The Latest News:

Gary awarded honorary doctorate from Western Carolina University

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"The Prince of Dark Corners"

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD

At the time of his capture in 1881, the outlaw, Lewis Redmond was described as "the most famous man in South Carolina"

Click here to read more, get showtimes & ordering info.

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The Raindrop Waltz
Success at 35below

The play ran for four weeks (12 performances) with every night sold out and a number of standing ovations . . .

Mountain Talk is a unique portrait of the language and life of the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

60 minutes / VHS or DVD

In Memory of Teddie

1984? - 2001

Click here for the story...

Folk Tales, Storytelling and the Past . . . I was raised by my grandparents in a house filled with the past. I listened to Grady Cole and Renfro Valley on the radio while my grandfather tuned musical instruments with a tuning fork and sang hymns from a shape-note songbook.

. . . am I talking too LOUD?? Click here if you can hear me okay . . . - Gary Carden

I grew up listening to a great deal of foolishness about 'bad blood' (mine), black Irish curses (my grandfather's) and the evils of being 'left handed' (I couldn't play a musical instrument.) I grew up with the cows, June apple trees, comic books, the Farmers' Federation and Saturday movies.

I told my first stories to my grandfather's chickens in a dark chicken-house when I was six years old. My audience wasn't attentive and tended to get hysterical during the dramatic parts.

"Preaching to the Chickens"
Click to enlarge in a new window

This site is here so that I can share a few tales with you and let you know what I've been up to since then.

Now I share my stories in the form of books, paintings, audio and video cassettes or I can just come to your town and tell a few in person.

Among the things you will find here is a peek into my latest book"Mason Jars in the Flood." You can also browse around the site and look at some of the stories I have painted and learn more about the books and cassettes.

Enjoy your visit and make yourself at home!

To learn the story behind this note,
click on it.

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TW Friends: Neal Hutcheson - Film producer/director of The Prince of Dark Corners, Mountain Talk & a host of other great film. FolkTalk.org - Giving voice - recording African American history and gospel music, weaving ethnic stories and music of rural and small town America; songs featuring the impact of coal mining, Appalachian ballads, and music for our times. Charles Home - historical fiction about ordinary people confronted by extraordinary events in the past. The North Carolina Folklore Society has named your storyteller the winner of the 2006 Brown-Hudson Folklore Award. (Click the links for more info. . . )

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