I really love "You Just Want What You Can't Have"... 
It's a great song, very well produced and Rainy's an awesome singer -she really jumps out of the speakers!
That track could easily be nominated for Americana record of the year..... 
- DON WAS


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 naturalperformer, 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, shemoved 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 SanFrancisco.
“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.
As electric guitar and drums now join fiddle and banjo. As highways and mountains
offer optimism and escape. As leaving leads to self discovery.
Breaking cycles,
trusting the universe,
and allowing the higher self to lead the way.



“While the arrangements are thick with instruments alternating in and out,
and the production is excellent, Rainy’s vocals are really what commands attention.
She has an incredible range and is extremely versatile, agile, and supple,
not to mention frequently breathtaking.
Harmonies are essential to her music, and she obviously works hard to get ’em just right.” - Offbeat Magazine


"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