My wife Mil took this photo today after she’d cleared the lilies from the back wall garden. No context, really. They just are what they are.
Calendar
Upcoming Events, Shows & Performances:
FABLE, FAIRY TALE, MYTH: A Family Concert at the Gazebo
This coming Wednesday evening at 6 pm in Candia, New Hampshire I’ll be telling The Boys and the Frogs, an Aesop’s fable on Celtic harp, The Little Shepherd, an Italian fairy tale on 12-string guitar, and Finn MacCool and the Big Man, a myth of sorts (it’s funny) on a second 12-string guitar.
A fun show for the entire family at Smyth Public Library.
FREE TO THE PUBLIC!
Bring blankets or folding chairs and I’ll see you there!
FAIRY FOLKS AND OLD OAKS: A Fairy Tales Show and a Workshop in NH
Abbott Library in Sunapee, New Hampshire hosts Odds Bodkin for a day of fun family events on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019 starting at 10:00 a.m.
All events are FREE TO THE PUBLIC.
FAIRY FOLKS AND OLD OAKS Storytelling Concert at 10:00 a.m.
First, a FAIRY FOLKS AND OLD OAKS storytelling concert where Odds tells two rollicking fairy tales–The Little Shepherd and the Tale of the Kittens. Each story is filled with voices, sounds and music on different 12-string guitars. Odds offers an introduction to the magic of fairy tales and how they help kids grow as he plays Celtic harp.
FAIRY FOLKS AND OLD OAKS Workshop for Grades 3-5 at 11:00 a.m.
Next, an hour-long workshop where kids learn the classic story elements of a fairy tale, experience fun imagination exercises and learn to create fairy tales of their own.
STORYBLAST FAMILY CONCERT for All Ages at 6:00 p.m.
An evening performance of Odds Bodkin’s best, funniest, most family-friendly tales. Performed with music on guitars, Celtic harp and other instruments.
THE WINTER CHERRIES HOLIDAY STORIES free admission Saturday in NH
Join Odds Bodkin and his musical instruments for a free family performance this Saturday, Dec. 8th at J and F Farms in Derry, New Hampshire. Enjoy the live animals, the great gift possibilities and three heart-warming Holiday tales.
The Winter Cherries: Holiday Tales from Around the World at 1 pm!
Dickens’ A Christmas Carol this Wednesday Evening in NH
This coming Wednesday evening I’m performing A Christmas Carol: In Dickens’ Own Words. About ten years ago I crafted it from Dickens’ original novella down to an hour-long show, but kept it exclusively in his own words. When he toured America performing it, he stood behind a lectern and read his story with character voices and narration.
I offer my version with lots of Old London characters. Dickens’ magical way of looking at things, not to mention his ingenious way of thinking about justice, shine through.
My Scrooge is very growly and grumpy, grumpier, I’d venture, than any you’ve seen in the movies. He’s as old as greed and loneliness themselves, and I’ve included the scene when he is a young man and his fiancée, having seen such a ruthless money hunger grow in him, feels she doesn’t know him anymore, and so tearfully breaks off their engagement.
The making of Scrooge’s bitterness?
I love Charles Dickens.
The show is free to the public. Colby Memorial Library in Danville, New Hampshire at 7 pm on December 5th.
ADULT STORYTELLING for HALLOWEEN…TWO Odds Bodkin SHOWS
HEARTPOUNDERS: HALLOWEEN TALES OF HORROR is Odds Bodkin’s adult storytelling evening with live music for 2018. Two shows remain:
Plaistow, New Hampshire on Friday Oct. 26th at 7 p.m. FREE TO THE PUBLIC
Cambridge, Massachusetts on Sunday, Oct. 28th at 5 p.m. Tickets: $15
Friday Oct. 26th at the Plaistow Town Hall GET DETAILS
Sunday Oct. 28th at Grendel’s Den (RECORDING EVENT) GET DETAILS
LIBRARIES ROCK! Sing-Along Tales With a Solid Beat/Tomorrow in NH/Free to the Public
LIBRARIES ROCK! Sing-Along Tales With a Solid Beat
Performance Date: 07-11-2018 @ 6:30 pm
Location: Smyth Public Library, Candia NH
LIBRARIES ROCK! Three great stories, three great sing-alongs! An outdoor gazebo show!
KADDO, THE PEOPLE ARE HUNGRY (African sanza)
THE ROCK N ROLL THREE LITTLE PIGS (fuzz electric guitar and stomp drum)
FINN MACCOOL AND THE BIG MAN (12-string guitar)
Appropriate for all ages. Bring a blanket and the kids!
