Skype and Facetime are miraculous things to a grandparent. Some time ago, our daughter Deborah called us to chat and watch while her girls sat at the kitchen table halfway across the country and filled page after page with their irrepressible creativity, though Hannah at two years old had achieved better coverage on her face with a washable blue marker than on the paper. Chloe was four at the time, dressed in a Disney Princess dress and a Viking helmet with one horn turned up and the other down, worked industriously on a drawing. I asked her what it was it was, and she replied, as if it were completely obvious, “Grandpa, that’s a rainbow tiger in the rain!” Deborah and I said at the same time, “That’s a good name for a song!”
I’ve seen photos of N.C. Wyeth’s children playing in costume, only to later become transformed into the timeless subjects of his plates in classic volumes of Robert Louis Stevenson stories. Dave Roof brings that kind of magic to this song, with his autoharp and trumpet creating a mythic feel toward the end. Mallory Wayt is singing harmony and Mike Gentry is featured on the toy piano. Topping it off are recordings of my six grandkids singing and clapping at the end. “That’s good EVERY day!”
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