Album Notes

The seven stories chosen for Spontaneous Combustion's second CD all take the listener on journeys of one sort or another.

"The Owl and the Pussycat" who "sailed away for a year and a day" is a poem by Edward Lear. Tom and Sandy often open their programs with this inter-species romance.

"The Orange Cat" is an original story of a cat's search for her names. Posted by Cris Riedel to a contest on the STORYTELL e-mail list in 2003, this seemed the most suited of the submissions to tandem telling. Tom and Sandy thank Cris for permission to record this purrrfect story.

"Kahukura and the Fairy Fisher Folk" is a Maori story of following a leading and the discovery of new technology. Of the many tales Tom and Sandy heard in New Zealand/Aotearoa in 2004, this is one they felt would travel well. Maori elders they consulted there agreed with their choice.

Eric Sabelman joins Tom and Sandy on this CD with three of his original stories from a cycle of parables about a young man seeking true knowledge. These stories began as messages in Quaker meetings for worship. Eric is a bio-medical engineer in Palo Alto. 'Voices' can be read in the March 05 issue of Friends Bulletin.

"Lily and the King" is Tom and Sandy's original adaptation of an old tale of fate, greed, and courage. The Grimm brothers collected it as "The Three Hairs of the Ogre." A translation of an old Bohemian (Czech) version about the castle of "Grandfather All-Know" reminded Tom and Sandy of Apollo and other characters and themes found in Greek myth. They wove these, along with elements of Hellenistic culture, into a fantasy adventure set around 250 BCE in Illyria and Macedonia, the lands north of Mount Olympus. As Tom and Sandy used "Lily" in storytelling and story-theatre, they continued adding events and characters until they had a novel length piece much too long for most performance settings. Here they have extracted a new 40-minute version for telling. The territory of Illyria, a real kingdom of that time with its own language and alphabet, is now divided among Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Albania. From 1999 to 2001, Sandy made visits to the area of Lily's quest and admits to taking some license with its geography.

Tom and Sandy Farley have been telling stories both solo and tandem since the International Year of the Child, 1979. They are part of Southbay Storytellers and Listeners and have told at two Tellabrations. Tom and Sandy came to Storytelling through Improvisational Theatre. They often tell at schools, libraries, summer camps, Quaker gatherings, corporate programs, and private parties. Their tandem, almost tag team, style allows them to share stories and dramatize dialog. Tom sells children's books and recordings at Linden Tree in Los Altos, California. Sandy teaches English [ESL] at the Sequoia Adult School.

Our recording engineer, Scott Goldberg, created and played the guitar vignettes at the end of each story. The only sample of Scott's music you can listen to here is in the intro on track #1.