12-String Guitar and Celtic Harp Fourth of July Concert this Saturday in Bradford NH
Odds Bodkin Free Music on June 30th in NH
I first started playing 12-string guitar in the stairwell of my dorm at Duke University. This was some time ago, and over the years I’ve scored all sorts of tales, from epics to short ones, with 12-strings in various tunings. Often folks come up after shows and say something like, “Wow, I could just listen to the music without the story and still be entertained.”
I’ve heard this a lot.
And so, for folks who like to listen to 12-string instrumental music, as well as Celtic harp music (all original stuff), I’ll be doing a 2-hour concert on the sunny porch of the Sweet Beet Market in Bradford, NH this coming Saturday morning at 10:00.
This is part of Bradford’s renowned Fourth of July celebration which takes place this year on June 30th. There’s a full day of fun events all over town.
The event is free and you can grab a chair and fresh breakfast food while you listen. It’s very informal.
Hope to see you there!
PS: I’ll have Epic Drives and Master Drives for sale at the event.
LIBRARIES ROCK! Sing-Along Tales with a Solid Beat this Tuesday in NH!
LIBRARIES ROCK! Sing-Along Tales with a Solid Beat this Tuesday in NH!
Odds Bodkin’s LIBRARIES ROCK storytelling show.
With a screaming Gibson SG electric guitar and stomp drum, a 12-string acoustic guitar and an African sanza I’ll be performing my three most musical tales at Fuller Public Library in Hillsborough, NH this Tuesday, June 26th 2018 at 6 p.m.
The show is free and fun for all ages. Three different stories with three different sing-along choruses you’ll learn instantly. Bring the kids and enjoy imagination and music together. An African chant. A rock ‘n’ roll version of The Three Little Pigs. And an Irish tale with a rollicking chorus.
Live storytelling with three different, infectious rhythms. Crazy character voices and vocal effects add to the magic!
FREE TO THE PUBLIC
THE ODYSSEY: Belly of the Beast this Friday at Lawrence Academy in Groton, MA. The public is welcome.
Lawrence Academy in Groton, MA presents The Odyssey: Belly of the Beast, Odds Bodkin’s telling of Homer’s classic this Friday, January 12th at 6:30 p.m. With his 12-string guitar and panoply of characters and sounds, Odds will take the stage to offer this evening of entertainment and education for students and faculty. Generously, Lawrence Academy is also inviting the public to attend, free of charge.
AN ODDS BODKIN CLASSICS MONTH IN GROTON, MASSACHUSETTS
The stars have aligned for Homer’s tales this coming January 2018 in Groton, Massachusetts. Two fine independent schools, Lawrence Academy and Groton School, have invited Odds Bodkin to perform his Homeric classics two weeks apart.
First, on January 12th at 6 p.m., Lawrence Academy hosts The Odyssey: Belly of the Beast, Odds’ 75-minute storytelling powerhouse tale, as a performance for students and open to the public. Haunting 12-string guitar music, grafted adroitly onto Bodkin’s characters, plus narrative and uncanny vocal effects, all combine to take listeners through the beginning of Odysseus’s wild journey. Longing for his wife and son after ten years of war, he’s homeward bound from Troy at last, but the Fates intervene. The tale includes the Fall of Troy, Death on the Beach, the Great Storm, Isle of the Lotus Eaters and lastly, the deadly Cave of the Cyclops.
But Homer’s other great work, The Iliad, goes back in time to before Troy falls. And so Groton School has invited Odds to perform The Iliad: Book I, his hour-long psychodrama with music that explores everything from insulted goddesses to furious men at loggerheads on the battlefield. The show is at 8 p.m. on January 26th, 2017. Characters for Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Athena, Achilles, Agamemnon and a host of others bring the tale to life, along with Olympian themes performed on 12-string guitar.
Two of the greatest tales of Western literature, performed in modern storytelling style along with background lore, are coming to Groton, MA.
If you can’t be in New England next month, you can still experience them as an audio and a video, here at Odds Bodkin’s Shop.
Tonight! THE WINTER CHERRIES: Holiday Tales of Giving in NH
Tonight at Harvey Mitchell Memorial Library in Epping, New Hampshire at 6 p.m. Odds Bodkin will perform THE WINTER CHERRIES, three heartwarming tales for the Holidays.
An Arthurian tale.
A Chanukah story.
A song-filled German folktale.
With music on Celtic harp and two 12-string guitars. Free to the public.
If you can’t make it, enjoy the magic by downloading THE WINTER CHERRIES.
Happy Holidays!