Americana Highways brings you the premiere of this track “Can’t Rely on Rain” from Melanie Brulée’s album Fires, Floods, and Things We Leave Behind, due out October 19. The song features Melanie Brulée on vocals and acoustic guitar, Kevin Neal on pedal steel and acoustic guitar, Kyle Teixeira on bass, with Adam Warner on drums and percussion and Liz Stringer on backing vocals.
“Can’t Rely On Rain” is a richly metaphorical contribution to the Americana music catalogue, and bodes well for the rest of Brulée’s upcoming album. With pedal steel that’s orchestrated to sound like dry clouds drifting overhead, and Brulée’s powerful moving vocal tones, this song reminds you of the things you’ve endured, and the things you can’t control: “mama would always say you can’t rely on rain.”
The title for this song came to me during a hot and dry summer in Toronto. Our landlord is unfortunately quite careless and left the outdoor water pipe on through the winter, causing it to break so when spring came and I planted my tomatoes, there was no way to water them since the water main was permanently turned off outside. In frustration, I said out loud ‘well you can’t rely on rain, can you?’ I spent that summer hauling buckets of water up and down flights of stairs to water the plants. I thought it was an interesting metaphor for ‘filling your own cup’, making your own happiness rather than relying on others. If we could all teach our children to own their emotions, allow them to be in their power rather than constantly drilling them to obey, our planet might be in a better place. — Melanie Brulée
Pre-order the album right here: https://www.melaniebrulee.com/ while you’re listening here: