(midi instruments (2007)

01 Comin’ Round the Dog (overture)

02 The Nice Cane
03 Art of Artilleries
04 Warfarrago
05 February March
06 On the Porch
07 Dickensong
08 A Plugged Nickleby
09 Overtime
10 Out of Time/Overmummy
11 The Charlie Jump

Green Town consists of three short plays by Ray Bradbury set in a small Midwestern town on the eve of the Great Depression. Act 1 (“Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby is a Friend of Mine,” tracks 1-8) follows adolescent Ralph Spaulding, who senses something unusual coming to his grandmother’s boarding house. Abandoning former idol Mr. Wyneski, the town barber, for new boarder Mr. Dickens, Ralph changes his name to Pip and helps transcribe “A Tale of Two Cities.” Though the barber cries fraud, Green Town’s librarian warms to the courtly, Victorian-clad stranger. Act 2 (“Device Out of Time,” tracks 9-10) is the story of 99-year-old Col. Freeleigh who recounts his past wartime battles to two boys. (They called him a time machine.) In Act 3 (“The Genuine Homemade Truly Egyptian Mummy,” track 11), a father and son treat Green Town to an ersatz Egyptian mummy. (No animatronic magic here; it’s made of papier-mâché.) [Description primarily from an L.A. Times review.]