Ship of Fool : The Musical,   Poems by William Trowbridge, music by Bob Walkenhorst

Bob Walkenhorst, lead singer of the Rainmakers, has teamed up with Kansas City poet William Trowbridge for a very unique recording project. Trowbridge reads 29 of his poems, all about "The Fool", a literary archtype that runs all the way back to the beginning of storytelling, and who has been embodied in the characters of Keaton, Chaplin, Woody Allan, and Steve Martin.

Trowbridge's Fool is a bungler, a goofball angel, part Job, part you and me.  Sometimes Fool is human, sometimes he's immortal, and the violence done to him by his fellow humans is only outdone by the violence done to him by the Creator himself.    The poems are humorous, accessible, and sometimes heartbreaking.  

Walkenhorst orchestrates this "musical" with snippets of a strange assortment of sound effects and songs, some originals and some covers.  It comes off as a sort of joyful radio-play, with Trowbridge and Walkenhorst volleying poems and songs back and forth to illustrate the Grand Cosmic Joke.   You will like Fool.