Prairie Prince COLOURS & PASSIONS

Record Release from Label 51 Recordings
early 2026

Ten years, fifty musicians, twenty drums, fourteen tracks, many colors … the debut solo album by acclaimed drummer Prairie Prince, “Colours & Passions,” takes up where the original record by spoken word legend Ken Nordine left off.

First track “Black Horror”  – available now!  more

Prairie Prince never held a job, unless you count that summer debacle picking cucumbers in Washington State. But between painting and music, he has entirely supported himself in the arts since moving to San Francisco to pursue a degree in painting at the San Francisco Art Institute in 1969. Pretty much, if he isn’t playing drums, he is painting – he has spent his life in the arts.

Prairie long ago established himself as one of the top drummers in San Francisco. He was best known for his work with The Tubes, bull goose loonies of the ‘70s San Francisco rock scene, but he was also the original drummer in Journey and did the first four albums by Chris Isaak. He has been playing with Todd Rundgren for more than 30 years. He is as much a visual artist as a musician. In tandem with Michael Cotten, they designed album covers, built stage sets, and painted public buildings. Their mural of flying records loomed over the A&M Records lot in Hollywood for many years.

After fifty years in music, his first solo album, “Colours & Passions,” presents yet another side of this relentlessly creative soul, drawn from some of his earliest inspirations and rendered with the full skill of a journeyman recording artist, a tour de force by a mature master musician. Taking off from the 1967 album “Colors” by spoken word artist Ken Nordine, Prairie fashioned his own evocation of Nordine’s landmark work, which had fascinated Prairie since he was a child when his much older beatnik sisters, Leslie and Helen, introduced him to the free-wheeling imagination of Nordine’s 1957 classic “Word Jazz.”

Nordine remains a singular figure in recording. He was a Chicago-based disc jockey and voiceover artist who, backed by feathery cool jazz, recited his fantastic visions and weird ruminations in an ambling, sonorous voice. His work attracted wide attention in the emerging underground – Jerry Garcia would record with him in the ‘80s – without ever breaking into the mainstream pop culture. Nordine was a gift to those who knew.

For the last ten years, in between touring with various bands such as Jefferson Starship, the New Cars, and others, and artwork commissions, Prairie has been sneaking into the recording studio with various friends and associates to work on the tracks that became the album. Along with able assistance from the masterful Chris von Sneidern, Prairie enlisted friends and associates from such far-flung corners of his world of music as Ross Valory from Journey or Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys. Gonzo guitarist Buckethead plays on one track.

Also, all over the album is Prairie’s longtime artistic accomplice, Michael Cotten, synthesizer player with The Tubes (although he preferred to refer to himself as a machine operator). These two have lived out extraordinary creative visions. Their murals have adorned major public spaces. They once designed a record store where everything tilted at an angle. Together they created stage sets for Michael Jackson, Bette Midler, NSYNC, Billy Joel, and others. With another creative associate, Hollywood choreographer and director Kenny Ortega, who choreographed “Dirty Dancing” and wrote and directed “High School Musical” after beginning his illustrious career with The Tubes, they fashioned huge spectacles for the XXX Super Bowl halftime show with Diana Ross, the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” show, the giant pirate ship battle outside Las Vegas hotel Treasure Island. These guys have taken the theatrical ambitions of The Tubes to incredible heights.

Prairie was encouraged in his creative ambitions growing up in a family that loved music – his mother favored classical, his father big band jazz, his sisters turned him on to rock and roll as well as Ken Nordine (the name “Prairie” has been with him since childhood as a corruption of his middle name, Charles Lempriere Prince Jr.). When he moved from Phoenix to San Francisco to study painting, his band, the Red, White and Blues Band, followed him. They would eventually merge with another band from Phoenix called The Beans and change their name to The Tubes.

If you were not in San Francisco during the heyday of The Tubes, it might be difficult to appreciate the enormous impact the band had, a virulent infection that never spread, but after selling out shows in 1975 at the relatively small Boarding House, impresario David Allen moved the band to the much larger Bimbo’s 365 Club, where The Tubes sold out two shows a night in a run that kept being extended for weeks. The band had introduced the signature Quay Lewd character opening for Led Zeppelin at Kezar Stadium in 1973 where vocalist Fee Waybill in full rock star drag shoveled piles of fake cocaine into the crowd.

With two drummers initially in the band, Prairie was free to accept the invitation of the wife of pianist Nicky Hopkins to join the months-long sessions for his solo album at Apple Studios in London where Prairie played with guitarist George Harrison and Mick Taylor. When the band’s other drummer, Bob McIntosh, died tragically from cancer at age 21, Prairie became the sole drummer for The Tubes, a post he holds to this day.

The Tubes phenomenon never translated that successfully to mass media; the band did five albums for A&M Records, three more for Capitol Records (the beginning of the multi-platinum career of producer David Foster), and then staggered into oblivion. Prairie and Tubes keyboardist Vince Welnick migrated to work with Todd Rundgren, a close associate who had produced albums by the band (Welnick would subsequently join the Grateful Dead). When Jefferson Airplane founder Paul Kantner decided to resurrect his Jefferson Starship brand in 1992, Prairie was the obvious first choice.

Starting in 2013, Prairie, when he could, would slip into the former Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco, where historic albums were made by Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, among others, and record pieces for the Nordine tribute with a wide array of associates. The intermittent sessions brought different players and spread out over the years, through the pandemic, until Prairie had completed 14 tracks to his satisfaction. He also painted drawings of the drums he used, designed the album package, and drew the cover art. Talk about a solo album.

