My guitars are ready. The stage is being prepared. Even the moon is waxing Friday, Oct. 19th at 8 p.m. at the Sweet Beet in Bradford, NH. It will be poking through the clouds in classic New England Halloween fashion. The weather looks good, too. Mid-forties. No rain.
Here’s a video preview created by Hanna Koby. Scary stories for adults. No kids, please.
Hope to see you there! If you know any NH or MASS folks, please spread the word!
Beginning of the World: The Ancient Greek Version–Tomorrow Night!
Master Storyteller and Musician Odds Bodkin performs FALL OF THE TITANS tomorrow night, Sunday Sept. 23, 2018, at the Riverwalk Cafe and Music Bar in Nashua, NH. Showtime: 7 p.m. Ancient cosmological lore and Gaia Theory explored on Celtic harp with commentary, and then an epic tale for adults with a full score on 12-string guitar.
An evening’s spoken-word immersion into how Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, Hades and the Gods of Olympus came to be, and how they deceived their parents–the Titans–and took over the world.
Odds Bodkin brings his Celtic harp and 12-string guitar to perform FALL OF THE TITANS at the Riverwalk Cafe and Music Bar Sunday, Sept. 23 at 7 pm. The story of Gaia, her Titan children, and their overthrow by their pea-sized grandchildren, the Gods of Olympus.
FALL OF THE TITANS/Adult Storytelling in Nashua NH on Sept. 23rd.
Cronus, her last born Titan, will do anything for power, and so when his mother Gaia asks him to castrate his father, he’s more than willing to do it, but only if he rules the cosmos in his father’s stead. Gaia is so deeply furious with her husband Ouranos that she urges Cronus on. After the deed is done, he hurls the family jewels into the sea, but they don’t sink. Instead, from the bloody package surges a pink froth that shoves a giant seashell up into the waves. When it comes to shore and opens, out steps a tiny, unbelievably beautiful little thing. Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, the first of the Olympians. The eldest of them all.
The Titans have no idea what she is.
That’s a mistake.
And so their fall from power begins.
Fall of the Titans
An adult evening event with storyteller and musician Odds Bodkin. A full score on 12-string guitar accompanies the tale.
Sunday, Sept. 23rd at 7 pm at the Riverwalk Café and Music Bar, Nashua NH.
Downloadable Myths, Epics, Folktales and More…Starting at $.99
Original music
The Odyssey: An Epic Telling
The Wise Little Girl: Tales of the Feminine
Beowulf: The Only One
David and Goliath
Paul Bunyan Tall Tales
The Little Proto Dinosaur Trilogy
And many other unforgettable titles by Odds Bodkin. Use PayPal for instant downloads! Great for vacation listening!
11 pages of storytelling products
HERCULES IN HELL performed by Storyteller and Musician Odds Bodkin begins at 7 pm tonight at the Riverwalk Cafe and Music Bar in Nashua, NH. Thunderous 12-string guitar and character voices bring this feature-length adult storytelling event to life. Along with sound effects that help you see all the action in your mind’s eye.
“a consummate storyteller” — The New York Times
“a modern-day Orpheus” — Billboard
“one of the great voices in American storytelling” — Wired
Tomorrow night I’ll be telling HERCULES IN HELL, the full 90-minute version, which means I can recount my favorite of Hercules’ Twelve Labors–the killer birds of Stymphalos.
Backstory: Eurystheus, Hercules’ weak cousin, who has complete power over Hercules for the long years of his labors, tells him, “There are some birds I want you to drive off.”
“Birds,” Hercules replies, unimpressed. “They’re dangerous, I take it.”
“Oh, yes. They kill people with their feathers. Feathers of brass. They can hurl them like arrows. The quills are razor-sharp. They’ve infested the forest of Stymphalos and have been carrying off sheep and unattended children, who they peck apart and devour. The people are terrorized. Go solve their problem, Hercules.”
Hercules knows Eurystheus is trying to kill him by sending him on deadly missions like this, so cleverly he takes an extra-wide bronze shield, his arrows poisoned with VX-like Hydra blood (one touch, you’re dead) and a big bronze bell.
Not long after, he’s standing in a field, watching the hundreds of giant birds in trees above deep guano, skulls and bloody clothing. He bangs the bell, startling them into attacking him. He doesn’t fight back though. Instead, he crouches beneath his shield as the brass feathers rain down, then jumps up, unhurt, and yells curses while ringing the bell, bringing the birds again and again, each time diving under his shield.
Since only their feathers are brass, not their bodies, Hercules can soon see bare patches on their wings. With his arrows, he proceeds to shoot them out of the sky. That’s not quite the end of the battle, but as a clever labor, it’s one of my favorites.
You can hear it live, with thunderous music and Hercules’ deep, furious voice, at the Riverwalk Cafe and Music Bar in Nashua, NH at 7 pm tomorrow night. Fun show.
Bring a friend for some adult storytelling. Great food. Great bar. Intimate setting.
For aficionados, I’ll also have for sale EPIC DRIVES and MASTER DRIVES.
Hard-Hitting Adult Storytelling Sunday July 29th in New Hampshire
If you want to grab some elemental Greek mythology, tragic and beautiful, told for adults, mark your calendar for Sunday, July 29th. The tale you’ll hear, much like Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, won the hearts of 200 convicts in a California prison one afternoon, so much so that I actually signed autographs on scraps of paper and napkins afterwards for a half an hour. As an audio, this 100-minute epic won the national Golden Headset Award from Audiofile Magazine, among other awards.
With so much violence afoot in our culture today, it’s more relevant than ever.
It’s called Hercules in Hell, and it just might break your heart.
I’ll be performing it with my 12-string guitar at 7:00 pm at the Riverwalk Music Bar in Nashua, New Hampshire on Sunday evening in two weeks’ time. One of the more interesting features of this work, other than the full, moment-to-moment guitar score, is that unlike in most of my storytellings, I don’t narrate. I never appear. Only Hercules does.
Tickets are $13 in advance for good seating, and $13 at the door.
A SUMMER’S WORTH OF AUDIO STORIES
Smart parents across America are choosing Odds Bodkin’s Master Drive for inspiring vacation travel listening for their kids. The “consummate storyteller” (The New York Times) offers twenty-five hours of vivid tales from around the world, scored live with original acoustic music.
And it all comes on a flash drive. Plug it in and load age-coded folktales, fairy tales, myths and epic stories onto your kids’ devices. They’ll love it.
LIBRARIES ROCK! Sing-Along Tales with a Solid Beat this Tuesday in NH!
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
A FAMILY FAVORITE FOR LONG TRIPS
Odysseus crouches with his men inside the Trojan Horse and listens. It is dawn, and Helios the sun has crested Troy’s walls. Peering out through the sunlit cracks, Odysseus’s lookout sees the gates of the city open. The Greek army has deserted the battlefield. All that remains is this gigantic horse built of wood.
So begins The Odyssey: An Epic Telling, a 4-hour masterpiece of storytelling by Odds Bodkin. With strains of 12-string guitar and the cries of seabirds, he’ll draw you into this feature film for the mind’s eye.
Even if they’re hungry, your kids won’t want to get out of the car until each episode concludes. There are 42 episodes in all. By the end, your kids will have effortlessly learned Homer’s great story, made human and vivid in this storyteller’s unique way.
The Odyssey: An Epic Telling is a download at Odds Bodkin’s shop. Free listening samples.
$49.95
