ARTIST: The Rainmakers
TITLE: The Good News and the Bad News
YEAR RELEASED: 1989
CHART ACTION: None
SINGLES: Spend It on Love, Hoo Dee Hoo
OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Oh, no. They buried this one.
LINEUP: Bob Walkenhorst, Rich Ruth, Steve Phillips, Pat Tomek
WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Third Mercury album from sardonic, politically edgy band flops, even though it was a better record than their second.
SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: After an uneven second album, the Rainmakers went back into the studio and tried to reclaim some of the career momentum they had and lost (everywhere but their home base of KC, and Scandanavia, because why not). And track for track, they made a good album that was more consistent than their previous one.
It didn’t sell. In fact, it was a well-kept secret. These things happen with record companies.
The themes of the record are familiar to Rainmakers fans: the common man’s problems and other social observations sung with religious fervor. The imagery in the lyrics are sometimes spiritual, sometimes apocalyptic, sometimes they evoke sadness, or even the hardscrabble poor.
There’s nothing as high as their best ever songs, but most of these tracks fit comfortably in any other album and really, it was a shame it was buried by Mercury.
NOTES & MINUTIAE: They released a live album from Oslo and Wichita (!) in 1990 which concluded their Mercury contract.
IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: Yes, they released an acoustic EP and it was appended.
GRADE: B+: It could have been another college radio hit. Alas…