''No Rain, No Rose'' is the fifth studio album by folk singer-songwriter John Craigie. It was released on January 27, 2017, and recorded in his living room in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, with the help of other well-known musicians around Portland such as the Shook Twins and

Gregory Alan Isakov Gregory Alan Isakov (born October 19, 1979) is a South African-born singer-songwriter currently based in Boulder, Colorado. He and his family immigrated to the United States in 1986 and he was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Isakov's mus ...

. This album describes John Craigie's life as a traveling musician and explores the sense of home that he found in Portland after moving from Los Angeles. The comical banter heard within the tracks demonstrate some of the album's influence from

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is an American country rock band formed in 1966. The group has existed in various forms since its founding in Long Beach, California. Between 1976 and 1981, the band performed and recorded as the Dirt Band. Constant ...

's 1972 album ''

Will the Circle be Unbroken "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" is a popular Christian hymn written in 1907 by Ada R. Habershon with music by Charles H. Gabriel. The song is often recorded unattributed and, because of its age, has lapsed into the public domain. Most of the cho ...

''. Other influences include

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

with the album's folksy cover of "

Tumbling Dice "Tumbling Dice" is a song recorded by the English Rock music, rock band the Rolling Stones. A product of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards' Jagger–Richards, songwriting partnership, the song has a blues, boogie-woogie rhythm that scholars and m ...

". The title of the album comes from the old Buddhist saying "No mud, no lotus", meaning bad things are necessary in order for good things to happen. John Craigie captures this sentiment throughout the album, and since Portland is the "City of Roses", he symbolizes his hometown as the lotus from the saying, or in other words, one of the 'good things' that has come from hard times.

Track listing

Personnel

* John Craigie – acoustic guitar, vocals, harmonica, percussion, producer *Tyler Thompson – drums, percussion, banjo, vocals *Justin Landis – electric guitar, electric bass, drums on Tumbling Dice *Brad "Twinkle Toes" Parsons – piano, vocals, percussion *Kat Fountain – vocals *Bevin Foley – violin, fiddle, vocals *Jay Cobb Anderson – electric guitar, vocals, percussion *Niko Daoussis – mandolin, electric guitar, vocals, percussion * Shook Twins – vocals *

– vocals *Bart Budwig – vocals, percussion, audio engineer *John Nuhn – upright bass, vocals, percussion *Will Koster – dobro Production * John Craigie – producer *Bart Budwig – engineering and mixing *Adam Gonsalves – mastering

References

{{Authority control John Craigie (musician) albums 2017 albums