Biography Wikipedia
Wikipedia:
Rain Perry (born November 9, 1966) is a folk-rock singer/songwriter. Her song "Beautiful Tree" was the theme song for the CW Network series Life Unexpected. "Yosemite," her celebration of the pains of growing up, won the Grand Prize (Folk Division) in the 2000 John Lennon Songwriting Contest and has been recorded by Tom Russell and Nanci Griffith. Her autobiographical one-woman, multi-media show Cinderblock Bookshelves is currently touring the country.
Biography
Rain Noel Perry was born in Los Angeles, California. She spent her early years in Los Angeles and Redondo Beach as a member of Bethel Tabernacle church. When her young mother died in 1974 (of, presumably, toxic shock syndrome), Perry was raised by her father, writer/actor John Hazen Perry. They lived variously (and often precariously) in Marin County, southwestern Colorado, and Los Angeles, before settling in Ojai, California, where she attended Nordhoff High School, graduating in 1984. She married attorney Bill Slaughter in 1988 and graduated with high honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1995, with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. She and her husband live in Ojai with their two daughters, Sarah and Stella.
When she was twenty-two, Perry was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, which affects two million Americans, mostly women. She now works as an advocate for people with arthritis. In 2000, she produced "Agility: A Woman’s Music Festival to Benefit the Arthritis Foundation," featuring Julie Christensen, Perla Batalla, Victoria Williams and Sara Hickman.
The play “Cinderblock Bookshelves” evolved from her 2008 album of the same name and is a memoir of her counterculture childhood, an ode to her imperfect, beloved family. The play's subtitle is "A Guide for Children of Fame-Obsessed Bohemian Nomads," and it had its world premiere at Theater 150 in Ojai, California, under the direction of Kim Maxwell, with Sasha Heslip producing.
Music
Rain Perry has released two albums and a CD single on her own label, Precipitous Records, and is scheduled to release her third in late Spring 2010. She has been a guest performer on half a dozen albums by other musicians. Mark Hallman produced "Cinderblock Bookshelves" at the Congress House in Austin, Texas. The album placed #22 on the Euroamericana Chart in 2009.
Awards
▪ 2000 Telluride Troubadour Competition (Telluride Bluegrass Festival) Finalist ▪ 2000 John Lennon Songwriting Contest – Grand Prize (Folk Division) ▪ 2005 ROCKRGRL Discoveries Award Grand Prize
