In early 1997, the duo began frequently performing at Rusty Wier's open mic nights held at Gino's, a Blues club in south Austin.

They formed a band, calling themselves PigGie Hat, a name JoDee had conceived of years earlier which stood for "people getting high", and began playing short acoustic sets between acts at Steamboat.

That summer, after a handful of shows with temporary rhythm sections, consisting of older musicians from various Steamboat affiliated bands, JoDee and Sean met 13 year old drummer Chris Sensat at Gino's.

They debuted live at Steamboat on February 19, 1998, and went on to record a full-length album, also titled Irish Rain,[5] and contributed a Christmas song to KLBJ-FM's Local Licks: Yule Rock!

The group experimented briefly with moving Sean onto guitar (who had only originally taken up bass due to the fact JoDee and Chris had refused to) in the Summer of 2003.

Nacogdoches, Texas-born keyboardist Brendan Rogers and lead guitarist Colin Slagle joined the band in the fall of 2005, and a fresh attempt at recording their first album began, working with producer Mark Hallman at Congress House Studio in Austin, Texas.

KUT's David Brown said of the record, "...It's easy to understand how special this Austin-based band is: Every song on its debut sounds both strangely familiar and utterly new.

"[7] A track from the record, "West", was named as NPR's "Song of the Day" on November 27, 2006,[7] and was later featured in the soundtrack of the award-winning indie horror film "Splinter" by director Toby Wilkins, released in October 2008.

[9] After touring the United States in support of the album for most of 2007 and releasing a single, "Body Offering", guitarist Colin Slagle left the band.

"[11] The band followed up the album with a four track 7" vinyl EP, In a Daze, also recorded by JoDee, and released as a rare limited edition pressing of 100 copies on July 16, 2009, although digital downloads were made available to the group's fanclub.

After a successful Kickstarter.com campaign,[15] recording sessions for his second solo album, Messenger, took place in August, 2012 with engineer and producer Matthew Smith, who had previously worked with fellow Austin band The Eastern Sea.