this year, Jan. 5, and was met with an eclectic mix of high school and college acts—everything from grunge to indie rock to metal took the makeshift stage that night. West and LPYC’s Youth President Abbey Wheeler were kind enough to allow me and a few of my friends to film Temporarily Speaking’s performance.

My task was simple: I wanted to prove that I was capable of filming a concert. My last effort, attempted less than a year ago, worked in the context of its project, a documentary detailing the senior year of my high school class. But there were still many improvements I could make, one being an increase in the number of camera angles.

What I eventually captured on video was a band much in love with the folk and bluegrass traditions. Their strengths: incredible vocal harmonies, a curious sense of storytelling, and lively instrumentation. You can judge for yourself whether I created a satisfactory product—one song from Temporarily Speaking’s performance, entitled “Peter Pan,” is posted at the end of this article.

Temporarily Speaking formed during the 2005-2006 school year when West, Musser, and Zook met at the Capital Area School for the Arts, located in Harrisburg. A midterm project was assigned and forming this band seemed to be the best solution.

“We didn’t have any trouble coming up with things to play or any certain style,” West said. “I started getting into Nickel Creek in the middle of my senior year…Kelly really likes folk like James Taylor…[and] Liz is into Sufjan Stevens and more modern [music].”

As far as future plans are concerned, a full-length LP is in the works.

“We’re aiming for that by June,” West said. “And eventually we’re going to start touring around PA….We’re seeing how much we can do with [the band].”

However, the songwriting process has been altered significantly for all three members. With West at Berklee, Musser at University of the Arts, and Zook at Houghton College, Temporarily Speaking is only able to rehearse between semesters.

“Even though I’ve been away, I’ve still been writing, Kelly’s still been writing, [and] Liz’s still writing,” West said. “It will be interesting [to see how the material for the new album turns out] considering this is the first time we’ve been writing away from each other.” - iVoryTowerz (American University Review)


"An Evening with Dr. Fred Anderson"

Dr. Fred Anderson, author of The War that Made America, the companion book to the acclaimed PBS documentary series produced by WQED-Pittsburgh, delighted Heritage Society members and guests with a discussion of the pivotal French and Indian War in Pennsylvania. Eighty Heritage Society members and guests attended Dr. Anderson’s captivating lecture followed by a dessert reception and book-signing. The audience included secondary school teachers participating in a week-long Teaching American History (TAH) project residency at The State Museum and State Archives. Heritage Society President and PHMC Chairman Wayne S. Spilove, PHMC Executive Director Barbara Franco, and Heritage Society board members Kathleen Pavelko and Laura Fisher also delivered remarks at the event. Music was provided by Kailynn West, Liz Zook, and Kelly Musser, talented performers who were graduating seniors from Harrisburg’s Capitol School for the Arts. Dr. Anderson’s lecture was funded by a TAH grant to the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit from the U.S. Department of Education and arranged through the Organization of American Historian's Distinguished Lectureship Program. Dr. Anderson also met with TAH teachers in residence for a special discussion session the day after the lecture. The teachers were able to discuss the French and Indian War and its impact one-on-one with Dr. Anderson. - Pennsylvania Heritage Society


Discography

The "Dear Colleen" Demo (2005)
Passing Time and Power Lines (2007)

Photos

Bio

The Rainy Janes formed in the fall of 2005 when Kelly Musser, Kailynn West, and Liz Zook met at Capital Area School for the Arts [CASA], the arts magnet school located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The idea of forming a band was never something that crossed their minds, until they were forced to play together for a passing grade in the annual CASA mid-year performance. Needless to say, they have been playing and writing music together ever since.

The Rainy Janes have grown from a small bluegrass trio, to a drum-juggling full jazzgrass band. From starting out with just upright bass, fiddle, and guitar they have since added mandolin, bass drum, hi hat, snare and three part harmonies to their unique sound to create something all of their own. They have performed for two years around the Central Pennsylvania region, at venues such as the Lower Paxton Youth Center, Farmer's Hope Inn, Summy House Tavern, the local 'Woodstock with a cause' Wednesday In the Woods, and numerous area coffee shops. The group's ambition, musical sensibility, and established fan base of all ages have set them up for success and put them in a position to record, produce, and press their first full length CD "Passing Time and Power Lines" in 2007. With such an ecclectic taste of music and such traditional bluegrass instrumentation, the girls decided to label their style "jazzgrass".

Each member of the trio has a strong passion for social justice and environmental awareness, which has been an inspiration to their music. Co-Founders of the annual event "Wednesday in the Woods," the Rainy Janes host a music festival to raise money for New Community Project's "Give a Girl a Chance" which helps raise money for the education of young girls in Sudan. Recently the group has been sponsored by "NO SWEAT" (an anti-sweatshop organization that sells clothes that are sweat free for a reasonable price to help elimate child labor and unfair labor wages) as well as CONSCIOUS APPARELL (a smaller community driven version of NO SWEAT that raises awareness of global issues).

These girls are out to make a difference, have fun, and share some rockin jazzgrass.