Faun Fables

Arriving right on time for its 20th anniversary, Faun Fables’ musical theatre work The Transit Rider returns in a lovely 2xLP vinyl edition that dimensionally burnishes the bristling performances and elevated chamber/cabaret folk sounds of the original CD-only release. At once a work of theatre, allegory and autobiography, The Transit Rider amplifies Faun Fables’ distinctive electroacoustic wash of Anglo-European folk sounds, shimmering allusively from traditional to Kurt Weill to folk-rock and back again.

The route that led to The Transit Rider goes back even further than 2006; it was first embarked upon in the early ‘90s, when Dawn McCarthy moved to NYC and was introduced to the transient and constant glories of its subway system, a massive world unto itself. As she rode the trains, the subterranean, singing landscape suggested a journey in song: a rider aboard a ubiquitous transit system, a network of rails, roads, corridors and trails extending in all directions, meeting itself again on the far side of the world. Upon this endless circuitous path, she encounters characters that may or may not help her search to find a clearing amid this mass of machinery and humanity in which to stop and have a picnic.

In 2001, The Transit Rider took the form of a full-length theater production in San Francisco, with a cast of thirteen aided by the inspiring work of director/lighting designer Allen Willner. Its music was further developed/recorded/adapted into a touring show by Dawn and her stalwart co-conspirator Nils Frykdahl (of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum), joined by multi-instrumentalists Jenya Chernoff and Matt Lebofsky. The album features contributions by Dawn’s mother Michelina Tyrie (“Earth’s Kiss”) and father Will McCarthy (“I No Longer Wish To,” a poem written during his last days as a stock broker), with thematically related songs by Zygmunt Konieczny (“Taki Pejzaz / Such a Landscape”) Soeur Sourire (“Je Voudrais / I’d like to Be”), and the Anglo Saxon traditional “House Carpenter" added to the mix.

For the LP release, the artwork has been revamped, featuring previously unseen photos of the original stage show and the touring cast that followed. As with all Faun Fables music, the sweep of history and the voices of the people thrillingly coincide in the songs and singing of The Transit Rider. The project’s conceptual/theatrical properties give it a special pride of place in Faun Fables lore. Taped footage of the live show was stored away long before the YouTube & socials sharing boom. Fortunately, all capricious mists of time have parted just in time for The Transit Rider’s 20th anniversary celebration: original performance footage from the theatre show will be released, and Faun Fables will revisit songs from the album throughout their Summer 2026 tour. The Transit Rider album combines Faun Fables’ distinctive songtelling style with their full-hearted/throated thespian energies, rumbling trippily past flashing lights and strangers in thirteen exquisite folk-cabaret urban anthems, a pungent masterpiece of 21st century folk rock.