5/12/09: SPRING TOUR UPDATE
Hello hello! Where to begin.... so much has happened since the last entry where we were driving west to east. We have since toured the eastcoast and midwest, and just made our drive back, east to west! It feels great to be back in the northwest (one of our favorite spots) even though spring seems to be taking her time. But the weather is always welcome to us Californians who appreciate any sort of seasonal change. This journal entry comes from one of our favorite small towns in Washington: Walla Walla. Not only home of the infamous Sweet Onion, and not only the the wine mecca the legendary Columbia River Valley, but also the FIRST city Raining Jane ever played outside of California! Ever since that day we were invited to open for Guster at Whitman College back in 2004, we've had a real fondness for this town, and we'll continue to come back every chance we get. (You should visit too sometime!)

So what have we been up to you ask? Well, we had a fabulous run across the east coast. Highlights include The Northstar Cafe in Portland Maine (could we love you anymore?!), The Living Room in NYC, and a crazy crossbill at Stonehill College with Sara Bareilles and 36mafia (what? true). After that, we made our way out to the midwest for a much-anticipated part of the tour: CD Release shows with our dear friend Willy Porter. Amazing! Since RJ had played and sung on Willy's new record "How To Rob A Bank" (check it out!!!) we were invited to be a part of the release tour. Not only did we get to open each night with our own full acoustic set, but we also sat in as part of Willy Porter's new band made up of 11 people!! The collaboration was ridiculously cool, and it was a pretty amazing experience for us Janes to be a part of something bigger. Mona rocked percussion and vocals, Mai provided the cellophany and vocals, Chaska sang, and Becky had her day in the sun with a toy piano and sitar among other things. The music and magic that ensued was so exciting, we're already looking into doing it again soon.

So here we are now, wrapping up the last couple weeks of the tour in the beautiful Northwest. Looking forward to the Firefly House Concerts in Seattle (our 5/23 show sold out so we had to add another on the 5/17!) and of course all our favorite colleges and friends who we've grown so close to over the years playing up here. Next up when we get home: a JUNE RESIDENCY AT HOTEL CAFE! It's been a long time since we've played regularly at our homebase of Los Angeles. We're looking forward to being in 1 place for a good chunk of time, and to writing new music every week to share with you. So tell a friend, and we hope to see you there, or somewhere else along this winding road...

4/16/09: HEAR YE! HEAR YE!
We are back! Yes, you may have noticed that Jane seemed to close her Journal for the last few months. Our apologies -we didn't know she ran out of paper! Everyone deserves a fresh new journal every year, right? Well we've equipped Jane with a fancy new diary. It rides along with us in our little red van as we zig zag across the country, trailer in tow. Which is what we are doing right now.... Here's to our spring 2009 tour across America!

We're kicking off this first big tour of the year fueled by new songs, the nourishment of having had our first serious break from the road in 5 years (thank you February and March!), and we're still floating on highlights from the end of 2008. As some of you know, we had the extreme pleasure and honor of touring with our dear friend Sara Bareilles last fall. That 6-week tour brought us to some of the most beautiful venues, and also introduced us to a lot of new music-lovers. Thank you to everyone who gave us such an incredible reception. We had a blast and are so happy to have made new friends across the country!

Another high point from 2008, which you will hear more about this year, is that we went into the studio to record with the uber-talented Willy Porter. After having done a few shows with Willy, he invited Raining Jane to be a part of his new album. So in December, we headed out to Milwaukee and sang and played on a bunch of tunes that are now featured on his new record "How to Rob a Bank". Come see and hear it for yourself if you can; we'll be opening for, and sitting in with Willy Porter for a series of CD Release shows in May (see gigs for more details!)

Last but not least, 2008 brought us the thrill of hearing our first original song coming through the TV; on October 30th, Raining Jane's "Prelude" was featured in the closing scene of Grey's Anatomy. Rock on people! What a thrill it was to hear our music be the backdrop for doctors going through romance trauma... just heart-wrenching! (But seriously, we were SO excited!)

So now, we are into the beginning of our 7-week spring tour. With 4 shows under our belts, we're in the last leg of our 47-hour drive from Montana to Massachussets. Tomorrow night we'll actually be playing with Sara Bareilles again (coincidence!), and then we continue on with a bunch of our own headline gigs at colleges and clubs across the U.S. So keep an eye and an ear out for us, cause we're bound to be in a city near you -or a loved one- sooner than later, and we'd love to see you! (And we promise to keep Jane on task with her journal entries. She's got a brand new book and no excuses!)