bio
Playing in their hometown of Fairfax, Virginia in the fall of 1996, Summer Rain performed a newly written song for three friends and a bartender on a warm Sunday afternoon. Little did they know that within ten years they would release six albums, have their recordings blasted over the airwaves of the top radio stations in the nation’s capital, and that the song quietly debuted that long ago Sunday would still be requested by close friends and strangers alike a decade later.
Summer Rain has never been about image, popularity, or fortune. For drummer Carl Pocaro, bassist Marc DeAngelo, guitarist Sean Ceigersmidt, and vocalist Justin Grim, having a band is about writing and performing songs that reach people on a level far beyond the stale, cookie-cutter music manufactured too often today in places like L.A., Nashville, and New York. The music they create sounds great played on an old Martin acoustic, but absolutely explodes when they turn on the amps. Soulful vocals tell stories over a musical foundation of hard-hitting, growling energy propelled by the band’s experiences touring the rural small towns and industrial smoke-stacked cities of Virginia.
The band captures their distinct sound on six albums including The Sky and Tomorrow (1999), Tye-Dye (2003), and Heightlines (2004). Their most recent offering, Ghost Town, VA (2006), is the first release in a trilogy that documents their thoughts, emotions, and observations living the twenty-first century American experience. From the bluesy swagger of “Down Slow” to the driving raw emotion of “The Dark Hollow”, Summer Rain explores the depths of the human soul; sometimes serious, sometimes playful, but always excitingly unpredictable in their perspective.
- Ryan Barry
