Morningstone, A Motion Picture Musical for the 21st CenturyIt is All Saints’ Day, the day after Halloween, and one of the Trashbabies from 25 years ago, drops off an audio cassette of a song for Rodney, an aging rock music promoter and band manager. When Rodney hears demo recording of “The Likes of You" it sends him on a bizarre journey down memory lane, remembering details of his greatest venture with Morgan Richfield, and in so doing, gaining a fresh perspective and understanding of Morgan’s works. Morningstone is set in the mid-eighties, and its music is true to that period. WITCHY STEW (Runtime 2:51)The first song, “Witchy Stew,” performed at a May Eve concert, is broadcast from a ruined abbey in the British Isles. Morgan Richfield, an American pop-singer, wrote the song to feature the Trashbabies, his sexy chorus line of nine singing dancers, voiced by Saba Mwine, Barbara Jordan,Colleen Stratton, Karen Callahan, Alana Shannon, Bridget Shannon, Phyllis Elliott, Elaine M. Alaoglu and Ariel Pisturino. Originally, “Witchy Stew” was only half a song, all I required to introduce the act and show that Morgan’s spooky, musical spell had attracted an Otherworldly barn owl. For this CD, I added some lines and recorded it anew.THE STRANGER (Runtime 4:13) Seductive and hypnotic, “The Stranger” sets the mood for Morgan’s escape from his reality and transition from this world to the Otherworld. He takes off in his new sports car, followed overhead by the Otherworldly owl. Rain on his windshield and the slap of his windshield wipers are part of the rhythm that causes him to nod behind the wheel. The triumphant final chorus signals his success as he swerves on time to avoid hitting a doe, frozen in his headlights on the wet road ahead. In fact, unbeknownst to him, he’s crossed over.MORNINGSTONE (Runtime 2:29)Daybreak finds Morgan driving along a quiet country lane, where, distracted by the Furies (three young women dressed in armor intended as much to provoke as to protect), he crashes into a ditch. Disgusted, but unhurt, he walks to the nearby village of Morningstone to phone for help. He enters the pub, where a film is being shown in which Laura, the teacher of a teenage heritage class, appears on screen singing “Morningstone.” The storm has knocked out all the phones, so Laura takes Morgan to a quiet cottage in her pony cart. Along the way, Morgan’s attraction to Laura is underscored by “The Likes of You,” sung by Karen Callahan (see final cut on this CD). BEMUSED (First Canto) (Runtime 0:53)They ride past the Morningstone location, a standing stone set in a Stonehenge-like folly and arrive at the cottage, where a bright-eyed older lady (with an uncanny resemblance to the barn owl), teases Morgan with tales of names like Richfield belonging to children conceived at festivals, whose mothers could not be certain of who the fathers might be. She and Laura depart, leaving a stew brewing on the stovetop and a loaf of bread baked in the shape of a nude woman. In “Bemused (First Canto),” Morgan reflects on his day’s adventures.IN THIS PLACE (Procession and Dance) (Runtime 8:00)“In This Place” provides the music for Morgan’s nocturnal visit to the Morningstone site, where he not only sees that an antlered, stag headdress and buckskin robe have been draped over the Morningstone, but is witness to a procession of alluring, masked women, accompanying Laura, riding alone in her pony cart, led by the bright-eyed older lady. Inside the stone circle, Laura dismounts and dances her rite of spring before all the villagers, stripping away her costume until she finally collapses, naked, at the foot of the buckskin clad Morningstone.PEEPING TOM (Runtime 3:18)The women run, screaming and giggling into the night, pursued by their menfolk. Laura, wrapped in nothing but a doeskin, starts off along the trail toward the cottage. “Peeping Tom” underscores the pursuit as an aroused Morgan stalks and chases Laura, gaining on her until she suddenly transforms into a doe and escapes, sending him tumbling headfirst into a cold brook.BEMUSED (SECOND CANTO) (Runtime 0:55)The next morning, the bright-eyed lady makes Morgan’s breakfast and interprets his “dream” adventure of the night before. She invites him to join in the day’s festivities at the Morningstone shrine. “Bemused (Second Canto)” reveals Morgan’s state of mind as he recognizes some of the villagers from his “dream.”THE TOMB OF EVERY HOPE (Runtime 0:45)Remembering a password he learned from the classroom in the pub, Morgan is allowed to enter the inner sanctum. He crawls along a pitch-black stone slab corridor until he falls into “The Tomb of Every Hope,” where, confronted by Furies, Fates and Muses, he is finally granted a sip from the Cauldron of Inspiration that knocks him cold. When he comes to, the cavern has become a place of barbaric splendor. THE FOOL/DOG, ROEBUCK AND LAPWING (Runtime 5:35)The enlightened Morgan exits the cavern to the cheers of the villagers and during “The Fool,” is carried to a sacred pool and thrown in. Emerging cold and wet, Morgan gets out of his wet clothes and dons the antlered headdress and buckskin robe offered by the locals. “Dog, Roebuck and Lapwing” is sung by three teenage girls decorating Laura’s pony with garlands of flowers and a unicorn bridle as Laura bathes in her sacred grotto’s pool.THE MYSTERY (Runtime 2:31)“The Mystery” underscores Laura’s approach as she goes to Morgan, neither clothed nor naked (wearing a golden fishnet), neither walking nor riding (sitting side-saddle on her “unicorn” and dragging one foot), neither with nor without a gift, (the hare she holds in her lap and releases when she arrives). But as Morgan takes Laura in his arms, the symbolic marriage of Man and Nature is broken up by the “unicorn” that charges and knocks Morgan, senseless, to the ground. BEMUSED (THIRD CANTO) (Runtime 0:46)Morgan awakens in the hospital. His manager, Rodney, informs him he has been unconscious since he arrived by ambulance after he skidded and crashed his sports car the night before. “Bemused (Third Canto)” reveals Morgan’s state of mind as he tries to reconcile his Otherworldly adventure with his present reality.MYSTICAL ENCOUNTER (Runtime 3:59)“Mystical Encounter” underscoreds Morgan’s recovery and his commitment to reveal his Otherworldly adventure to this world.THE FOOL IN CONCERT/THE FOOL (Runtime2:28)Eager to release his Morningstone music, Morgan has Rodney arrange a Halloween concert broadcast from the ruined abbey. “The Fool in Concert” reveals Morgan’s mindset and this audience’s excited reaction to “The Fool.” MORNINGSTONE (FATE) THEME (Runtime 1:24)The ”Morningstone (Fate) Theme” underscores the Otherworldly barn owl's ominous return to the ruined abbey.SWEET MYSTERY (Runtime 5:24)Morgan’s grand finale is “Sweet Mystery,” a song he composed from the marital music of Otherworld, combined with an invocation of Laura, his intended Otherworldly bride. Laura fails to materialize, but the Otherworldly owl obliges and since the concert is broadcast, the world witnesses Morgan’s collapse on stage.THE LIKES OF YOU (Runtime 3:36)Twenty-five years later, Rodney, an aging rock promoter learns of a mysterious demo tape of “The Likes of You,” a song previously unknown to him. We see the former Trashbaby drop off the tape that started the retrospective adventure that caused Rodney to relive the events of the mid-eighties – and the rest of the story you know..Travis Edward PikeOtherworld Cottage, September 2015