Now It Rains

For the joy of it

Now It Rains, copyright Alma Drake 2025, Creative Commons (Attrib.)

You might think I’m a little obsessed with rain.

You wouldn’t be wrong.

I love rain, love love love rain. I posted a song a while back where I was straight up seduced by a thunderstorm. Rain is one of my happiest places.

And you also might think I’m obsessed with personifying nature and natural forces. You could be forgiven for that. In fact, there’s nothing to forgive, I totally am.

So rain songs are a thing. It used to be driving, because I practically lived in my car, commuting to work during the week, and traveling for gigs on weekends. I often say, “Anything that happens to you while you are driving is a valid metaphor for anything that might otherwise happen to you anywhere else.” Fight me.

The sneaky thing is, once you start really communicating with Nature, you don’t have to personify it. Nature does it for you. Suddenly you find yourself in communion with People, like the RainFather, and our beautiful Pachamama, EarthMother, who are the main characters in this song. If you are open, they will make themselves known. They don’t hesitate, and they don’t hide. And sometimes, they give you presents.

Woody Guthrie used to say that the world was the poet, and he was just a clerk. That sums up this song really well. I just wrote it down one morning during the sweetest, gentlest thundershower I’ve seen in quite a while.

Lyrics

Rain is fallin’ like a loving father
Lightning is the sparkle in his eye
Thunder chuckles softly in wonder
At the miracle of this tiny little child
You can tell that he’s thinkin’ about the Mother
And how this precious babe came to be
Sky and Earth and Fire and Water
And love, the most essential ingredient

And the water moved over the Earth
And the sun shone down, and the sun shone down
And the breath of life witnessed the birth
Of this brand new thing

Now it rains for the joy of it
The whole sky is alive with it
What you feel is the love of it
Go out and dance
Go out and dance in the rain

The Earth is timeless, ancient, and wondrous
But humanity is barely new born
We need to sit and listen to our Mother
And let RainFather’s love pour down
Everything made is part of oneness
A holy wholeness wrought in conscious light
Our parents speak to us in inspiration
The light-bulb moments in the dark of night

And the water feeds the whole Earth
And the sun shines down, and the sun shines down
And the breath of life is our constant rebirth
We are brand new every moment

Now it rains for the joy of it
The whole sky is alive with it
What you feel is the love of it
Go out and dance
Go out and dance in the rain

Gear Box

Recorded on a ~2000 Gallagher A70 with Blue Magic “Indigo” strings, .012-.053

Songwriter’s Workshop

I think my voice has shifted south from being happy in G to being happy in F. Fortunately, DADGAD loves the key of F, and the fingerings are way easier than F in standard tuning, or “not-gad” as my friend Jean Littlejohn and I call it now.

The drop from F to Dm with so many common tones is extremely satisfying. This is a total piano move, playing a chord, and just changing the bass note, and having it magically morph into a whole new chord.

Almost all of the chords are something other than the straight chord they are named for. F in this case is an Fsus2add6 (also known as an F with no A with a G anna D on there). I love suspension (sus) chords, because they are so … suspended. They are something between major and minor, or something beyond major or minor. They call out to the other dimensions, opening doors and waving incense around. Every song is dreamier when you throw in a few sus chords.

The words came with the rain. I hardly feel like I wrote them, they were just there and I happened to be the instrument that made them show up on the paper.

Sound Healer’s Tent

Rain pattering on the roof is soothing and restful. It’s a gentle white noise that is highly relaxing. It’s some of my favorite music.

This song is soft, gentle, and features a loving and delighted Father, cradling his new-born child. He’s protective, tender, and fascinated, totally in love with the new baby. On the cosmic timeline, humans aren’t even a baby yet. We’re a blip. We need to settle down and let EarthMother and RainFather teach us some stuff before we do too much more mischief.

The guitar part somewhat imitates a gentle rain pattering gently down, occasionally slowing, occasionally intensifying, but always the gentle, rhythmic patter on the roof and against the windows. It’s a comforting sound. Take it in and let it wash your anxiety away.