About Transposition and Chameleon Red
In the mountainous northeastern corner of the state of Tennessee, musical tradition runs as deep as the mountain hollows and is as rich and colorful as the leaves in October. It's the home of the birthplace of country music; the Carter Family emerged from just the other side of the Virginia border to record some of the first country records in 1925.
The region also has its darker side; some might think of the Ku Klux Klan, the Scopes Monkey Trial, and snake handling fundamentalist churches. It's an unlikely place for a potentially controversial rock opera like Transposition to emerge.
Transposition is the story of Jack Coleman, a seemingly normal country boy with dreams of rock stardom and a shameful secret: he likes to dress as a girl. When his conservative Christian parents find out, there's hell to pay. Jack must wrestle with questions about his gender identity, about religion, about family, and about the meaning of success on his way to the top.
Transposition follows in the footsteps of classic rock operas like Pink Floyd's The Wall and the Who's Tommy, with a heaping helping of music diversity; Chameleon Red paints from a broad musical palette incorporating elements of rock, folk, soul, blues, country, metal, and psychedelia into twenty-eight songs full of infectious melodies, insistent rhythms, and heartfelt, intelligent lyrics. There's the arena-rock closer, "Stand Up", the intimately spiritual, acoustic "We Can Love", the soulfully philosophical, Marvin Gaye-influenced "What This Music For?", the Beatlesque rocker "Could Be Me", and the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink climactic suite, "Choices".
Collectively, Chamelon Red is about the pure desire
to create music and forge community in an increasingly fragmented and
alienated culture. Transposition exemplifies
this approach, a work created simply because it had to be.
Transposition
A Two-CD Rock Opera
by Chameleon Red.
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