This is NOT the kind of song that you want to put on an album, a "debut" album non the less. When you put up a debut album, you can do it two ways. First is fill it up with nice easily likable songs that will go on forever on the radio waves, cheat a little and allow a little un-originality and tried and true formulas. Forgo most emotion and honesty and save that for the too often unsuccessful sophomore effort. This way, almost always works since bands are often hesitant to say to the listener "hey, this is who I am" on the first record. Most bands are still being cautious and testing waters. This isn’t the ONLY WAY to go about your debut record mind you. You can always take "the road less traveled".

"Raining in Baltimore" is a song that has almost no "commercial" value whatsoever. It’s very sedate, moody, almost dark, and raw. Of all the songs on August, this has got to be the hardest song to get used to. But in many ways, it sneaks up on you the fastest, if you let it. Anyone can relate to pain and loss, so in it’s most basic level, RIB isn’t that hard to relate to, it just lacks that "hip feel" that scares most people away from it. But you know what? That’s their loss. RIB is a beautiful song, beautiful because it is simple, stripped away of all superficiality , and honest…but heck, aren’t all the Crows songs?

"Raining in Baltimore" is just one more reason why the Crows are totally unique. Any band out there, heck, any person out there goes through generally the same emotions and experiences throughout their lives. Many are often moved to write about them and put them into song. The result is often beautiful, anything honest is. I believe any band is capable of making their own "Raining in Baltimore", but not everybody will have the guts to release it on their first album and take the sorely unappreciated second road.