Rain Please Go Away

The lyric is a short plea. The singer’s love has left for good, and he asks the rain to leave him alone and come back another day. She is happy now and he is blue, the hours drag, and he admits he is fooling himself when he imagines a new love growing. Along the way he likens the rain’s coldness to hers, and by the closing line it has become the cold rain.

McCoury recorded it with the Dixie Pals in 1974 at Roy Homer’s studio in Clinton, Maryland, singing lead over Bill Runkle on banjo, Donnie Eldreth on mandolin, Bill Poffinberger on fiddle and Dewey Renfro on bass. It opened the second side of his 1975 Rebel LP Del McCoury, an album that also included his version of the traditional “Rain and Snow.” Rebel later reissued the track on The Best of Del McCoury & the Dixie Pals (1983) and Classic Bluegrass (1991).

Larry Stephenson recorded the song for his 1988 Webco album Every Time I Sing a Love Song, singing lead with David Parmley on harmony and Bill Emerson, Mike Auldridge and Ronnie Simpkins among the pickers. Alison Krauss and Union Station recorded it for Lonely Runs Both Ways (Rounder, 2004), with Dan Tyminski singing lead, Ron Block on banjo, Jerry Douglas on Dobro, Barry Bales on bass and Krauss on fiddle. Rounder’s credit reads Del McCoury, McCoury Music, BMI.