Mike Berman - Make It Rain

“Make It Rain” is a prayer, a plea for the cleansing of the land and of the soul. Mike Berman’s new song captures not just the need for rain in the parched Southwest, but the feelings of a man lost without love as he watches his soul baking with the dry ground. “Make It Rain” marks the first single from Berman’s January 2023 debut album Where I’m From, which is deeply rooted in his life in Southern California. While many of his songs feature specific places in the Los Angeles area, Make It Rain speaks to the more universal longing for the power of water to support life. It’s simultaneously a personal song of an individual yearning for love, and a warning of the harsh weather that human folly has wrought through climate change.
Featuring a vocal contribution from Teresa James and Hammond B3 provided by Carl Byron, “Make It Rain” is a prayer for water and redemption. The lines “Oh, what I’d give, just to hear the thunder rolling/and to see the blue skies turn to darkest gray” form the emotional heart of the song. A beautiful slide guitar part played by guitarist/bassist/producer Ed Tree adds a plaintive cry to the soundscape. Berman plays a baritone guitar part suggestive of the sound of Glen Campbell. The solid rhythm of drummer Scott Babcock undergirds the track.
“Perhaps it’s a product of living most of my life in Southern California, but to me, a rainy day is a good day, and a sunny day is just ordinary,” says Berman. “Overnight, dry brown hills become green again and flowers bloom. It’s a miracle. To me, it’s also a metaphor for the giving power of nature and the opportunity that we each have to find our dreams. Even though the narrator says, ‘I think that in my life, the rain is never going to fall’, the song still feels hopeful to me. The rain will come, and things will get better.”