Stinging Rain Wins Third Place with The Dream

Thanks to everyone who helped us win third place in the Top Ten Holy Spirit Songs contest sponsored by the Top Catholic Songs website. We received 11 votes altogether, and I counted 9 from the 25 people whom I emailed. That means we received 2 votes from new fans! So welcome and thanks for your vote. Here are the full results:


Basically I just submitted two links to the song, CD Baby and iTunes, then I wrote the following short reminiscence of when Nathan first brought the song to the band.

Dove born from the sky — I hope someday I can see You.

I remember the first rehearsal of this song. I was on the phone in the room adjacent to the practice area when it was introduced and guys start playing it. Jon was laying out a sparse beat with his snares off and Nate was playing slide on his acoustic. I knew what kind of bass line I would play, a very simple one to complement the understated beat.

Nate began singing dreamily, "Spirit, exalt yourself...." I knew at that moment that this song would become a favorite. His wife, Julie, played the violin on the recording. She also joined in with Nate, Brett and I in the whistling of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" at the end. Dave [Brown] might have been whistling, too — it was a long time ago.

Writing that short paragraph was illuminating to me since I barely remember details of working out any other tune. I guess it was just one of those illuminated memories, a definitive moment of sorts in my musical consciousness. That may sound deep, but it really feels natural and did so at the time. Like coming up out of the water and seeing the world glitter with the breath of wind and the light of sun.

Give it up, Moondog!

Rock and roll historians and those who live in the Cleveland area are well-schooled in the event known as the Moondog Coronation Ball. A celebration on March 21 every year commemorates Cleveland DJ and rock promoter Allan Freed's famous overbooked 1952 fiasco. Here's an excerpt from the Fifties-Web piece:

What was novel was the idea of people going to a big municipal hall to dance. The Globetrotters played there, not musicians you'd heard on the radio. Today the idea of a Rock concert being held in a huge facility is commonplace.

But this is where the dream and the reality collided. Even after the hall was full to capacity, those crowds were pushing and shoving. Doors crashed open, glass exploded. Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams was on stage when the first fight broke out. And still they poured into the Arena, just to be a part of it. Dancing, moving wildly, the crowd became more and more unruly.

Even the big glittery sign proudly announcing "Moondoggers" came tumbling down.

That's when the Fire Marshals came and shut it all down. Nobody else got to play, not the Dominoes, Tiny Grimes, or the Rockin' Highlanders. Not Danny Cobb or Varietta Dillard. This hugely famous concert and only one song was played.

Why do I bring this up? Well, there are definitely no rock and roll fans trampling each other to buy a Face of Stephen CD on eBay for $49.98, posted by a seller going by the name of Moondog. This has been up for months now. I emailed him, but he hasn't responded. I don't blame him; I made quite a bit of fun of his stupid auction in the email. And I'm really good at that, as many of you know.

Of course, all you "Raindoggers" know that if you want the tunes from Face of Stephen you can download them here for a fifth of the price of Mr. Lunar Canine's eBay listing. in this way you can also stop promoting the destruction of our planet with all that nasty plastic which they need to use to make a CD and still rock with some choice tuneage, Kimosabe.

So give it up, Moonie... Stingin' Rain is in da house, dog!

A Stinging Rain Reissue Promo Poster

I know I just said we weren't promoting the band anymore, but over the last few weeks I've produced a magazine-sized promo poster for some spurious marketing opportunities which might arise. It doesn't look half bad, if I may say so myself.



Here's what the text says:

In the summer of 1993, the indie rock foursome Stinging Rain ascended into a vacant third floor and recorded their masterpiece, Face of Stephen.

Shortly afterward they disbanded, and their rhythmic brand of hopeful, melodic rock seemed consigned to the twilight of silent memory.

Now — after being out of print for 15 years — their full catalog of original studio tracks is available again via digital download. Visit:

cdbaby.com/all/stingingrain

Not too "over the top", but still attention-getting, I hope. At the bottom of the page I included the phrase "Clear Tears of Light", a line from Grey Shapes, the first song on our first album, then across from it "One Eternal Flame", from Nothing Ever Changes, the last song on our last album. The large text bordering the picture is, of course, from a middle song on our middle album, On Eagle's Wings from the dream, but I didn't really plan that one as much. "Come with me, take this hand, we'll travel far across the sea and land" has always been one of my favorite lines from the pen and the mind of Nathan Depew.

