Showing results by narrator "Bill Gordh" in All Categories

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.

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.

Masha lived with the grandparents in a village alongside of a great forest. One day, she went out looking for mushrooms. She carried a big basket and as her grandmother had reminded her, she often stopped, listened for the village dog, and looked for the smoke from village chimneys to be sure she knew where she was, so she wouldn't get lost. But after a while, she forgot to keep checking and she went too far.

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.

Brer Rabbit lives in the Briar Patch, and so cannot have a garden. He remedies this by taking from everyone else's garden. He loves peanuts and goes into Sister Fox's patch and eats a bunch, until he hears her coming. She then builds a fence, but he digs under. Then she makes a rope trap and while she's home, Brer Rabbit steps into the rope trap and is now hanging upside down. He can't get out but when he hears Brer Bear coming; he thinks up a trick.

Sister Fox tries to get Br'er Rabbit by inviting him to go fishing with her on her rowboat. She knows that he can't swim, and she is tired of being tricked. She also knows that he loves fish and will not pass up an opportunity like getting to fish from a rowboat. They get out in the middle of the lake and sit there singing. Sister Fox is singing about her favorite lunch - rabbit! Br'er Rabbit cannot swim and is getting nervous.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jack and his mother were having no luck on the farm. Jack was taking the cow into the village to sell it when he met a man who offered Jack some magical beans for the cow. Jack said, "Okay." When he came home, his mother got mad at him for making such a trade and threw the beans out the window. In the morning Jack woke to discover a huge beanstalk rising to the sky. He climbed it up into a cloud land. He walked on a path across the clouds to a great palace. Inside he discovered a huge woman. She was the ogre's wife.

When their father died, he left the family a leather bag full of gold. Each daughter drew an image on the bag - a sun, a moon, and three stars. Their mother told them to put the bag away until they needed it. Time went by, and they needed to get some money. They discovered that the bag was gone. Someone had stolen it.

Mouse Deer was down by the river one day when Crocodile swam up and chomped on little Mouse Deer's leg. Mouse Deer could not pull his leg from the clamped jaws of the crocodile. Mouse Deer did some quick thinking and began talking about how lucky he was that the crocodile had accidentally chomped on a stick instead of Mouse Deer's leg. Mouse Deer picked up a stick, which he extended from his body. Without thinking about it, Crocodile let go of Mouse Deer and chomped on the stick.

Manka was a clever girl. Her father was a shepherd and did a job for a neighbor. The neighbor had promised him a calf for pay, but when the job was done the wealthy farmer refused to give him the young cow. They wound up in court.

The wealthy young man and all his family and servants are preparing for his wedding. Later in the day, he will travel by horseback to his fiancée's family's home for the ceremony. One old servant hears a noise down the hall from the kitchen. He sees the story bag where the young man used to store his stories when he was a little boy. He loved stories so much. The stories are angry about being left behind and forgotten about. They are planning to hurt the young man.

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 young woman named Pirili lived in a village. She was kind and generous. A hunter named Mangowa from another village saw her and wished to marry her. She did not wish to marry him. He brought gifts and food and flowers. He hunted just for her and brought her everything he caught. He did not bring food to his own.

Hare and Hyena are great friends and decide to start a farm together. They will have a garden and buy 10 cows for milk. They share the work. One day one tends the garden, milks the co

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.

Coyote saw Rabbit sleeping under a tree. Often Rabbit tricked him, but this time Rabbit was asleep! Coyote pounced, ready to eat. Something up in the tree gave Rabbit an idea. Rabbit asked, "Could you wait 'til I do my job for you to eat me?" Coyote asked what the job was, and Rabbit told him she had to shake the tree to ring the bell for all the little bunnies to get out of school. Coyote decided he would rather eat some little bunnies than a skinny old rabbit.

A princess was born to the king and queen. They sent out invitations to the christening and included a group of fairies. However, one fairy was not invited. The other fairies all came and bestowed wonderful wishes on the young princess. Just before the lilac fairy gave her blessing and gift, the uninvited fairy arrived, and she was angry.