Opera rocks, and it's about Elves

CHAPEL HILL -- As his wife wrote a trilogy of fantasy novels about ninth-century Norse gods, elves and Pagan Celts, Steve Forrest read over her shoulder and secretly composed a rock opera on his guitar that mirrored the tale. After a while, he mustered the courage to play a few songs for her. Jodie Forrest loved it.

Five years later, Steve had completed 11 songs called "The Elves' Prophecy."

The Chatham County couple formed a band called Dragonship: Steve with his long gray hair on guitar, Jodie on bass and keyboard. Singer Rhiannon Jones and drummer Scotty Young round out the group, which has performed the prophecy for the past six years.

Dragonship's music has been described as part Fleetwood Mac, part Moody Blues, part Pink Floyd. The rock opera is the only music they play.

Tonight, the band will be at Cat's Cradle to sing the tale of Tomas the Rhymer, who has learned the Welsh Elf Queen, Moira, is carrying his twins.

"It's thrilling to me to play music set to my own novel," Jodie Forrest said.

Steve, 58, and Jodie, 51, moved to Polks Landing, a wooded neighborhood in northeast Chatham County, about 20 years ago.

"At the time, Chatham County was wonderfully rural and felt like it would look like North Carolina for a few decades," Steve said.

Both are astrologers and see clients in their home. They also own a publishing company, Seven Paws Press, which published Jodie's three books about Tomas the Rhymer and several of Steve's astrology books.

Steve picked up the guitar as a child. He was inspired by the Beatles, Bob Dylan and The Kinks.

"I learned it was possible for a funny-looking guy to have a date if you played the guitar," he said.

He paid his way through UNC-Chapel Hill by joining a band that played in a biker bar on Franklin Street.

"You could either be their friend or their enemy," he said.

Jodie studied classical musical as a child but wound up liking rock-and-roll better, so she took up the bass.

The rest of the band

The Forrests met Young in 1990 when he came for an astrological reading. A massage therapist, he learned the guitar after the Beatles hit the music scene but switched to drums 20 years ago.

"[Dragonship] has been playing the same 11 songs for seven years," he said. "But I don't get tired of these songs. They are so rich. I learn anew every time I play a song."

Jones, who says she's a seventh-generation psychic, has been singing all her life. A native of Wales, she said music is in her blood.

"I think the Welsh just have it in them," she said.

The Forrests, whose ancestors were also Welsh, paired up to create a soundtrack for a Welsh documentary on the BBC about the town Ystradgynlais, where Jones grew up.

Their song with the same name as the town was a big hit in Wales in 2003, Steve said.

He described the synergy between the band members as magical. Of course, the astrologers consider the signs when it comes to the band. But they also work really hard and listen to each other to make it work.

It's almost like a marriage, they said.

"One person makes a mistake, so we do it again, and, hey, it's jazz," Steve said.

Band practice

On Thursday evening, the band crammed in the Forrests' living room for their weekly practice. Amid rays of setting sunlight, Jodie's paintings of fantasy worlds and about a dozen guitars hanging on the walls, Jones took the mic and belted out the tale with Sinead O'Connor-like tones while Steve rocked out on his electric guitar.

"Oh Tomas, oh Tomas," she sang while Young provided a steady beat and plenty of chimes to give the music that other-worldly sound.

Though Jones has 11 operatic-length songs to sing with "introductory raps" in between, she never forgets the words, she said. The opera is about 90 minutes.

Eventually Steve would like to see the group get off the club circuit and be recognized as more of a sit-down show.

"Of course, if people want to boogie in their seats, that would be OK with me," he said.