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Let's Be Brave

by Rain Perry

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of A White Album, Melody & Jack, This is Water, Heroes (a benefit for Mercy Corps in Ukraine), The Money, Let's Be Brave Podcast - Songs, Let's Be Brave, Earthquake Country - RAINN benefit track, and 6 more. , and , .

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1.
Whittier Street Words and Music by Rain Perry ©2019 Precipitous Music/BMI Chuck Berry bought a house on Whittier Street Underneath the poplar tree When the money came in from “Maybelline” He built two rooms back of the kitchen screen A little more space for the wife and kids But that back room – it was only his Away from the noise of the neighborhood He wrote “Rock and Roll Music” and “Johnny B. Goode” In a room of his own He had a room of his own Early in the morning with the coffee, creeping Loretta wrote while the kids were sleeping So did Wanda and June did too A woman does what she has to do Without a room A pen and paper Of her own A little notebook Without a room A corner of the dining table Of her own A table in a closet She needs a room a coffee shop at Of her own Three in the morning A room A parking lot Of her own Until the kid gets out of school Bridge: A time and place for inspiration to linger What a self-indulgent attitude We need the song – we’re not so sure about the singer What is it exactly that they do? I’m gonna build me a room out in the back Might be a trailer or a little shack There’s no such thing as the Industry So I’m gonna sing for you and me In a room A pen and paper Of my own A little notebook A room A corner of the dining table Of my own A table in a closet In a room a coffee shop at Of my own Three in the morning A room A parking lot Of my own Until the kid gets out of school We need a room A pen and paper Of our own A little notebook We need a room A corner of the dining table Of our own A table in a closet We need a room a coffee shop at Of our own Three in the morning A room A parking lot Of our own Until the kid gets out of school
2.
California I Love You Words by Rain Perry Music by Rain Perry & Mark Hallman ©2019 Precipitous Music/BMI & Blue Racer Music/BMI California I love you from the redwoods to the sea From the streets of Bakersfield to the trails of Yosemite The bells of the missions ring in the air Under the banner of our lost grizzly bear California I love you and your little bungalows Orange tree in the backyard under mountains capped with snow For Okies and Arkies and Exodusters of old Fleeing to a better life on the Mother Road From a hangar in Playa Vista to a garage in San Jose Misfits with a motto – “find a better way” Skaters in the swimming pools – dirtbags on the wall Test pilots above the desert – I love you all California I love you – though you break my heart You’re a plane wreck at Los Gatos – you’re a child in Manazanar You’re the dream of a summer killed in the fall In a house up a canyon and inside City Hall You’ve given me everything, oh land of extremes Land of reinvention – land of broken dreams The water that we worry for – the earthquake that we fear The brushfire and the flood we call seasons around here California I love you and I’ll always be true Like all the other seekers I pledge myself to you Turn me into something that I wasn’t before That’s my prayer facing west from the California shore
3.
Vapor 03:33
Vapor Words and Music by Rain Perry ©2019 Precipitous Music/BMI What lasts is metal, glass and clay The rest becomes vapor and burns away We’re here for a minute, so what will it be? I’ll matter to you – you matter to me From a father who vanished when you were so young Your sister got the jewelry – you got the gun The gun that is burned beyond all repair With the boxes of letters and the old lock of hair [chorus] The words that a girl pours on a page The pictures from the first time she stands on a stage Each steel string – every ivory key All the objects that proved who I used to be Monuments crumble – signs wear away But I’ll love you until my dying day When the time comes that no one remembers my name I’ll love you the same [chorus]
4.
