Showing results by narrator "Bill Gordh" in All Categories

A boy was always wishing for things he didn't have. An old magician told the boy if he put salt on a magpie's tail, he could have any wish he made. The boy went out with salt into the woods. All the magpies flew away. One finally spoke with him and told him if he brought her a nice clasp knife, she would let him put salt on her tail.

A fox is walking down a path when it is pounced on by a hungry tiger. Fox has to do some quick thinking. It asks the tiger if it really means to eat the leader of the forest. Tiger says it would not eat the leader of the forest, but Fox is not the leader.

There is a harvest festival in the village. Everyone contributes. Coyote and his wife decide to make a vegetable stew. He tells her if she will clean the pot and boil the water, he will do the rest of the work. In the morning, she does her work and when the water is boiling, wakes Coyote to do the rest. He makes excuses to get her to do the work of gathering the vegetables. This happens again and again until the stew is all ready, except for salt. She tells Coyote to travel to Salt Lake to get the salt.

Bush Cat lies down under a tree to nap. Monkey comes along and decides to play a trick. Monkey ties Bush Cat's tail to the tree. Later Bush Cat wakes up and can't get away. Bush Cat asks Snail to untie its tail. Snail agrees once Bush Cat promises not to eat Snail. Once Bush Cat is free, Bush Cat wants to catch Monkey and decides on a trick. Bush Cat asks Snail to tell all the animals that Bush Cat is dead under the tree. This way when the animals come to dance around and sing in honor of their friend, Bush Cat can jump up and catch Monkey.

The stars used to sing and dance in the nighttime sky. Coyote brags that he sings with the stars. The other animals laugh. Then he asks them if they ever hear him howling at night. They say yes, and he announces that that is him singing with the stars. He has their attention now and he doesn't want to lose it, so he adds some more to his story.

Caterpillar is small but has a big voice. When Rabbit goes out and leaves her door open, Caterpillar decides to play a trick on rabbit. It crawls inside rabbit's house and slams the door. When rabbit returns, she gets scared because she sees scratchy marks on the ground and her door is closed. She asks who's in her house.

Lion was declared king and invited all the animals to come for a greeting, so he could thank them all. Little Ant was representing all the ants and she was so excited she got up extra early and got to the greeting place before any other animals. She didn't care.

Nasruddin made a bet with some friends that he could stand all night long outside, in the middle of the square, with no clothes on. They all said it was too cold. They all decided that if he could make it through the night with no heat, they would make him dinner, and if he failed he would cook them dinner. He went into the square. As it got later it got colder. Colder and colder and colder. Nasruddin was about to give up and go inside to get warm when he saw a candle in a window across the square.

Spider wants scrambled eggs for breakfast but doesn't want to cook them. He pretends to have a stomach ache. He begs his wife to go to the doctor. She goes. Spider takes a shortcut and gets to the Doctor's house. Spider knows the doctor is not home. Spider goes in and pretends to be the Doctor. When the wife gets there, Spider tells her through the door to feed Spider scrambled eggs. She goes back home. Spider rushes back home and gets back into bed.

Award-winning storyteller Bill Gordh (Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence winner, National Association of Parenting Periodicals Gold Award winner) presents this folk tale live with no script, accompanied only by his own dynamic banjo playing.

A hunter is out and hears some geese flying in formation overhead. They are singing! He shoots one of them, and it falls from the sky but continues singing. He brings it home, and he and his wife pluck out its feathers. As each feather is plucked, it flies out the window. They put the goose in the oven, and they can still hear it singing from inside the oven. After a while they bring out the goose and put it on a platter on their dining table. Just then the flock of singing geese come flying through the window.

The village is next to the lagoon. The people fish with spears standing in the shallow waters. Time goes by and they are not getting any fish. They don't know what to do. They go to their chief. He seems to be in a dream and does not offer them any suggestions. Time goes by. Still no luck.

Spider is walking through the jungle one day when he hears about a party that is to happen in the east. He decides he will go, as there will be lots to eat and drink. He walks on and hears about a party in the west, then on and hears about a party in the north and then one in the south. He wants to go to all the parties, but he neglected to find out the times they started. He just knows they are all on the same night. He gets an idea. He asks four of his cousins to come over.

The rabbits lived near a beautiful pond up in the hills. The elephants bathed and drank from a pond to the south. The elephants' pond dried up. They began looking for a new pond. Finally they came to the rabbits' pond. When they saw it, the elephants stampeded toward the water. The rabbits went flying in every direction as the elephants stomped around in the water, spraying and playing. The rabbits did not know what to do. The old grandmother rabbit got an idea.

Brahma throws a party for the animals, and one representative of every kind of animal heads for the party. The celebration begins. Everyone is there except Turtle. Brahma wonders where Turtle is, but the party goes on. Finally Turtle arrives. Brahma asks Turtle why it is so late. It says it wanted to come to the party, but every time it started to leave home it started missing home and stayed a little longer.

Little Half Chick was just that - a half-chick! But he was tired of the farm and thought he deserved a better life. He decided to go and visit the king in Madrid. He hopped along. Along the way, he hopped over a bridge.

Crow was always causing trouble wherever he went, doing tricks and being mean. One of his tricks was to call a stranger who he wanted something from "Brother-in-law" so that they would treat him like family and give him food. He would always make up how some great ancestor had married into the other animal's clan.

An old man put the teakettle on the stove and went out to sit on his porch. When the water began to boil, the pot began to transform. It became a tanuki (sort of like a badger) and began racing around his house, causing all kinds of noise and trouble. The old man realized it was a magical kettle, as the tanuki became the kettle again when the old man came inside. He made a box and, before it could change again, put the teakettle into the box.

A sad man walks up the road. He stops when he sees an old man sitting on his porch. The old man asks what the trouble is. The sad man describes how he has lost everything. The old man sees a green lizard on a leaf and catches it.

A traveler met another traveler walking through an African jungle. The sun was going down, and they knew that soon some of the beasts would be out hunting for food. They stopped in the next village and asked the chief if they could stay for the night. The chief welcomed them but told them that if either of them snored, they should probably go to the next village, because his people hated snoring so much, if someone snored they would sharpen their knives and kill the snorer.