Welcome Home to Rainbow Family Circus & Tribal Zoo

“The essence of America lies not in the headlined heroes…but in the everyday folks who live and die unknown, yet leave their dreams as legacies.” ―Alan Lomax

Greetings and welcome to this collection of field recordings I have made at a variety of rainbow gatherings from 2000-2011. There are over 400 songs, poems and stories for you to listen to and download and over 150 performers represented within this collection. Often enough they were recorded in rugged and unpredictable environments yet keep in mind that each of these tracks is a one source recording and no additional studio elements have been added. They are live, rustic. and spontaneous recordings made out in the forests of the world. Please feel free to listen to, download and/or pass these recordings on but please No Sale or Commercial Use.

I host a radio show called Muddy Boots featured on KFOK Community Radio in Georgetown,CA. The show airs every Tuesday from 2-4pm(PST) and you may stream it by following the link above. I will feature some rainbow recordings from time to time so tune in if you have a chance. And check out the Muddy Boots page to listen to and/or download previous shows.

The music was recorded using an Audio-Technica AT-822 stereo condenser microphone, a Sony Mini Disc and/or a Sony DAT and since 2009, I have been using the Olympus LS-10 digital recorder and/or the Edirol R-05 digital recorder.  At the 2011 Washington rainbow gathering I explored underwater and contact mic recording using the Aquarian Audio H1a Hydrophone.

Thanks to everyone that has contributed to the recordings and to the project itself.  If you have any info to add, corrections to make, an audiophile type question or to share comments, you can leave them here on this page or you may email me(tenali) at: tenalilight@yahoo.com

It should also be noted that on the California 2004, Mexico 2005, Panama 2005, West Virginia 2005 & Colorado 2006 compilations I added some random outtakes at the end of each track. This consists of anything from campfire conversations, trail side sound bites, birds, etc. Perhaps it could be more appropriately known as the rainbow environmental sound collage. Either way, it was my experimental opportunity to connect each track by utilizing all the extra material. And for better or worse, it was my attempt to demonstrate that one does not need effects to sound bizarre or psychedelic. It was a time consuming endeavor yet well worth the additional oddities. Since each track was produced intending to flow from one piece to the next you should follow these following instructions if you are interested in burning a CD for yourself or others. Most, if not all, CD burner applications offer a burn-at-once option. Choose this setting and burn each track in the listed order.

Like any field recording, anything and everything may find its way into the song, story or poem. In essence, they are a shovel full of sound decorated with embers, a call for wood, mud, laughter, hopes, dreams, profane bleach, sacred tarps, hazy eyes, spoon ladles, garlic, crooked tents, smelly crystals, silty fingernails, magic fires, knotted tongues, happy griddles, sacks of flour, propositions of anything, slippery smiles, oatmeal mush, hands upon hands upon hand wash, circling circled circles, lost thoughts, coffee grounds, genuine soot, fragrant compost, phantom trails, 6up thrills, Klaus Nomi but probably not, sometimes moose, rumors with a mission, kitchens gone mad, kitchens gone glad, water line spines, tobacco lust, white rabbit chants, changing chang gang trenches, whispering whispers, theatrical spatulas, shouting mountains, moistened clouds, sedated rest stops, itchy heads, rambling babble, transient MCs, localized focalized focus, wolf man syndromes, frolicking faeries, raggle taggle robes, hodge podge clothes, not quite ready berries, standing firm trees, busy buzzing bees, reenactments, damp musky teas, sharing of things, questioning knees, chattering teeth, fuzzy warmth, slimy toes, careful carabiners, sizzling saws, occasional gauze, painted kids, pit stop patrols, hanging hammocks, musical benches, infinite rice, snickering evening, campfire breathing, rocking rocket stoves, singsong along, shitter diggin’, broadening meadows, crawling creeks, noble chocolate, bustling ovens, wheeling wheel barrels, got a cigarette gnomes, important bowls, precious cups, birdsong morn, boom boom drums, glittery stares, achy backs, cosmic talk, cardboard signs, churning prophecies, massaging muscles, huggy hugs, nomadic palaces, slow moving buses, raining rainbows, daydream waters, invisible networks and of course free food with an occasional full moon to carry the whole thing along.

Yupper, it all gets in there somewhere…