Blake Rainey and His Demons
The Dangerous Summer
© 2007 Blake Rainey / Two Sheds Music (643052003423)
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Americana / Southern gothic folk from the former frontman of the Young Antiques.
tracks
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albums you will love
- SILENT KIDS: Dinosaurs Turn into Birds
- THE YUM YUM TREE: Paint by Numbers
- JUPITER WATTS: Jupiter Watts
- HOT YOUNG PRIEST: Fiendish Freaky Love
- ULTRABABYFAT: No Ringo No
- AN EPIC AT BEST: There Will Be Rain
- HEROS SEVERUM: Plague Dogs
- VARIOUS ARTISTS: Until the Shaking Stops: A Salute to Jawbox
- NILLAH: The Sun Show
- DODD FERRELLE & THE TINFOIL STARS: The Murder of Love
- FAIRBURN ROYALS: The Whistler
- BLAKE RAINEY: Appetizer Sickness
- FAITH KLEPPINGER: No Galore
- WHITE LIGHTS: Gifts from Strangers
- SHARKS AND MINNOWS: The Cost of Living
- ASHEN: Pull and Repel
- SILENT KIDS: Tomorrow Waits
- YOUNG ANTIQUES: Clockworker
- HEROS SEVERUM: Wonderful Educated Bear
- CRYBABY: No Means Yes
- FAIRBURN ROYALS: From a Window Way Above
- C'EST MORTEL: C'est Mortel
- CRYBABY: Crybaby
genres you will love
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notes
Born in the cradle of epic tales and haunting contrast—the silent wilds of the Alabama border in Cedartown, Georgia—singer/songwriter Blake Rainey draws musical and literary inspiration from both southern roots and city-bound relocation.
A regular on the Atlanta and Athens music scenes for the last 6 years, Rainey has been recognized by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Flagpole, Stomp & Stammer, and Creative Loafing as one of Georgia's finest songwriters.
Rainey laid down roots first as front man for the punk and power-pop trio The Young Antiques. He later co-produced Faith Kleppinger's Asleep at the Well with David Barbe, and recently worked double-booked as lead guitarist for The Indicators.
In 2003, the songwriter went solo dropping the raucous intensity of his previous affairs and releasing the quieter, critically acclaimed Appetizer Sickness—13 sparse, articulate 3-minute novellas with time signatures. Music publication IndieWorkshop had this to say:
"Elsewhere less-figured and endearingly open singer-songwriters, like Sufjan Stevens and Devendra Banhart, have gained attention by enveloping the small moments in something entirely genuine, be it delivery or arrangement (or both). Rainey defers to a similar grace with his own soft accounting. "Fields of PA" sounds like a letter read aloud, entreating memories of Paris, London and winter with a gazer's nod: "Dreaming really is no different / Than a memory that never happened."
Rainey now follows that effort with 2007's The Dangerous Summer, opening wide Appetizer Sickness' bare bones presentation to make room for a backing band. As a whole, the group is called Blake Rainey and His Demons—featuring Joe Foy on stand-up bass, Terry Onstad on cello, Justin Sonfield on guitar, Jeff Dehner on muted, breathy percussion, and Robin Najar providing vocal harmonies in the background.
What Rainey does on The Dangerous Summer is paint a picture in syllables and soundscapes. It's a dark watercolor, washed in the muted grays and peeling plaster tones of a town that time forgot. Listen closely and you'll hear lonely chairs rocking, the deafening silence of a southern winter night, the simmering timbre of melancholy born of the battle between a small town soul and city mind.
Listen closer, and you'll hear Rainey channeling the ballads of Tom Waits while quietly rubbing literate elbows with contemporaries like M. Ward, Bright Eyes, and Colin Meloy of The Decemberists. But see him on his upcoming promotional tour, and The Dangerous Summer comes singularly to life—songs blanketed in raw, sometimes agonizing emotion that tugs gently at you—ear leading mind leading heart through hauntingly articulated narrative.