(I wrote the other day about the planned free show featuring The Waiting and this area’s own rainchildren at Manheim Brethren In Christ on Saturday, Dec. 5 … be there, or be square! Here’s an interview with rainchildren leader Marty Shaughnessy from back in October 1998, when the band decided to call it a day. Having gone to one of the two last shows at the E-Free near Lititz, I remember their pure, clean, message-packed sound very well, and played “Feels Like Summer” plenty of times in the car or in the Walkman … those were pre-ipod days, guys! And can that really be 11 years ago? It will be nice to hear rainchildren perform again …

On a sunny note, rainchildren to end 4-year career

MARTY SHAUGHNESSY remembers how he had started writing songs in college, and since “I didn’t know how to “write,’ I only tried to be as honest as I could be.”
The results became apparent when he started hearing from people out there who had been encouraged by one of his songs.
“I got some letters, and I remembered thinking, “Wow, I wrote the songs for me, and here someone else can get something out of it,”’ says the singer/songwriter for rainchildren, a popular Lancaster-area Christian contemporary band.
“I’m just grateful someone can listen to it and get something out of it,” says the low-key, unpretentious Shaughnessy, a Massachusetts native who now lives in East Hempfield Township.
After reaching people at area coffeehouses and churches, music festivals and through the band’s three CDs over the last four years, the now 27-year-old Shaughnessy realized several months ago the time had come to close things out.
“It’s time to put this chapter to an end. I have a peace about it, the guys have a peace about it,” says Shaughnessy, who’s says “it’s great to realize that just through being open, you’ve affected someone in a positive way.”
A medical proofreader for a pharmaceutical company in suburban Philadelphia, he’s getting married in early 1999 and also plans to finish his undergraduate degree.
The end of rainchildren’s ministry comes with “no hard feelings - this band is still five friends who play music. If we’re not playing music together, we’re still going to be friends,” Shaughnessy says.
The group’s last concerts are this Saturday at Lancaster Evangelical Free Church. The 7:30 p.m. show is sold out, but a second show has been added at 3 p.m. Cost is $7.50. Call 392-3206 for details.
A guitar-driven rock quintet with tinges of folk and country behind Shaughnessy’s distinctive, plaintive vocals, the band met at Phoenixville’s Valley Forge Christian College.
Along with Shaughnessy, who plays guitar and does the bulk of the singing, rainchildren members are: Steve Bridgeman, guitar and vocals; Dennis Durasoff, bass and vocals; Aaron Gagne, percussion; and Kevin Russo, drums.
Just like U2 got the title for the “Rattle and Hum” movie and album from a line in the song “Bullet the Blue Sky,” rainchildren got its name from a line in a song (”Something Pure”) on its first demo tape.
Most of its second effort, last year’s “Feels Like Summer,” was recorded at the Mill Coffeehouse in Lititz during a May 2, 1997 show. Rainchildren now have a third record, “Limited Edition,” featuring a combination of new, live and previously-released songs.
Rainchildren performed around the country for two months this summer, and even if it hasn’t topped the charts like Christian songwriter Bob Carlisle with “Butterfly Kisses,” the band has reached and maybe encouraged plenty of new fans - “and to me, that’s successful,” Shaughnessy says.
“In the letters we’ve gotten, people said things like, “This song made me weep,’ or “This song really held me, I wanted to thank you for being real and open.’ Those kinds of things, I would never want to give that up.”
Says rainchildren fan Fred McNaughton, station manager at Christian contemporary station WJTL-FM, “The DC Talks and Newsboys (both well-known Christian rock bands) of the world, who can make a living out of it, are rare - very few can do it for a living, and that makes you realize how tough a haul it is.
“But one thing (rainchildren) have done is bring such a warmth and personality to Christian music in this area. I think everybody who goes and sees them thinks of them as their friends,” McNaughton adds.
Says Shaughnessy, “We didn’t set out to impress anyone. Our goal has been just to be regular people who play music and love God - to show people who the real Jesus is, by loving people and being real.”
In the song “Thanks, I’m Alright,” he writes: “Well, I wish that I could show you/The Jesus that I know/You could look into His eyes.”