FAUN FABLES is Dawn McCarthy’s vivid imagination come to life in song and theater, made to explore human pathos amid an animate earth with musical & physical storytelling forms. It has been attracting a devoted and eclectic following since 1997 with numerous performances throughout North America, Europe, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland and four record releases distributed worldwide on Drag City Records: EARLY SONG, MOTHER TWILIGHT, FAMILY ALBUM and THE TRANSIT RIDER.

Dawn McCarthy is a writer, singer and theater artist whose work is a sea of gorgeous elemental nitty gritty; haunting melodies, breath, stomping, and natural theatricality led by the voice, rooted in the physical body. It is a crossroads where ancient ballad, art song, physical theater and rock music meet. Her lyrics speak to people of all ages about things like rugged housekeeping, street kids, growing old, sleepwalking and exiled travelers returning home. She was raised in Spokane, WA by two piano players from Chicago and grew up making sounds and dances with a big family of Italian and Irish descent. Her primary education and inspiration came from all kinds of unorthodox and self-taught means. At home her parents played romantic, impressionistic and folkloric melodies via Bartok and Debussy, while older siblings helped develop her taste for rock and experimental music.

In New York City, Dawn studied at the School Of Visual Arts and New School for Social Research and cut her teeth as a performer with several adventurous theatrical and musical groups. A solo & musical exploration through Europe plus a fateful meeting with Oakland based entertainer NILS FRYKDAHL began a creative chapter in 1997 that eventually relocated her to the thriving arts community of the Bay Area, California, where she is still currently based. In recent times, Dawn has been inspired by studies with Polish theater director WLODZIEMIERZ STANIEWSKI, Action Theater artist CASSIE TERMAN, a primitive skills anthropological workshop called ‘RABBITSTICK,’ and singers LOLE MONTOYA, MARIANA SADOWSKA and ROKY ERICKSON.