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It
is true! The CD I recorded all that time ago, is done. I used another musician friend - Steve Blanchard from the Conniption Fits - to record this CD. Kristina is still around and having fun and is really busy with a course at Berkeley right now and two other recording projects, which is great news. Her website is still www.kristinastykos.com I have been blessed by writers and storytellers F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada. Why? Together they wrote the book, Tales Our Abuelitas Told published by Atheneum for Young Readers, and in it are some wonderful stories. This last summer (2007) I had been telling my version of one of these tales and had been looking for some other versions of it. I asked permission from Alma and Isabel if I could continue to tell the tale and ask if I could also record it for the CD. Over the summer The Goat From the Hills and Mountains had become one of my favourite tales to stories to tell. Alma Flor graciously allowed me to do both, continue to tell it and to record it. So the story some of you have heard, The Goat from the Hills and Mountains, is on my new CD 'More Second-hand Tales.' Many thanks to F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada and Atheneum (the house of knowledge). I asked the same musical players if they were up for creating another tune with me, and performing it on the CD. Rick, and Steve both agreed, but Maureen was unable, so I pulled in another friend, Greg Gundlach. Also, I am very excited to say that Rob Brookes, artist wonderkid, agreed to do the artwork for the new CD and agreed. You can see that it is every bit as good as the first CD. "More Second-hand Tales" is for 5 years and up. As with my first CD, they are all be told with humour and life. Picking the stories and finding ones that go together well is, at least for me, pretty hard. I decided on a good range of tales: some short, some long, some downright silly, others a little more serious. Putting the stories in order is also fun; trying them in different running orders to see which way works the best as a group. I found that the original running order changed when I recorded One Wish. It was the way I ended the story that made me feel that this would be the perfect end to the CD. So what about the stories? Well...
The Stories: The
Dragon and Monkey's Heart to hear some of this story,
click HERE The Players: The behind
the scenes people: Other bits: The
Stories Stories all have their own special strengths, and so it is in The Goat from the Hills and Mountains. I found this story in a book, published by Atheneum called Tales Our Abuelitas Told written by F. Isabel Campoy and Alma Flor Ada. The Goat From the Hills and Mountains is wonderful and tells of how helpless people can be and how the smallest in our midst can help us and aid us at times we least suspect. Isabel and Alma Flor allowed me to continue to tell the tale they shared in the book and let me record it on this CD. I sent both a rough recording for them to 'vet' and got these responses back: "What a wonderful retelling!...We loved your work...Very creative reading indeed!!!...in spite of how much you changed [Alma's] text!" I guess that is what storytellers do - make each story they tell 'their own' by using their own experience and style. I hope you like it when you hear it. Some stories I find come truly alive when I tell them. It was like that with "Goat from the Hills and Mountains" and it is also the case with The Dragon and the Monkey’s Heart. There are a number of versions of this story, and this is a Chinese variant. Sometimes the antagonist is an alligator or shark, but here we have a dragon trying to trick Monkey into giving his heart to the dragon’s wife. After recording this tale, I found another version which had a story within a story, which is also good. I might try to get that down for a live rendering. As I have said on other accessions I read an awful lot. I might read a book filled with over 50 tales and only one or two might speak to me. When I read so many tales I get subjected to a lot of 'boy wins over the beast and gets the princess'. Sometimes it gets a little old! So when I found the Norwegian tale "The Boy Who Became a Lion, an Ant and Falcon" I took a deep breath and decided to change the sex of the protagonist and make a few other changes too. Some storytellers and folklorists might be horrified at the thought that I would tamper with a tale, but I like to say that this story, The Shape-shifting Girl, is an adaptation of a Norwegian tale. It is a story about a girl who finds that she is stronger, smarter and braver than she ever imagined she could be. She faces condescension from the king, and mockery from a dragon whilst she tries to save the princess from the evil trolls. And she does not need half the kingdom at the end of the tale either.
The One Wish is one of my favourite tales from childhood. Like 'The Monkey's Heart' there are many variants of this story. I first heard this tale when I was a youngster at school. In other versions, the wish giver is anything from tiger or stag, to white hart, unicorn or faerie, depending on what culture the tale comes from. The story is about a woodcutter who gets the opportunity to make a single wish come true, but three other people want to tell him what to wish for. And with a bit of careful consideration, and some well chosen words... The Players Well, you know about me, so I will tell you about the others!
Acknowledgments
and thanks Of course I save the biggest and most heartfelt thanks to last for my wife Sarah (for helping me achieve the things I set out to do), my son Aidan (who is an incredible help in so many ways - that's his voice at the end of the CDs) and my beautiful daughter (who sings 'sky chief' at me any time she can and is just getting into the 'Goat from the Hills and Mountains' - "heh heh heh!"). This CD is dedicated to my family, and our friends Kate and Kara who, like Jesse, the shape-shifting girl, are going through their own challenges.
My
CDs, 'Second-hand Tales', is available from: |
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Simon is a member of the League for the Advancement of New England Storytellers (LANES). |
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Contact Simon Brooks T: (603) 353-9305 A: 32 River Road, Orford, New Hampshire 03777 E: simon@diamondscree.com storytelling
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would
have liked. So here is all the copy and some!
Steve
Glazer
I
met Stevens Blanchard (also known as Steve!) through
mutual friends - Sandy and Giles - a few years ago, and had
him come and help with a jam session at the library I work at.
He and Tuck Stocking, from the rock and roll band
