The Storied Song

Appalachia Book Company
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The Storied Song is an audio drama series from Appalachia Book Company that transforms traditional Appalachian ballads into fully produced radio plays with original sound design and live ballad performance. These stories have been passed down for generations because they still mean something. We asked contemporary playwrights to find out what.

Episodes

  1. Jun 18

    Introducing The Storied Song

    Here in Appalachia, we have a way of singing stories. Songs that carry real people, real places, real heartbreak — passed from voice to voice until the song itself becomes the memory. No two people tell them quite alike. That's not a flaw. That's how they stay alive. The Storied Song is a podcast from Appalachia Book Company that adapts traditional Appalachian ballads into original audio dramas, paired with live performances of the ballads themselves. Each episode takes a song you may already know and asks what lives inside it — the full story, the complicated people, the history the chorus leaves out. In this introductory episode, narrator and ballad singer William Ritter tells you how this project works and what to listen for. Narrator — William Ritter Production Team Director — Michael McNulty | Sound Effects Design — Rosa Bott | Audio Engineer — Samuel O'Sullivan | Poster Art — Jess Shadrick Written by Natalie Axton.

  2. Jun 18

    Lord Bateman

    Lord Bateman was a soldier. He sailed to the Turkish shore, landed in prison, and was freed by a woman who had no reason to help him — except that she wanted to. They made a vow: seven years. No other woman, no other man. Then come find me. "Lord Bateman" is among the oldest ballads in this collection, first documented on a nineteenth-century broadside published in Glasgow, Scotland, and rooted in a folk tale that had already spawned related ballads in Norway, Italy, and Spain. Jean Ritchie recorded it for her classic Folkways album British Traditional Ballads in the Southern Mountains in 1960. Unlike most traditional ballads, it ends happily — which makes the stakes of this episode all the more present. The happiness is not guaranteed. It has to be chosen. Ida Esmaeili sets this episode at Lord Bateman's wedding to someone else, flashing back through the years in Bateman and the Turkish Lady's own voices. This version is spare and sharp — a story about what it costs to wait, and what it costs when the person you waited for has already moved on. A love story, a reckoning, and a song that refuses to let either of them off the hook. Cast Lord Bateman — Holden Howard Turkish Lady — Tayler Bolling Narrator — Ashlyn Mullins Production Team Director — Michael McNulty | Musical Guest/Narrator — William Ritter | Sound Effects Design — Rosa Bott | Audio Engineer — Samuel O'Sullivan | Poster Art — Jess Shadrick "Lord Bateman" radio play is written by Ida Esmaeili. Commentary written by Natalie Axton.

  3. Jun 18

    The Farmer's Curst Wife

    The Devil came for a farmer's wife. He took her straight to Hell. She tore the place apart. He brought her back. That's the story within the ballad. It's been sung across the British Isles and through Appalachia for more than a century, and most versions play it for laughs: a woman so mean, even Hell won't have her. Cecil Sharp documented the ballad's popularity in World War I-era Appalachia, and a 1929 recording by the husband-wife duo Bill and Belle Reed from Johnson City, Tennessee — one of relatively few 78 RPM releases from that era to be included on the influential Anthology of American Folk Music — helped carry it forward into the urban folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s. The song has been in these mountains a long time. It has earned its place. Playwright Diana Jean Skeen isn't interested in leaving it as a punchline. In her version, the wife is addicted to opioids, the farmer is barely holding on, and their daughter — Baby Girl — has grown up holding everything together. When the Devil finally shows up at the door, nobody is all that surprised. But Hell has a way of clarifying things. This episode asks what it takes to actually face yourself — and whether the people we write off as impossible might just be people who've been hurt too long. Cast Farmer — Holden Howard Farmer's Wife — Tayler Bolling Baby Girl — Ashlyn Mullins Devil/Construction Worker — Jess Mullins Fullen TV News Anchor/Rob — Holden Howard TV News Reporter/Sheila — Celeste Holmes Demons — Celeste Holmes, Holden Howard Production Team Director — Michael McNulty | Musical Guest/Narrator — William Ritter | Sound Effects Design — Rosa Bott | Audio Engineer — Samuel O'Sullivan | Poster Art — Jess Shadrick "The Farmer's Curst Wife" radio play is written by Diana Jean Skeen. Commentary written by Natalie Axton.

