Stephen Deusner is a music journalist whose work appears in Pitchfork, Uncut, the New York Times, Stereogum, the Washington Post, Spin, No Depression, and the Bluegrass Situation, among others.
Ahead of its 22nd anniversary in a few weeks time, we’ve been listening to and thinking a lot about ‘Didn’t It Rain’ - the much-celebrated Songs: Ohia record released in 2002 via Secretly Canadian. It was fortuitous, then, that we should fall in contact with music journalist Stephen Deusner, who had started exploring the story of the album in detail but was yet to find an outlet for his work. A longtime admirer of Jason Molina’s music, Stephen is based in Bloomington, Indiana (once home to Jason, and the birthplace of the Secretly Canadian label), has reviewed his music for the likes of Pitchfork and Uncut, and also penned this poignant tribute to Jason after his passing in 2013.
We’re very grateful to have been able to give Stephen an excuse to revive and develop this excellent deep dive into a dearly-loved collection of songs - a huge thank you goes to Stephen for his time and effort in putting all of this together. We hope you enjoy it.
Also, stay tuned for part two which will follow in the near future.
S&D x
DIDN’T IT RAIN (Part One)
In 2014 I pitched a story about the making of Songs: Ohia’s 2002 album Didn’t It Rain to a new web site called Wondering Sound. The idea was to talk to some of the people who knew Jason Molina best when he was making what turned out to be a transitional album, and then to highlight their voices in an oral history. I wanted to explore what I thought was a pivotal record by Jason Molina, one that showed him refining his songwriting, working with new people, and taking more risks in the studio. This period in his career seemed so crucial to me, as it preceded the transition from Songs: Ohia (which was essentially solo Molina) to Magnolia Electric Company (which was more of a full-band project).