Will Rainier

Will Rainier - Smoke 'em If You Got 'em' LP

Release date: September 12th 2025

Artist Information

Label: Basement Tape Records
Genre: Indie Rock / Americana
Hometown: Seattle, WA
RIYL: Kurt Vile, Wilco, Built to Spill, Guided by Voices

Biography

Americana singer-songwriter Will Rainier writes with a stumbling romanticism and a sympathetic gaze about the lovely folks—both real and imagined—we encounter at the local saloon. His songs are orchestral Americana vignettes, exquisitely-textured with pedal steel, synths, acoustic and electric guitar, trumpet, organ, piano, xylophone, percussion, bells, drum machines, drums, and melodica.

Rainier’s cinematic sonic character studies come to life vibrantly on, Smoke ‘em If You Got ‘em, his third solo outing. This is his first solo album tracked in a proper recording studio. It was recorded at Earth to Emma Studios in Olympia with Rainier playing many of the instruments on the album. Rainier co-produced the album alongside longtime collaborator Chad Yenney.

“I like to go to bars because you meet all sorts of people, and they open up—you get to see the real person there,” the Seattle, Washington-based artist says. “The stories here aren’t personal, but there are little truths in there. Maybe I’m in those characters, maybe I’m not.”

Rainier is a multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and vet of the Seattle scene having played in punk bands, pop bands, and indie rock bands. His previous endeavors include the lo-fi pop band Stuporhero. That band released nine albums; performed on beloved taste-making radio station KEXP and at hipster record store Easy Street Records; and earned plum NPR coverage. His next act was the Americana/alt-country group Will Rainier & the Pines. Rainier went solo during the pandemic, and his solo albums have garnered acclaim from Americana Highways, Americana UK, B-Sides & Badlands, Fingertips Music, and Music Crowns.

Rainier’s songs exude an outlaw country authenticity, though his influences and listening tastes are informed by Robert Pollard, Sharon Van Etten, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Kurt Vile, Wilco, and Courtney Barnett. “I like the sadness in country music—it’s just raw emotional music to me—but I don’t want to recreate anything to the letter,” Rainier says. “I want the music to be my style, and I like unexpected instruments, like the trumpet, and I like blending styles. I don’t think about any of this when I write—I just let the music come out.”

Smoke ‘em if You Got ‘em is a 12-song collection of barnburners and tears-in-your-beer ballads. The album opens with the achingly beautiful single, “Dance with the Dead,” a breezy country-rock track with Sweetheart of The Rodeo-era Byrds-like easy charm. It’s followed by the harrowing and hilarious cautionary tale, “I’ll Show You What Too Much to Drink Looks Like.” This is a storyteller country song with a riveting narrative—you don’t want to miss any part of the action in the lyrics. One juicy passage is: She made a scene at the restaurant broke a glass and knocked over a chair/But nothing he could say or do seemed to make a difference or put a stop to it there/Just before dessert he said hey hon’ don’t you think you’ve had enough wine/Well she stopped and looked him straight in the eye and this is what I heard her cry.

The moody “Shapes In The Clouds” features some of Rainier’s strongest lyrics. Here, he writes with poetic insightfulness. A standout excerpt is: Are you waiting for some kind of sign/To find the meaning between the lines/We all have secrets we’re trying to hide/The broken mirror beneath the lies. The title track is a dreamy slice of Americana about staying true to your purpose. “No matter what else is happening in my life or in the world around me, I'll always be picking up my guitar to try and find a little joy in the darkness. Music is the thing I can't not do,” Rainier says. One surprise on the album is Rainier’s straight-faced rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me).” “I like doing unexpected covers, and my wife suggested this one. When I looked at the lyrics, it just seemed like a country ballad,” Rainier says. The album concludes with “Tidal Wave,” a song from Rainier’s punk rock days that beneath its gently atmospheric country sonics retains some vitriolic political rage.

Social Links

Upcoming Shows

February 22nd // Seattle, WA // The Central Saloon
May 2nd // Bellingham, WA // The Shakedown

Listen (or download here)

Photos