Toadstool Shadow is a new music & arts collective based in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Currently, it is performing "Rainbow Nights (and Rainbow Days)," a multi-media performance extravaganza. Combining original music, a light show, and dance, "Rainbow Nights (and Rainbow Days)" is an elemental expression of joy and wonder. It has also begun rehearsing a second song cycle, "Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf," which includes song videos.
In "Rainbow Nights (and Rainbow Days)," a young bunny caught in a rain storm 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. As he passes through the multi-colored darkness, he encounters a magical world of elves and sprites and even a troll. When the rainbow day dawns, the rainbow night, and its magical world, disappears. Arriving home, amazed but exhausted, the bunny knows, like Dorothy, that there is no place like home.
Musically, Toadstool Shadow aspires to be part of the New Weird America, electric freak folk, and elfcore movements. Artistically, it has found 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 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), Billy Crocker (percussion), Rhiannon Till (vocals), and Malcolm Oberon Till (Bunny), Gopal Till (West Coast photographer), Ryan Stinson (audio engineer), and Eli Bowsman (videographer).
In "Rainbow Nights (and Rainbow Days)," a young bunny caught in a rain storm 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. As he passes through the multi-colored darkness, he encounters a magical world of elves and sprites and even a troll. When the rainbow day dawns, the rainbow night, and its magical world, disappears. Arriving home, amazed but exhausted, the bunny knows, like Dorothy, that there is no place like home.
Musically, Toadstool Shadow aspires to be part of the New Weird America, electric freak folk, and elfcore movements. Artistically, it has found 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 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), Billy Crocker (percussion), Rhiannon Till (vocals), and Malcolm Oberon Till (Bunny), Gopal Till (West Coast photographer), Ryan Stinson (audio engineer), and Eli Bowsman (videographer).
