Entertainment

October 6, 2008

Seasoned STAR

As co-lead singer of the local 1980s band M80, Janet Rains has been successfully and regularly energizing crowds in local nightclubs for the past four years.

She’s learned how to joke on stage and make people feel her passion for the rock cover music she performs each weekend — but her skills didn’t come without practice.

She’s learned from the best.

As the one-time main backup vocalist for Liz Phair in the late 1990s, she not only traveled with the indie-rock-turned-pop artist but had the opportunity to share the stage with the likes of Alanis Morrisette, whom she and Phair opened for during Morrisette’s Former Infatuation Junkie Tour. During the 1999 Lilith Fair, an international tour showcasing female vocalists, she also shared the stage with Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, Sheryl Crow and Sarah McLachlan, whom she calls “one of the coolest people ever.”

“It was like a whirlwind,” said Rains, who hails from northern New Jersey but eventually made her home in Luzerne County after recognizing how affordable property is here and to be closer to her best friend, Brian McDonald, the owner of Ole Tyme Charley’s.

“Touring was surreal because it was the full star treatment,” she said.

At the time, Rains was fronting her own New York City band, called “Janet Rains,” but jumped at the chance to perform with Phair after she was contacted by a friend who knew Rains would have an interest in going on a nationwide tour.

After meeting with management, Rains became part of the six-person ensemble and set out to promote Phair’s album, “Whitechocolatespacegg.”

“They said, ‘I hope you’re ready, because you’re going to LA in two days,’ ” she recalled.

With the tour came guest appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno and “The Rosie O’Donnell Show,” both of which Rains soaked up.

“I’ve always enjoyed being around successful people,” she said, explaining that many of her fans in Northeastern Pennsylvania may not realize her past successes in the music business.

Rains grew up in a musical family. Her brother would drive her to performances while her mother stayed home and did her homework.

At age 12 she was a keyboardist in a southern rock band, and at age 15 she joined a Yes tribute band.

“I was always the younger one,” she said of her time on the New York City club scene. “My mother told me that (even) at 6 months and 3 days old I was matching notes on the piano.”

Her mother was a graduate of the Yale School of Music and later taught piano out of their home while raising her two children. Meanwhile, her father was busy playing in live orchestras for CBS network shows such as “The Carol Burnett Show,” “What’s My Line” and “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Her father also played for city bands such as the Dorsey Brothers, Benny Goodman and Count Basie.

Rains said her parents, particularly her mother, always encouraged her children to follow their dreams.

“She never really paid attention to the mainstream,” Rains said of her mother. “She’d tell me not to ever let anybody get in the way of my music.”

As she grew older, she and friends would make their way into New York City, where they’d hang out at the Hard Rock Caf�.

“At that time, it was a really cool place for rockers,” she said.

“It was really just the local scene I grew up in.”

And if the aspiring songstress wanted to meet a celebrity, she made it happen, such as the time when she grabbed onto the arm of someone attending the first-ever MTV Music Awards party and asked to accompany them.

“With all the bands I’ve met, I never wanted to be a groupie,” Rains explained. “I’d think, ‘You made it; how can I?’ ”

Rains said she feels comfortable with celebrities, which is why she had no problem being an extra on the popular HBO drama “Sex and the City” in 2003.

She also appears behind the character Miranda in the recent movie based on the show, as Miranda makes a list of pros and cons about her husband.

“Because I have a unique look, I started getting casting calls,” Rains said.

“I could fit in on the trendy, hip club scenes.”

Speaking of that “unique look,” yes, those lengths of fiery red hair, usually braided, are real, which is why she doesn’t enjoy when fans try to pull it.

Rains has made other background appearances in shows such as “Law & Order” and “Ugly Betty,” as well as movies such as “Hitch,” which starred Will Smith.

While still continuing her television and film work in New York City, she can be found pleasing the eardrums of patrons at many local nightclubs.

“The crowd is very receptive, and what M80 is doing is fun,” said Rains, who admits she was unsure of whether or not she would join a few years back.

Now she’s glad she did.

She ended up falling in love with her co-singer at the time, Bob Lewis, to whom she’s been married for more than two years.

“I was having a bad day, and he gave me a hug, and that was it. I felt a butterfly,” she recalled.

“He is the most beautiful person to me.”

The band performs anything — from “Your Love” by the Outfield to “Video Killed the Radio Star” by British new-wave group Buggles — and always seems to draw a crowd.

While she doesn’t know what the future holds, Rains said she wouldn’t mind recording a new CD or teaming up with other local artists to make original music.

And while she chooses not to reveal her age, she compares herself to a glass of fine wine.

“Just getting better with time,” she joked.

IF YOU GO

M80 can be heard at the following locations this week:

Thursday: Nightcaps, Edwardsville, 10:15 p.m.

Friday: The Woodlands Inn and Resort, Plains Township, 10:15 p.m.

Saturday: Cell Block, Williamsport, 10 p.m.

Mike McGinley, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7127.

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