  4. Jun 18

    Tom Dula

    In May 1868, Tom Dula was hanged for the murder of Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina. The ballad "Tom Dooley" made him famous. But the song leaves out the most important parts: Ann, Pauline, a pregnancy, and a jealousy that curdled into something fatal. This episode brings the story behind the ballad into close focus. Playwright Jess Wells writes these characters as fully human — reckless, lovesick, furious, and sorry too late. Tom wasn't simply a killer, and Laura wasn't simply a victim. Ann wasn't simply a villain. They were people caught in something none of them could see clearly enough to stop. The syphilis at the center of the story likely originated with Pauline Foster, who brought the disease into the household. Tom contracted it from Pauline and spread it to Ann and Laura — meaning Ann's accusation against Laura was almost certainly wrong. Ann ultimately directed authorities to Laura's grave, which is what sealed Tom's fate. He had already fled across the Tennessee border and was working under an assumed name when he was recognized and turned in. The ballad traveled far from those facts. Frank Proffitt performed it for folklorist Frank Warner in 1938; Alan Lomax heard Warner's version and published his own arrangement, which became the source for the Kingston Trio's recording — a number one hit in 1958. The true story stayed in Wilkes County. This episode brings it back. Cast Tom — Jess Mullins Fullen Laura — Celeste Holmes Ann — Tayler Bolling Pauline — Ashlyn Mullins Random Woman — Jess Mullins Fullen Random Man — Holden Howard Production Team Director — Michael McNulty | Musical Guest/Narrator — William Ritter | Sound Effects Design — Rosa Bott | Audio Engineer — Samuel O'Sullivan | Poster Art — Jess Shadrick "Tom Dula" radio play written by Jess Wells. Commentary written by Natalie Axton.

  5. Jun 18

    The Wreck of the Old 97

    On September 27, 1903, a Southern Railway mail train left the tracks near Danville, Virginia. Eleven of eighteen crew members died. The engineer, Joseph Broady — known by the daredevil nickname "Steve" — was at the controls when the brakes failed on the Stillhouse Trestle. The ballad that followed made him famous in death in ways he never was in life. It also got his name wrong, his marital status wrong, and a few other things besides. Broady may have been ordered by the railroad company to make up for lost time — and the company docked engineers' pay for every thirty minutes they ran behind, which tells you something about what they expected. The song that memorialized him became its own kind of wreck. Henry Whitter recorded the first version in 1923; Vernon Dalhart's recording the following year became the first million-selling record in country music history. Then came the lawsuits. Multiple parties claimed authorship, the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Court ultimately awarded ownership to RCA Victor. A man died doing his job. His story became a hit record. The hit record became a legal battle. In this episode, Ann Gillespie puts Broady in conversation with a Singer who has carried his story for generations — and who knows it better, in some ways, than he does. What does it mean to be remembered? What do we owe the people our songs preserve? A meditation on memory, speed, and the strange afterlife of a man who just wanted to do his job. Cast Engineer — Holden Howard Singer — Celeste Holmes Production Team Director — Michael McNulty | Musical Guest/Narrator — William Ritter | Sound Effects Design — Rosa Bott | Audio Engineer — Samuel O'Sullivan | Poster Art — Jess Shadrick "The Nightmare of the Old 97" radio play is written by Ann Gillespie. Commentary written by Natalie Axton.

  • 5 Episodes

About

The Storied Song is an audio drama series from Appalachia Book Company that transforms traditional Appalachian ballads into fully produced radio plays with original sound design and live ballad performance. These stories have been passed down for generations because they still mean something. We asked contemporary playwrights to find out what.

Information

  • Creator
    Appalachia Book Company
  • Episodes
    5
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Appalachia Book Company
  • Show Website
    The Storied Song