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The inspiration for 'Rainbow Sign' started in 1986 while
taping a radio documentary about Depression Era radio shows.
These broadcasts were for mainly rural audiences and often
featured a mix of folksy humour, country
gospel music, dramas about the simple pleasures and hardships
of farm life as well as biblical sermons. Among songs performed
by Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie, was a farmers' version of
Noah's Ark, featuring a preacher
named Willy Johnson with musical accompaniment by The Golden
Gate Quartet. When God decides, "I'm goin' to build me
a nicer world.", Noah exclaims, "But look out! I
done got me a rainbow sign!"
We rediscovered the tape a couple of years later while living
in Bath, England. Hearing it again coincided with a memorable
afternoon after a violent thunderstorm when the sun flooded
over the surrounding green hills
against a black sky and, of course, a rainbow. Like the Dustbowl
farmers of the 1930's, we had been feeling quite isolated
and lonely, not really knowing what the future might hold.
When the world lit up that afternoon,
things didn't seem so bad after all.
Mark Gane and Martha Johnson
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