Click on the picture, look at the large photo and tell me I don't look like Harry Potter with the messy hair and the glasses.

Full Catalog on iTunes

I posted them "backwards".

First Face of Stephen was out there on the internet's top download service, then the dream and finally Shadows of Reality is available on iTunes. I suppose in retrospect I could have submitted everything in the chronological order of the albums' release dates. But I wanted Face of Stephen out there in the worst way, and I figured that if I keeled over from a heart attack after the first one at least our favorite would be available.

The singular reason for getting our tunes out there is universal availability. We're obviously no longer gigging, touring or attempting to promote the band. But from time to time someone will call Nate requesting CDs. Well, CDs are about plumb run out, as they might say in certain regions, and the internet has become the never-ending storage place for the long-forgotten. We can now direct those several requestors to iTunes if they subscribe, or CD Baby, which I feel is a superior service.

Another Windfall Bonanza

Boy, oh boy... the hits just keep on coming, baby. April 2, 2008 marked the milestone of getting all 3 albums online. Shadows was posted early that morning and I did some work on the descriptions for the Stinging Rain group page. Then I sent out an email to about 130 folks who, as I put it, "who might care to learn that Stinging Rain's full catalog is now available for digital download via MP3."

Then yesterday I unearthed a treasure which had been sitting in a file cabinet for 14 years and through 5 moves. I had known there were a few old show posters somewhere along with Stinging Rain newsletters, mailers, etc. from "back in the day." But I had no idea how many. I found 2 manila folders stuffed inside a hanging folder for an alternative country rock band for which I used to run sound — the Blackwells* — in the mid-90s. This is way cool! There are clipped reviews, calendars with pay-dates, song lists from gigs (I'd clean forgotten that we used to cover "Nothing Is Alone" by Toad the Wet Sprocket) and notes I'd made which range from the enlightening to the humorous. For example, a note I'd scribbled on the back of a postcard states bluntly "Sent a tape to this a__hole".

In fact, the importance of this discovery could rival the sending of the aforementioned Brown Suitcase emails. I say this with great trembling, naturally.

But check it out. Here's a blurb written circa 1987 for the GCC Collegian by none other than Bill Deasy.

My favorite find has got to be the gig calendars. The hardest thing for me to remember is when things happened. Now I can meticulously put the pieces of the "what happened puzzle" together and possibly turn the collage into some type of historical account.

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* - There are/were at least three groups named the Blackwells, but I'm talking about the Pittsburgh-based Blackwells. Their lead singer, Marc Nelson, is in another band now and you can hear one of their old songs, "Ashtray", if you visit their myspace page.

The Dream is now available on iTunes

Click the image to go to iTunes page for the dream. I am sure that at some point this will get old and I will no longer be impressed by seeing our tunes available for download. And without promotion it's not like anything will be "flying off the shelves."

Of course, those quote marks show the beauty of it. There are no shelves, dude. There's no big decision about whether to add anything to inventory or give a no-name band a break. There's just a bunch of servers and surfers. And inventory will never, ever run out or get stale. That means that hey, given enough time and a modicum of interest we might yet sell a million downloads. Who knows?

And thanks again to Derek Sivers for making CD Baby, his dream, a reality. Thou art the man.

Man.

All Lyrics Posted

You can see them all here at Leo's Lyrics. I've noticed that these lyrics sites steal from, borrow from or contribute to each other, so soon the lyrics to all Stinging Rain's recorded tunes will be all over cyberspace in various collections.

I'm not sure where this great action photo was shot. Maybe Graffiti? Whoever snapped it had developed it backwards so Nate looked like a lefty. We liked the shot, but we didn't want to have it redeveloped. Needless to say, I corrected it with two or three mouse clicks. Computers make short work of things that used to be big problems.