TOADSTOOL SHADOW
Toadstool Shadow is an all-original folk music trio. Their music sounds like the Brothers Grimm time traveled to the Haight Ashbury in 1967 and started a band. Toadstool Shadow is also a conceptualist art project. The concept is that there is another realm, hiding all around us, that we neither see nor comprehend.
Toadstool Shadow is creating an all-original three-part fairy tale opera about a visionary rabbit. It is in the tradition of French and German fairy tale operas of the 18th century, in which serious stories are told in an otherworldly fashion.
Part two, Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf, is both a movie and an album. The album came out on the full moon of August 22, 2021. The film premiered in Canton, Ohio on September 9, 2021. In it, Teenage Bunny is 19. He deliberately goes back under the toadstool to revisit the visionary landscape of his youth. Later, he goes to see a psychiatrist, to learn if his visions are real, dreams, or delusions. WYSO, Dayton Ohio's public radio station, played several of its songs, and the movie played in five Ohio cities.
Half of the songs on Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf are sung by an all-star cast of guest singers, including Sam Salazar (Wheels, Speaking Suns), Rory Papania (Wheels, Speaking Suns), and Rob Heiliger (aka the Johnny Cash of southwestern Ohio). Special guest musicians include David Byrne (Speaking Suns), William R. Crocker, and Gub Pedrotti (Kyleen Downes Band).
In part one, 2020's Rainbow Nights, seven-year old Bunny is caught in a rain storm. He gladly takes shelter under a large toadstool. As the rain stops, night falls. Bunny then makes his way home through the rainbow night, encountering a strange world of elves and faeries. Arriving home, amazed but exhausted, Bunny knows, like Dorothy, that there is no place like home. In 2019-2020, Toadstool Shadow performed Rainbow Nights twice with a live band, actors, and stage set. Five of its songs found their way onto WYSO, the Dayton, Ohio NPR radio station.
As of August 2022, six songs from part three, Journey to Glass Mountain, have been composed and recorded. Its story is a closely guarded secret.
Toadstool Shadow is Chris Till (composer and director) and a legion of guest musicians, artists, and technicians.
Toadstool Shadow is creating an all-original three-part fairy tale opera about a visionary rabbit. It is in the tradition of French and German fairy tale operas of the 18th century, in which serious stories are told in an otherworldly fashion.
Part two, Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf, is both a movie and an album. The album came out on the full moon of August 22, 2021. The film premiered in Canton, Ohio on September 9, 2021. In it, Teenage Bunny is 19. He deliberately goes back under the toadstool to revisit the visionary landscape of his youth. Later, he goes to see a psychiatrist, to learn if his visions are real, dreams, or delusions. WYSO, Dayton Ohio's public radio station, played several of its songs, and the movie played in five Ohio cities.
Half of the songs on Folk Songs of the American Wood Elf are sung by an all-star cast of guest singers, including Sam Salazar (Wheels, Speaking Suns), Rory Papania (Wheels, Speaking Suns), and Rob Heiliger (aka the Johnny Cash of southwestern Ohio). Special guest musicians include David Byrne (Speaking Suns), William R. Crocker, and Gub Pedrotti (Kyleen Downes Band).
In part one, 2020's Rainbow Nights, seven-year old Bunny is caught in a rain storm. He gladly takes shelter under a large toadstool. As the rain stops, night falls. Bunny then makes his way home through the rainbow night, encountering a strange world of elves and faeries. Arriving home, amazed but exhausted, Bunny knows, like Dorothy, that there is no place like home. In 2019-2020, Toadstool Shadow performed Rainbow Nights twice with a live band, actors, and stage set. Five of its songs found their way onto WYSO, the Dayton, Ohio NPR radio station.
As of August 2022, six songs from part three, Journey to Glass Mountain, have been composed and recorded. Its story is a closely guarded secret.
Toadstool Shadow is Chris Till (composer and director) and a legion of guest musicians, artists, and technicians.