29.06.2025
Music
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Will Rainier - Dance with the Dead

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Will Rainier - Dance with the Dead

Americana singer-songwriter Will Rainier writes with a stumbling romanticism and a sympathetic gaze about the lovely folks—both real and imagined—we encounter at the local saloon. His songs are orchestral Americana vignettes, exquisitely-textured with pedal steel, synths, acoustic and electric guitar, trumpet, organ, piano, xylophone, percussion, bells, drum machines, drums, and melodica.

Rainier’s cinematic sonic character studies come to life vibrantly on, Smoke ‘em If You Got ‘em, his third solo outing. This is his first solo album tracked in a proper recording studio. It was recorded at Earth to Emma Studios in Olympia with Rainier playing many of the instruments on the album. Rainier co-produced the album alongside longtime collaborator Chad Yenney.

“I like to go to bars because you meet all sorts of people, and they open up—you get to see the real person there,” the Seattle, Washington-based artist says. “The stories here aren’t personal, but there are little truths in there. Maybe I’m in those characters, maybe I’m not.”

Rainier’s songs exude an outlaw country authenticity, though his influences and listening tastes are informed by Robert Pollard, Sharon Van Etten, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Kurt Vile, Wilco, and Courtney Barnett. “I like the sadness in country music—it’s just raw emotional music to me—but I don’t want to recreate anything to the letter,” Rainier says. “I want the music to be my style, and I like unexpected instruments, like the trumpet, and I like blending styles. I don’t think about any of this when I write—I just let the music come out.”

The single, Dance with the Dead, wafts a Sweetheart of The Rodeo-era Byrds-like easy charm. Rainier’s vocals here are melodic, crisp, twangy, and lightly shadowed by breathy female harmony vocals courtesy of his wife, Jen Garrett. The teardrop pedal steel captures the aching beauty of the lyrics. One evocative passage is: Old man shake your bones/Just like an old xylophone/Dusty cobwebs fill up your head/Come on out and dance with the dead/I can see you wanna make a new start/Let me show you around through the dark. "I like that vibe when music that feels happy is contrasted with dark lyrics," Rainier says.

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