Rain Perry Music Giveaway

Rain Perry is the writer and singer of Life Unexpected’s theme song, “Beautiful Tree”!

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More on Life Unexpected theme song, “Beautiful Tree” from Ventura County Star.

The anti-Cleaver families floundering their way through TV life are a boon to songwriters. Dysfunctional, quirky characters need witty dialogue, an ability to solve problems in 45 TV minutes — and a soundtrack to their lives. Ojai singer-songwriter Rain Perry’s music was made for this genre: Her folk-pop tunes are indie, thoughtful, slightly angst-ridden and appealing to a teen-to-40ish demographic.

Perry’s own bizarre early family life has been fodder for her one-woman autobiographical stage show and accompanying album, “Cinderblock Bookshelves.” Now, one of the tunes from that creative endeavor, “Beautiful Tree,” can be heard Monday nights on the new CW network drama “Life Unexpected.”

Perry would have been happy with just a snippet of a song on one episode, which is usually how these tunes are heard. Instead, “Beautiful Tree” is the show’s theme song, beaming loud, clear and intact to screens nationwide for as long as the show’s ratings are acceptable. “Getting a song played on TV, in a commercial or in a movie is considered one of the major ways people find music now,” said Perry, 43. “And shows are willing to use relatively unknown artists because they (the programs’ creators) have a small budget.”

“Life Unexpected” premiered Jan. 18, without Perry’s song as the theme (she said the decision to use the song was not made in time to get it into the debut). This week, however, “Beautiful Tree” opened the show, and Perry said it will continue to appear in the main title sequence.

Lyrics to Life Unexpected Theme Song: “Beautiful Tree”

Beautiful Tree: Life Unexpected Theme Song

Bent or broken

It’s the family tree
Bent or broken
It’s the family tree
Each branch a part of a part of me
This is my tree
And It’s a beautiful tree

Dwarf or giant

It’s the family tree
Dwarf or giant
It’s the family tree
Growing just as tall as it was meant to be
This is your tree
And it’s a beautiful tree

What a beautiful tree

Strong or fragile
It’s the family tree
Strong or fragile
It’s the family tree
See how the sun shines through the leaves
This is our tree
And it’s a beautiful tree
What a beautiful tree

Sure, it’s broken
But It’s the family tree
Sure, it’s broken
But It’s the family tree
I can feel the sap running through me
This is my tree
And it’s a beautiful tree

“I’m kind of singing it to my own kids,” said Perry, who is married with two daughters, ages 12 and 18. “I’m saying, ‘This is your family. It’s messed up and I can’t make it perfect, but I’m doing better than the childhood I had, and in many ways I’m even grateful for that.’”

Life Unexpected on CW Network

Perry, whose memoir play “Cinderblock Bookshelves” debuted at Ojai’s Theater 150 in 2008, can relate to these family woes.

In the multimedia production, subtitled “A Guide for Children of Fame-Obsessed Bohemian Nomads,” Perry talks and sings about an itinerant lifestyle growing up in California in the 1960s and 1970s. Perry’s mother, a songwriter, died at age 27 of toxic shock syndrome, leaving young Rain to be raised by her late hippie father, John Hazen Perry, a frustrated actor-writer and countercultural vagabond.

Perry, who graduated from Nordhoff High School and UC Santa Barbara, planned on becoming a professional musician, but began to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis at age 22 and could no longer play guitar or piano, so she turned her efforts to songwriting.

Perry released her debut album, “Balance,” in 2000. Her song “Yosemite” (a track on “Balance” as well as “Cinderblock Bookshelves”) was the grand-prize winner in the folk division of the 2000 John Lennon Songwriting Contest and 2005 ROCKRGRL Discoveries Award. She recorded “Cinderblock Bookshelves” in Austin, Texas, with producer Mark Hallman, who has worked with Carole King, Ani DiFranco and others.

Perry shared how “Beautiful Tree” worked its way through the song system and took root.

A contact at CBS liked “Beautiful Tree” and passed it along to Wendy Levy, the music supervisor for “Life Unexpected,” Rosmann said. “Wendy loved the song and sent it along to Liz (Tigelaar) and Gary (Fedler), the show’s producers, sending me a one-line e-mail update that said the song ‘received a warm response.’”

Perry said she “couldn’t believe it” when she learned that “Beautiful Tree” was picked for the show’s theme rather than a one-time airing.

“But when I watched the show, I saw how it fit,” she said. The song is “up-tempo, like the show, and matches the ‘grateful for the messed-up family’ theme. I think they must have just responded to that. Also, it’s in a woman’s voice, and the lead is a girl. And of my songs, this is probably the simplest. That made it more accessible.” Read much more on VSC.