Comments on: Oral tradition stories

Question: Oral tradition stories

London Irregular — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 11:50:06 -0800

Hello dudes. Do you know where I can find recordings of good oral tradition storytellers on/offline? (in English)

By: cadge

cadge — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:17:49 -0800

Yellow Moon Press has a good selection of storytelling recordings.

By: Science!

Science! — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:55:12 -0800

Hit up a nearby storytelling festival. You can hear dozens of storytellers, find recordings, and get recommendations plus they're tons of fun!

By: Area Control

Area Control — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:04:32 -0800

You might try searching www.archive.org in the audio section. I know they have a good deal of spoken word, but I never searched specifically for stories.

By: Deathalicious

Deathalicious — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:28:11 -0800

I can recommend a storyteller: Michael Parent is a very funny and entertaining storyteller for adults and children. I believe he was raised in Canada; many of his stories originate from that area and he has a bilingual (English-French) storytelling audio cassette. Even if you're not into his work, he would definitely be able to give you advice on storytelling--he wrote the book on it.

By: Deathalicious

Deathalicious — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:40:55 -0800

I think you'll probably do best by finding the names of great storytellers and searching them out. I know that Pete Seeger did a bit of storytelling along with his music.

Also, there have got to be a bunch of storytelling organizations, with websites, out there. I know for a fact that many of these organizations have "tell-offs" where storytellers compete to tell the best yarn. Maybe one of them has mp3s available.

Refugee Stories offers oral tradition stories in mp3, although these are not "professional" storytellers.

I know recommending google is generally frowned up on as an AskMe answer, but here google is really helpful. A search for oral tradition storytellers mp3 led to this which led to this, which is broken, but go to the main page and you have the website of Will Claflin, "a master storyteller" according to the American Library Association.

If you live near London as your username suggests, I'd check out the London Centre for International Storytelling. If offline recordings are fine, I can't see how they aren't the first place you should go.

By: nasreddin

nasreddin — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:41:05 -0800

The Library of Congress' American Memory series includes a large number of these things. Some of them are fascinating!

By: HotPatatta

HotPatatta — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 14:46:27 -0800

You might be interested in StoryCorps, which NPR has been airing for the past few years.

By: AmbroseChapel

AmbroseChapel — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 15:19:35 -0800

Garrison Keillor's monologues from the show "Prairie Home Companion"? Some of them are available on CD.

By: DrSkrud

DrSkrud — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 07:55:26 -0800

In Montreal, on the last Sunday of every month at Hurley's Pub there's a storytelling session by Mike Burns. He's a fantastic storyteller who tells mostly in English, but occasionally in Gaelic or French. He also travels around the world for storytelling festivals and stuff.

So if you're ever in the area, definitely check that out.