Rainy Eyes Live at Martin's Downtown

"Lonesome Highway sounds like a version of country music that was dreamed up somewhere far away from the rest of the world.” - Holler Country 

“...an 11-track collection of country-folk songs that ooze laid-back California cool even as they document the ups and downs of Eide’s journey through self-discovery, catharsis, and restoration.” - Bandcamp Daily 

“A modern-day Emmylou Harris, Rainy Eyes combines folk and country influences to weave poignant stories of remorse and redemption.” - Turnstyled Junkpiled 

“...a voice of innocence with strains of sensitivity and illumination, Norway native Rainy Eyes most importantly graces each tune with honesty and emotion.” - Americana Highways 

“Lonesome Highway has a laconic grace and conversational narrative lyricism couched in a soulful frame.” - The Rocking Magpie

"Lonesome Highway sounds like a love letter to Gram Parsons-era country rock.” - My Spilt Milk

"It takes a lot of pluckiness for an artist to open their heart and lay bare their vulnerabilities. In doing so with LONESOME HIGHWAY, Eide has addressed her personal journey and fashioned a lyrically poetic and hugely satisfying album.” - Lonesome Highway

Born out of revelry and resolution in a redwood cabin tucked into the California coast,

endowed with a spirit simmering in wanderlust, and ornamented with the rich traditions

of the Louisiana bayou, Lonesome Highway marks the resilient return of Irena Eide aka

Rainy Eyes. Its eleven songs are punctuated with perseverance and perspective that

sober up the soul and send it back stronger onto the blacktop. If Rainy’s 2019 folk-

infused debut, Moon in the Mirror, revealed the truth, Lonesome Highway tells of the

consequences.

Much of Lonesome Highway was written over a ten year period, as Rainy reflected on

the juxtaposition of her circumstances. Basking in the joy of motherhood, she was

simultaneously confronting a troubled relationship that had turned toxic. “Songwriting

was my therapy. It was basically how I dealt with the pain and the trauma. The music

helped me heal,” says Rainy. “This album is about how I had to help myself. To take that

pain and use it. For it not to destroy me, but to make me who I am.”

A Norway-native raised mostly by her mother, Rainy grew up dividing time between the

urban congestion of Bergen and her maternal family’s sheep farm on the rugged islands

of western Norway. She found nature there, in one of the rainiest climates on earth, and

relatives eager to shine some light through music; a guitar-playing uncle introduced her

to the classics: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones; Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob

Dylan and more.

Her father, a Serbian musician, was an inspiring, if itinerant presence. A natural

performer, she started singing as a young child, and after seeing her dad for the first

time in years, she recorded her first demo with him at 12. Having a rough time in her

teens witnessing her father’s addiction and abuse, Rainy grew up fast. At 17, she

moved into her own apartment and at 18, she left Norway for Denmark. Within a year,

she met and fell in love with an American free-jazz saxophonist and eloped to San

Francisco. “There’s this part of me ever since I was young that has to keep moving,” she

says.

Her time in the Bay Area was spent teaching children old-time folk songs and honing

her multi-instrumental chops on bluegrass and roots music, while her nights were

marked at underground jazz clubs in the Tenderloin. Among the influential musicians

she befriended during this period were Pete Seeger, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and Peter

Rowan. In addition to running a music space in San Francisco, she hosted camps and

kids music classes. In addition to Lonesome Highway, this Fall Rainy will release a

collection of 70 original and traditional folk songs for children, entitled Little Folkies on

Smithsonian Folkways.

Throughout her splintering marriage and in the process of healing from the difficult

separation, she wrote and recorded constantly at her Bolinas cabin. She gathered with

friends and experimented with songs, sounds, and psychedelics. Ric Robertson and

Gina Leslie from New Orleans, Phoebe Hunt from Nashville, as well as locals Sam

Grisman and Jeremy D’Antonio all played a hand. Together a creative spark was lit and

and helped the initial vision for come alive.

As her situation in Northern California became untenable and her wandering spirit

called, Rainy found herself once again leaving everything behind. She’d relocate to

South Louisiana, drawn by the music and culture of the region where she connected

with the roots of her musical influences and found time and space to slow down and

work on her craft. Forging a collaboration with noted Lafayette musician and producer

Dirk Powell, she shared with the demos from those cathartic cabin sessions in Bolinas

with him. Powell heard a potential album within songs like the title track, “Idaho” and

“Faded Away.” They hunkered down in his studio on the bayou and set out to fulfill the

promise of what she’d begun. He suggested Rainy track a few more recently written

songs, including “Misty Mama,” “Just a Little Rain” and “You Just Want What You Can’t

Have,” adding local Lafayette musicians Chris Stafford on pedal steel, Eric Adcock on

B3 and Dirk’s daughters Amelia and Sophie Powell on harmonies.

Lonesome Highway marks a hope-filled and assertive new beginning for Rainy Eyes.

Host or Publisher Rybolt Productions