Earthquake Country Words and music by Rain Perry ©2019 Precipitous Music/BMI Was it the babysitter Was it the friend of the friend Or were those aftershocks Of an earlier event Was it the guy at thirteen Or something before That put the cracks in the plaster And warped the floor I might not remember the earthquake Maybe I was too young But it’s not hard to see The damage it’s done I’m a little unsteady Not entirely square In earthquake country You have to prepare Place the bolts in the basement Brace up the walls Anchor the foundation So the building won’t fall I live where it shakes So I do what it takes Lakes become meadows Mountains explode Faults go inactive Glaciers erode And who knows what this landscape Might look like someday When to our daughters We don’t have to say Place the bolts in the basement Brace up the walls Anchor the foundation So the building won’t fall So the building won’t fall We live where it shakes So we do what it takes We live where it shakes So we do what it takes
5.
Small 02:50
Small Words and Music by Rain Perry ©2019 Precipitous Music/BMI Small – small We’re so small We could be bigger But now we’re small Weak – weak We’re so weak We could be stronger But now we’re weak We speak through wires and air We click to show we care We’re lonelier than we’ve ever been We seek to know what’s true Through filters of red and blue It’s not the way It’s never been So we’re scared – scared We’re so scared We know about courage But right now we’re scared What if I open my heart Open my arms Breathe the air you’re breathing In every family There’s someone like me And someone like you It’s true Brave – brave Let’s be brave We’ve got it in us Let’s be brave
6.
words and music by Bruce Springsteen https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bruce-springsteens-lyrics-do-the-talking-in-rocky-ground-88849/
7.
Home 03:14
Home Words and Music by Rain Perry ©2019 Precipitous Music/BMI The new apartment’s on a one way street But this one goes the other way How many times around these three blocks Till we’re done for the day I love my little girl She loves her little world She had to go away To find her home You do the baseboards, honey I’ll do the stove Will the nail polish come off this floor? We don’t know I love my little girl She loves her little world She had to go away To find her home Loose change and lighters Old journals by the crate New systems to set up Old ones to obliterate I love my little girl She loves her little world We had to be away To come back home
8.
Misfits 04:20
Misfits Words and Music by Rain Perry © 2019 Precipitous Music/BMI You misfits It’s Saturday night You could be out with people You could be out in the light But you’re sitting at home With your remotes Studying sketches Like I studied liner notes Huddled in dark rooms on beautiful days Practicing the Harold and dreaming of some way you could be Chorus: Riding together in cars getting coffee Trying to figure out where the joke lands Down a trail of index cards and one night stands Saying the thing that nobody else will Pushing it to the extreme And you’ll get no respect for taking one for the team Hey misfits You’re not alone You’re like the tribe of people With an extra chromosome A little like us A lot like you Nobody sees this world The same way that you do We send you to the front line every day And if we don’t like what you tell us You’re an easy messenger to slay [chorus]
9.
words and music by Joe Strummer
10.
St. Julie of Iowa Words and Music by Rain Perry © 2019 Precipitous Music/BMI There’s a song that everyone sings And they sing it wrong It’s Randy Newman’s “You Can Leave Your Hat On” They always sing it sultry when they oughta be singing with Pure delight I know how it’s done ‘cause I heard Julie sing it one night She tilted her head back and beamed at the crowd Like: this much fun should not be allowed Grinned and told us that she’d take our shoes And all I could think was “yes ma’am, please do” Chorus: Julie knows how to sing that song She’s been there and back and she’s still standing strong She’s a line down the middle of rock and roll St. Julie of Iowa, come save my soul Sing it, Julie Sing it, Julie Sing it, Julie – oh yeah I didn’t get “Vincent Black Lightning” I admit I thought “What’s not to like? It’s a sad song about a bad Motorbike.” ‘Til I hear Julie sing it And wring out the grief and the joy Of a tale that begins at the end With the death of the boy It’s the story of the redheaded girls who survives And the terrible freedom of staying alive To carry the weight of the gift she’s been given By putting down stakes in the land of the living [chorus]

