story

Greg Parrott went on to create and produce what could only be described as the Pacific Northwest’s answer to A Prairie Home Companion—if someone had spiked the coffee with a healthy dose of Monty Python. 

The result was a sharp, offbeat blend of live music, storytelling, and absurdist humor that felt equal parts folk tradition and surreal sketch comedy, delivered with the kind of irreverent spirit the Northwest has always done best.

church of Great Rain | Music comedy variety show

It started simply enough: an acoustic folk-rock duo called Great Rain, tucked away on Vashon Island, Washington. Greg Parrott and Frank Hein built a following the old-fashioned way; sharp songwriting, tight vocal harmonies, and the kind of stripped-down acoustic sound that invited people to lean in and listen. Before long, local musicians began drifting into the mix.

Pretty soon the music couldn’t be contained to a duo.

Every Sunday morning, Frank’s home studio (a woodworking shop converted into an acoustically tuned live room) became the gathering point. Word spread across the island: bring an instrument, bring a song, or just bring beer. The weekly jam sessions grew into a standing ritual at Great Rain Studio, an open-door musical congregation where anyone could show up and play. On Vashon, where community jams are practically a civic duty, it didn’t take long before the tradition earned a name.

They simply called it “Church.”

By 2008, music promoter and booking agent Pete Welch suggested taking the energy beyond the Great Rain Studio. He booked Greg and Frank for regular Sunday shows at the Red Bicycle pub in downtown Vashon. Instead of just performing, the duo decided to bring the whole spirit of “Church” with them, jam-session spontaneity, rotating musicians, and a new twist of sketch comedy and variety-show chaos layered between the songs.

The result was something like a Pacific Northwest variety revival, part jam session, part radio theater, part late-night comedy experiment. Locals packed the Red Bicycle beyond capacity.

By 2009, the show had outgrown the pub. The Church of Great Rain moved into Open Space for Arts & Community, a massive former Seattle's Best Coffee roasting warehouse that could hold nearly a thousand people. Before long, that space filled too.

What made it work was the island itself. Actors (Holy Roller Radio Players), musicians (Church House Band), guest artists, writers, sound & video engineers, and stage crews all jumped in. The audience became part of the act. The show evolved into a full-blown community production; equal parts music hall, improv troupe, and grassroots radio show.

From there, the experiment spread beyond the island. The Church of Great Rain began airing on local radio and television, running through 2012. That same year, Greg crossed paths with Garrison Keillor at Microsoft, while members of the show’s Holy Roller Radio Players appeared on NPR alongside the legendary host of A Prairie Home Companion.

For a gathering that started as a few musicians playing acoustic guitars in the woods on Vashon Island, it had grown into something bigger, a musical congregation with its own mythology, its own stage, and a whole lot of soul.

Holy roller radio players & church house band

David Godsey, Jeff Hoyt, Mik Kuhlman, Karen Biondo, Jon Whalen, Karen du Four des Champs, Janet McAlpin, Lyn McManus, Paul Shapiro, Steffon Moody, Susan McCabe, Jim Ferrell

Greg Parrott, Fletcher Andrews, Doug Ringer, Mike Nichols, Jennifer Southerland, Luke McQuillin, Paul Colwell