Perpetual Vibes, LLC and Deb Cavanaugh would like to announce Deb’s new video Froggie Went a
Courtin.’ The soundtrack was from their show at Caffe Lena featuring Sten Isachsen on mandolin, Bill Decker on bass guitar, Bob Resnick on drums and percussion and Deb Cavanaugh on guitar and vocals. Deb made the crankie roll using this song because she felt it would make for great illustrations.
“Crankies are a form of visual storytelling with a rich and wonderful history. A crankie theatre is a box built
with two spools inside. The spools have handles that can be ‘cranked’ to bring movement to an illustrated
scroll that is wound onto the spools.
In the 19th Century, these devices had many names but were often referred to as moving panoramas.
The term ‘crankie’ was coined later by Peter Schuman of the Bread and Puppet Theatre, USA.
The Crankie is a wonderful device for storytelling. It offers a stream of moving images to delight and
engage audiences young and old, whilst still allowing plenty of room for the imagination to play its vital
part in co-creating the story. Crankies can be combined with shadow puppetry to help tell a story and
create magical visual effects.“ (Evers, Bronia)
Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and roots singer Deb Cavanaugh lives in the foothills of the
Taconic Mountains, in upstate New York. Deb started singing before she spoke while her dad
exposed her to Classical, Big Band and Jazz. As a teenager, Deb studied classical voice, and
became enamored with blues, rock and Motown. While studying classical music, she was given the
opportunity to sing Duke Ellington’s sacred music in a church choir directed by Duke, himself!
During the mid-70s, Deb met her future husband and hitchhiked with him across the country to San
Francisco, jumping into the world of rock and roll.
Deb plays many genres, including rock and roll, jazz, blues, children’s songs, folk and more. She
incorporates traditional American culture into her events with the mountain dulcimer and limberjack as
well as making crankie rolls, another American tradition. Deb also teaches Music Together®, an early-
education research-based program for families with young children. They say that variety is the spice of
life, and Deb sets out to prove this in her many endeavors.
“The first crankie rolls that I made were on rolls of white paper. But because they tended to tear and
shred, I made this one on Tyvek house wrap. I drew the outlines of each picture on white paper creating stencils. I then cut them out on black paper using an exacto knife, which created the silhouettes. Before
gluing them onto the Tyvek roll, I cut and glued tissue paper. The last step was covering the entire
surface with Mod Podge, a special glue often used to make decoupage. I like sharing traditional American
art forms like this one which I discovered at a concert featuring Old Time music.” Deb Cavanaugh,
singer/songwriter.
“Deb is an amazing artist and is constantly looking for new ways to reach out to people, young and old
through her music. Deb is also working on her first memoir that we hope to release within the year.”
Said Michelle Moyer, Owner at Perpetual Vibes.
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