Pray for Rain is the second album by Blue Mafia and their first for Pinecastle Records (PRC 1194), released in February 2015. The band was formed in 2011 in Muncie, Indiana, by Tony and Dara Wray; its members on the album are Tony Wray on guitar, Dara Wray on mandolin, Cody Looper on banjo, Kent Todd on fiddle and Michael Gregory on bass. Tony and Dara Wray and Todd all sing lead. The group had won the DelFest band competition in 2012, and its first album, My Cold Heart, came out in 2013.
Dara Wray wrote three of the thirteen songs: “One Bad Day,” “Consider It Goodbye” and the title song, which Todd sings. The rest come from other writers, among them Peter Rowan (“Moonshiner”), Tom T. and Dixie Hall (“I Didn’t See It Coming”), Pete Goble and Leroy Drumm (“I’d Like to Be a Train”) and the Ralph Stanley repertoire (“I’m Lonesome Without You” and “All I Ever Loved Was You”). “Born to Be with You” was the single sent to radio in the fall of 2014, and “He’s in Control,” a gospel song sung by Todd, runs longest at 5:21. Looper’s “Backtrail” is the only instrumental, with banjo and guitar alone.
Tracklist
- 1 Moonshiner alt version 3:03
- 2 One Bad Day 3:14
- 3 Had To Be Crippled 3:59
- 4 Consider It Goodbye 2:37
- 5 Born to Be With You alt version 1:58
- 6 He's In Control 5:22
- 7 I Didn't See It Coming 3:17
- 8 East Virginia Blues alt version 3:56
- 9 Backtrail 2:21
- 10 I’m Lonesome Without You Source Recording 3:21
- 11 Pray For Rain 2:32
- 12 I’d Like to Be a Train alt version 4:05
- 13 All I Ever Loved Was You alt version 3:00