about

IN DECEMBER 2017, the Thomas Fire swept through
Southern California, burning 500 structures including the houses of dozens of Rain Perry’s friends and neighbors and Rain’s own music studio. Her home, thankfully, survived, but she lost all her instruments, career memorabilia and older recordings that had not been digitized.

As a longtime activist grappling with our current political climate, having just spent three years filming and touring The Shopkeeper, a documentary about the music business in the streaming era, Rain staggered into 2018 unsure of how she fit into much of anything. Like the burned chaparral around her home, though, Rain’s artistic drive resprouted with a passion, and she wrote and recorded Let’s Be Brave, her fourth album with multi-instrumentalist and Grammy-nominated producer Mark Hallman at the Congress House in Austin, Texas.

With a cover photo by Patricia Houghton Clarke of Rain lying on the burned foundation of her studio, and featuring cameos by Chuck Prophet (“St. Julie of Iowa”) and Jon Dee Graham (Bruce Springsteen’s “Rocky Ground”), with a kickass backup choir by Noelle Hampton, Jaimee Harris, Daisy O’Connor, Shawnee Kilgore and Emily Shirley, Let’s Be Brave is a joyous, honest, rocking celebration of bravery of all kinds.

credits

released April 26, 2019

Produced by Mark Hallman
Recorded by André Moran, mixed & mastered by Mark Hallman at the Congress House in Austin, TX
Chuck Prophet’s guitars recorded by Chris Von Sneidern at Tape Vault Studio in San Francisco, CA

Words and music by Rain Perry, Precipitous Music/BMI, except “California I Love You,” words by Rain Perry, music by Rain Perry & Mark Hallman, Precipitous Music/BMI and Blue Racer Music/BMI; “Rocky Ground” by Bruce Springsteen, Universal Music Publishing, Inc.; and “Johnny Appleseed” by Joe Strummer, Warner/Chappell Music.

Rain Perry – vocals, iPad guitar, sound editing
Mark Hallman – vocals, drums, bass, electric & acoustic guitars, Hammond B3 organ, Wurlitzer electric piano, Rhodes electric piano, synthesizers, Mellotron, mandolin, bouzouki, accordion, harmonica, Irish flute, percussion, tambourine, finger snaps
Jon Dee Graham -- Lead vocal on “Rocky Ground”
Chuck Prophet – Acoustic and electric guitars on “St. Julie of Iowa”
Noelle Hampton, Jaimee Harris, Daisy O’Connor, Shawnee Kilgore and Emily Shirley -- Background vocals on “Whittier Street,” “Vapor,” “Rocky Ground” and “Johnny Appleseed”
André Moran – Electric guitar on “Earthquake Country,” “Rocky Ground” and “Johnny Appleseed”
Lily Brown, Noah Lashly & Stella Slaughter – audio clips from the Comedy Party Thing on “Misfits”
Taylor Hallman – tambourine on “Misfits”

Lyrics and full instrumentation at rainperry.com/music.

Photograph of Rain on the burned slab of her studio © 2018 Patricia Houghton Clarke – patriciahoughtonclarke.com
Manzanita regrowth pastel – © 2018 Elizabeth White – ojaistudioartists.org/artists/

Album Design – Jesse David Morgan – jessedavidmorgan.com
Stylist – Jasmin Abdel-Nabi

“Postfire resprouting: the ability to generate new shoots from dormant buds after stems have been fully scorched by fire.”
-- Juli G. Pausas, “Evolutionary ecology of resprouting and seeding in fire‐prone ecosystems”

Acknowledgements:

By now I can assert that there’s such a thing as “our sound,” and I am grateful to my partner Mark Hallman for the ongoing quest to create and explore it. I love you, Marky.

Success as an artist is best measured in the quality of the people with whom one gets to work. Thank you: Patty Clarke, Jon Dee Graham, Taylor Hallman, Noelle Hampton, Jaimee Harris, Shawnee Kilgore, André Moran, Jesse Morgan, Daisy O’Connor, Chuck Prophet, Emily Shirley, Chris Van Sneidern & Elizabeth White.

This album owes a special debt to two projects by other artists: Derek Delgaudio’s In and of Itself and Lucy Bellwood’s 100 Demon Dialogues.

Thank you to my beloved family and friends and the communities of Townies, activists and artists who inspire and support me and what I do in every way.

Thank you to my sweet Billy, Woog and Stell.

This album is dedicated to Charlie, with a promise to do everything I can to make this world a happy place for him to grow up.

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Rain Perry Ojai, California

Rain Perry’s “Beautiful Tree” was the theme for the CW Network’s Life Unexpected, on which she also had the surreal pleasure of appearing as herself. She has released four albums on her own Precipitous Records, as well as writing and touring a solo play about her childhood. In 2016 she completed The Shopkeeper, her first film. She teaches a series of classes called Songwriting for Civilians. ... more

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