Toadstool Shadow is a new music & arts collective based in Yellow Springs, Ohio. It is reviving the lost genre of the fairy tale opera, using its own original psych-folk music to tell tales of wonder.
Currently, Toadstool Shadow is creating two original fairy tale operas: Rainbow Nights and Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf. Both Rainbow Nights and Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf will have their own 12-song albums of original music, which are in varying stages of completion. The fourth music video from Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf, "Magic Carpet," premiered on Channel 5 and YouTube on March 6, 2020.
In Rainbow Nights, Bunny, a seven-year old rabbit boy, is caught in a rain storm. He gladly takes shelter under the dome of a large toadstool. As the rain stops, night falls. The bunny then makes his way home through the rainbow night, encountering a strange world of elves and faeries. Arriving home, amazed but exhausted, the bunny knows, like Dorothy, that there is no place like home.
In Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf, Bunny, now 19-years old, returns to the visionary landscape of his youth. As he never really knew whether his childhood experiences were real or imagined, dreams or craziness, he brings a camera to record everything. The songs are a taxonomy of visionary phenomena with individual songs about mermaids, leprechauns, unicorns, owls, robot elves, and faeries.
Musically, Toadstool Shadow aspires to be part of the New Weird America, electric freak folk, and elfcore movements. Artistically, it finds inspiration in many sources, including Richard Dadd's 1864 painting "The Faerie Feller's Master-Stroke"; Richard Scarry's classic 1963 picture book "I Am a Bunny"; 1960s rock music poster art, notably San Francisco's Big Five and Gary Grimshaw; 1960s Dutch art cooperative The Fool; 1970s British art collective Hipgnosis; rock photographer Karl Ferris, particularly his 1967 work with Donovan; 1977-era British punk rock, particularly the fashion and attitude; avant garde composer Harry Partch's theories of corporeal music; exotica music; 1970s performance artist Stacia Blake of Hawkwind; and, in general, late 20th century American and British psychedelic counterculture. Locally, it is inspired by Yellow Springs painters Chris Glaser and Pierre Nagley, Dayton musician M. Ross Perkins, and the defunct Dayton music and dance ensemble Rhythm in Shoes.
Toadstool Shadow is C.W. Till (guitar), Ben Cooper (bass), Larry Halpern (keyboards), Dale Hughes (percussion), Rhiannon Till (vocals), and Malcolm Oberon Till (Bunny), Gopal Till (West Coast photographer), Ryan Stinson (audio engineer), Eli Bowsman (videographer), and a variety of special guest artists from the Yellow Springs area.
Currently, Toadstool Shadow is creating two original fairy tale operas: Rainbow Nights and Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf. Both Rainbow Nights and Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf will have their own 12-song albums of original music, which are in varying stages of completion. The fourth music video from Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf, "Magic Carpet," premiered on Channel 5 and YouTube on March 6, 2020.
In Rainbow Nights, Bunny, a seven-year old rabbit boy, is caught in a rain storm. He gladly takes shelter under the dome of a large toadstool. As the rain stops, night falls. The bunny then makes his way home through the rainbow night, encountering a strange world of elves and faeries. Arriving home, amazed but exhausted, the bunny knows, like Dorothy, that there is no place like home.
In Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf, Bunny, now 19-years old, returns to the visionary landscape of his youth. As he never really knew whether his childhood experiences were real or imagined, dreams or craziness, he brings a camera to record everything. The songs are a taxonomy of visionary phenomena with individual songs about mermaids, leprechauns, unicorns, owls, robot elves, and faeries.
Musically, Toadstool Shadow aspires to be part of the New Weird America, electric freak folk, and elfcore movements. Artistically, it finds inspiration in many sources, including Richard Dadd's 1864 painting "The Faerie Feller's Master-Stroke"; Richard Scarry's classic 1963 picture book "I Am a Bunny"; 1960s rock music poster art, notably San Francisco's Big Five and Gary Grimshaw; 1960s Dutch art cooperative The Fool; 1970s British art collective Hipgnosis; rock photographer Karl Ferris, particularly his 1967 work with Donovan; 1977-era British punk rock, particularly the fashion and attitude; avant garde composer Harry Partch's theories of corporeal music; exotica music; 1970s performance artist Stacia Blake of Hawkwind; and, in general, late 20th century American and British psychedelic counterculture. Locally, it is inspired by Yellow Springs painters Chris Glaser and Pierre Nagley, Dayton musician M. Ross Perkins, and the defunct Dayton music and dance ensemble Rhythm in Shoes.
Toadstool Shadow is C.W. Till (guitar), Ben Cooper (bass), Larry Halpern (keyboards), Dale Hughes (percussion), Rhiannon Till (vocals), and Malcolm Oberon Till (Bunny), Gopal Till (West Coast photographer), Ryan Stinson (audio engineer), Eli Bowsman (videographer), and a variety of special guest artists from the Yellow Springs area.