So much more than a drummer, Prairie remains one of the most purely creative individual figures ever on the San Francisco music scene. His life is his supreme artwork, and “Colours & Passions” is only the latest expression of that. — Joel Selvin, journalist/author

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CREDITS

Prairie Prince – Producer
Chris von Sneidern  – Co-Producer and Engineer
Leslie Prince Raimond – Executive Producer
Helen Hannay Prince  – Executive Producer (in memoriam)
Michael Cotten – Video and Associate Producer
Francesca Raimond – Digital Production

Recorded at Tape Vault Studio, San Francisco, California
2014 – 2024

Oink – Inspiration

TRACKLIST

Prairie Prince – Traps, Cuica, Dumbek, Vocal, Talking Drum
Chris von Sneidern – Background Vocals, Samples
Atom Ellis – Bass
Tom Ayres – Guitar

Prairie Prince – Traps, Bongos, Percussion, Moroccan Clappers, Vocal
Chris von Sneidern – Samples
Michael Cotten – Keys, Synths, Samples
Tia Luminosa Raimond Jones – Cello
Tom Ayres – Guitar
Atom Ellis – Bass
Diana Mangano – Vocals
Steve Conte – Guitar Solos
Vince Welnick – Vocal
Gregor Huebner – Violin

Prairie Prince – Traps, Vocal, Wooden Bones, French Frog Box, Shakari, Bongos, Dumbek, Damaru,
Chris von Sneidern – Background Vocals, Vocal, Samples
Buckethead – Bass Guitar
Jeff Tamiler – Guitars
Gil Assayas – Keys, Synth
Kiki Smith – Early Spring Tree Frog: Field Recording

Prairie Prince – Vocal, Jagog, Balinese Hand Drum, Bass Drum, Snare Drum
Chris von Sneidern – Samples
Michael Cotten – Samples, Keys
Bobby Vega – Bass
Franki Jupiter – Vocals, Keys
Barbara Golden – Vocals, Piano
Neil Hamburger – Joke (Yellow)

Prairie Prince – Vocal, Traps, Log Drum, Bamboo, Water Gong, Wave Drum
Chris von Sneidern – Samples
Jennifer Burnes – Bass Guitar
Jim Thomas – Guitar
Diana Mangano – Siren Vocal
Ralph Carney – Tenor Sax, Vocal

Prairie Prince – Vocal, Traps, Quira, Timbales, Bass Drum
Chris von Sneidern – Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Michael Cotten – Keys, Samples, Synth
David James – Bass Guitar, Keyboard, Vocals
Ross Valory – Bass Guitar, Vocals
Eric Levy – Keys, Synth
Diana Mangano – Vocals
Charlie Prince – Laughs
Neil Hamburger – Joke (Orange)

Prairie Prince – Vocal, Click, Traps, Dumbek
Chris von Sneidern – Samples
Buckethead – Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar
Bobby Strickland – Flute
Neil Hamburger – Joke (Black, White, & Red, Flesh)

Prairie Prince – Congas, Traps, Vocal, Dumbek
Chris von Sneidern – Guitar, Samples
Michael Cotten – Synths, Keys, Samples
Brian Compton – Bass
Jimmy “the Sax” Taylor – Saxophone
Neil Hamburger – Joke (Green)

Prairie Prince – Gong, Cymbals, Traps, Vocal
Chris von Sneidern – Guitar, Choir, Vocals, Samples
Kasim Sulton – Bass Guitar, Vocals
Gregor Huebner – Violin
Steve Conte – Lead Guitars
MORE >

Prairie Prince – Vocal Chorus, Background Vocals, Traps, Hambone Slap
Chris von Sneidern – Background Vocals, Samples
Todd Rundgren – Vocal Verses, Guitar, Synths, Sequencer
Jason Scheff – Bass Guitar, Vocals
Joe Dileo – Slide Guitar, Guitars
Jello Biafra – Vocal
Mikel “Squirrel Man” Ross – Cracker Vocal
Trashwhite Chorus:
(Recorded by Kurt Schlegel at Lucky Recording Company – Brisbane, CA)
Prairie Prince
Anne-Marie Anderson
Ralph Spight
Mikel Ross
Jello Biafra
Kurt Schlegel

Prairie Prince – Vocal, Marching Snare, Navajo Drum
Chris von Sneidern – Guitar, Vocals
Beth Custer – Baritone Clarinet
Hugh Cornwell – Guitar, Vocal
James Deprato – Slide Guitar
Neil Hamburger – Joke (Blue)

Prairie Prince – Djembe, Traps, Vocal
Chris von Sneidern – Guitar, Samples
Michael Cotten – Samples, Keys, Synths
Bobby Vega – Bass Guitar
Bobby Strickland – Flute, Saxophones: Alto, Tenor & Baritone
Bruce McDaniel – Guitar Solo
Grace Yoo – Background Vocals
Mia Jones – Background Vocals
Randy Brown – Bongos

Prairie Prince – Kitchen Utensils, Traps, Vocal, Bowls
Chris von Sneidern – Samples, Guitar, Bass
Michael Holman – Vocal, Background Vocals
Nick Taylor – Background Vocals
John Ferenzik – Guitar Solo
Neil Hamburger – Joke (Gray)

Prairie Prince – Vocal, Traps 1
Chris von Sneidern – Guitar, Samples
Roger Steen – Guitars (Lead Solos)
Rick Anderson – Bass Guitar 1
Atom Ellis – Bass Guitar 2
Trey Sabatelli – Traps 2
Cyril Jordan – Guitar
Joe Mirante – Vocals, Guitar Feedback
Neil Hamburger – Joke (Black)

Black Horror  – available on Friday, October 10, 2025 more