Owls Hoot in the Daytime and Other Omens

Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Volume 5

By: Manly Wade Wellman

Narrated by: Brian Troxell

Owls Hoot in the Daytime & Other Omens is the 5th and final volume of Night Shade Books' five volume "Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman." This volume contains all of the John the Balladeer stories (sometimes better known as Silver John), Manly's most famous character.

Contents:

• Introduction by Karl Edward Wagner
• O Ugly Bird!
• The Desrick on Yandro
• Vandy, Vandy
• One Other
• Call Me From the Valley
• The Little Black Train
• Shiver in the Pines
• Walk Like A Mountain
• On the Hills and Everywhere
• Old Devlins Was A-Waiting
• Nine Yards of Other Cloth
• Wonder As I Wander
• Farther Down the Trail
• Trill Coster's Burden
• The Spring
• Owls Hoot in the Daytime
• Can These Bones Live?
• Nobody Ever Goes There
• Where Did She Wander?

Afterword by Gerald W. Page

©2003 The Estate of Manly Wade Wellman (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Very Country

reminds me of going to listen to my grandfather tell tales. The musical bits could use a bit more musical voice and the whole thing would benefit from guitar acompaniment.
I will warn there are some outdated tropes, in particular where women are involved, all of them virtuos damsels in distress or corrupt (often bigcity) women who rely too much on their money, looks, or occasional witchery to be a 'good' woman.

I love Manly Wade Wellman, and this one is special

This is a collection of tales as told by John the balladeer. It's like going back in time to sometime in the 1800's Appalachian stories except that one of the recent story that I listened to mentioned the Korean War. Also, sometimes science is mentioned that says it's a little more modern than the stories seem. But if you would like to take a trip back to simpler times with good people, and some bad characters, you'll really enjoy this. It almost makes me wish for a campfire to sit around to make it complete.

Silver John Stories

I bought the original collection years ago from Arkham House. it was great to hear them!

I'm loving these stories!

This is a collection of short stories, all but one being told from the point of view of Silver John.

excellent stories from a master of the pulps

Manly Wade Wellman had several "occult detective" sort of characters, but John the Balladeer is the most far afield for that subgenre. A minstrel wandering in the North Carolina Appalachians in the mid-20th century, he encounters conjure folk, haints, and monsters out of Appalachian tradition--or inventions of Wellman's that resemble such. The narrator has a great accent for these tales, imbuing them with a folksy charm the text suggests.