Another phonographic recording, also involving rain. This was captured at the farm of my friends Dimitri & Gregor, in upstate New York. My family needed a summer vacation, but had no money to spend, so they kindly lent us the place for a week or so. Unfortunately, it was the rainiest week the area had seen in years. Everything was muddy, the house was cold and the little pond on the property overflowed its banks and crept near the front porch.

At night, the frogs in and around the water erupted into a cacophony of croaks. According to Answers.com, many types of frogs will call out either before or after it rains. Nobody knows why.

I imagined they were having yelling conversations, like people calling out to each other after a disaster. “Jesus, did you see that rain today?” “How ya doing, Frankie, did you get washed out too?” “Mama, I’m over here!”

I heard something similar once in the country, after a storm swept through in the middle of the night. The sound of the rain on the roof woke me, and after it passed there was a moment or two of silence. Then the birds started loudly singing, hours before the sun was due to rise. I wish I had recorded that.

Photo: Michigan J. Frog. If you never seen the classic Warner Brothers short “One Froggy Evening,” it can be found here.

(Originally posted on the Audiowaves tumblr on January 1, 2011)