26. February 2026
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Media Review

The Cumberland River Project – Meet Me In The Rain EP

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

The Cumberland River Project - Meet Me In The Rain

The Cumberland River Project - Meet Me In The Rain
4.8

Rating

 4.8/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Lovely storytelling
  • Great atmosphere
  • Frank sings himself

From the rather early days of Flyctory.com, I follow the growth of The Cumberland River Project. Frank Renfordt started his musical project in country music, but nowadays goes for a much wider range of genres. Of course, I just had to have a listen into his new EP as well. The German artist shares Meet Me In The Rain on 27th February 2026. Here is my review.

 

The Cumberland River Project – About The Artist

The Cumberland River Project is a singer-songwriter project driven by Frank Renfordt. The German artist is based in Hagen in the Ruhrgebiet region. He is typically the writer and partially does parts of the instruments, but especially uses guest singers in his songs. He started to release music with his 2020 self-titled album. Due to that album, I featured Frank the first time in my Spotlight interviews. We also had a catch-up in March 2024. Other major The Cumberland River Project releases I featured are A Smell of Gravy (2022) and Vain Regrets (2024).

 

The Cumberland River Project – Meet Me In The Rain – Track by Track

The six track EP lasts 21 minutes.

1. Turntable

None of the Meet Me In The Rain songs has been released beforehand. This is not the only surprise of the EP. All six songs are sung by Frank himself, the guest musicians are solely on the instrumental side. This leads to an even more personal and direct listen. Turntable is the opener of the release. The personal feeling is even increased by the very autobiographic lyrics and story behind the song. The sound of the opener is a rather traditional country one, on the instrumental side, Aaron Fabbrini strikes on the pedal steel and dobro.

And I try 
To take it easy
Walk on by 
And let things go
The day I die 
I hope they’ll find me
With the turntable running in my home

2. Leave the Lights On

I’m stuck in a state of anxiety, a never ending night with monsters lurking around – that’s how Leave the Lights On begins. Obviously, the song comes with a slower and more melancholic touch. Especially in that setting, I love the focus on the singer-songwriter’s voice. The instruments strum in the background, you can enjoy and feel the story. Lovely.

3. I Want You Back

With the banjo, the dobro and the fiddle, I Want You Back comes with an arrangement which is as country music-alike as it can be. The song is comparably rhythmic and fast, though. That’s definitely a nice contrast to the song before. Finally, The Cumberland River Project delivers an energetic, catching song here, which still does not neglect the skills of the German artist.

4. Song 4 U

Jessie Morgan, who played the fiddle in I Want You Back, does the backing vocal in the Song 4 U. The song is – you guess it – a love song. It is about the struggle of finding the right words while writing a song for someone you love. Or, how Frank names it, It all sounded cheesy and wrong your light shines too brightly for a song. The fourth track is a real highlight of this release.

5. Leave-Me-Town

You cannot say that Frank’s home town Hagen is regarded to be one of the most attractive places in Germany. I guess he would be quite in line with that thought, based on Leave-Me-Town. I put that up, despite the song is quoting a mill and a dollar store, which rather puts this song into a US small-town environment. Despite the critics about the place in the song, the song has a rather warm and harmonic melody. Nice!

6. Redbuds In Bloom

Typically, one of the worst things of The Cumberland River Project releases is that they come to an end. In regards of Meet Me In The Rain, this farewell is done by Redbuds in Bloom. The song feels heavier, darker, than most of the songs before. The song spreads feelings of anxiety and loneliness, but also has some positive future perspective. A really nice and impressing way to close this EP.

 

The Cumberland River Project – Meet Me In The Rain – Spotify

I will add the Spotify widget once the EP has been published.

 

The Cumberland River Project – Meet Me In The Rain – My View

You just have to love Frank Renfordt and his The Cumberland River Project The songs have a great depth, a lovely storytelling. This applies to the six tracks of Meet Me In The Rain as well. The songs feel truthful, relatable and very personal. I absolutely loved listening to his 2026 six set of songs. And I am proud of him that he is doing the vocals himself. It simply increases the magical touch of his music.

Favorite Song: Song 4 U

 

The Cumberland River Project

Here are all my postings about the German country music The Cumberland River Project:

 

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