Thirteenth Annual Hagood Mill Storytelling Festival

You are invited to a day of milling, stories, tall tales and lots of memories at the Hagood Mill Historic Site. The Mill will be operating, rain or shine, on Saturday, October 18 from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

As part of the Museum’s “Music in the Mountains” series, the celebration of tradition will continue on this day at the “Thirteenth Annual Hagood Mill Storytelling Festival.”

The hills around the old mill will echo with the whispers, howls ‘n hollers of some of the Southeast’s best storytellers sharing bits about all sorts of folks, funnies, cultures and places.

Returning again to host is Hagood Mill’s storyteller-in-residence, author, musician and 2013 State Heritage Award recipient, Johnny Fowler. From the rolling hills of upstate South Carolina with family ties to the western North Carolina Mountains, John’s storytelling is a blast of old-time energy of yesteryear introducing traditional yarns and folktales from the Carolina region. Those Appalachian family ties run deep in John, which in turn creates his friendly and energetic personality. He also is an old-time mountain banjo and harmonica master, and plays several other traditional instruments, occasionally blending them into his programs. John’s stories and old-time songs, geared for audiences young and old, are stepping stones of history and southern culture. John will be performing at the Exchange Place at the National Storytelling Festival. Most recently John authored the biography of George Mullins, an African American folk hero and street performer from Upcountry South Carolina known as “Trotting Sally”. The reviews have been outstanding!  John is also a researcher, collector, preservationist and writer as well as the host of an old time radio show on NC public radio station WNCW 88.7 FM.

Cora Newcomb lives in the charming seaside village of Beaufort, South Carolina. Her life reads like a modern-day-action novel; her stories reflect chapters from her life along with inspirational stories, historical tales and ghost tales that make the imagination burn.

Cora began spinning tales to her daughter and then throughout the Lowcountry - weaving magic with hypnotizing yarns. She tells stories to entertain, to educate, and pass on cultural heritage but most of all because she loves the joy of telling tales.

Her dad likes to say, in an unbelievable voice, "I used to spank your butt for telling stories and now folks come from all around just to listen - it's amazing!!"

Author/Storyteller/Playwright Linda Goodman, an Appalachian Mountain native of Melungeon descent, performs her stories nationwide. She has been published in the Chicken Soup and Stories for the Heart Series.  Her one-woman show and book, Daughters of the Appalachians has also been performed by theater companies in California, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Virginia. Her writing workshops teach story creation and the interviewing process.

Both of Linda’s CDs, Bobby Pins and Jessie and Other Stories, have won multiple Storytelling World Winner Awards.

Old School Duo Leon and Marshall James started singing at an early age with their older brother Albert and father A.B. James. Leon was only five and Marshall was seven. They learned harmony through DO-RE-ME singing, a kind if shape note singing. They joined other family members singing at church gatherings and social events. In high school they sang with the Agriculture Quartet which won them a number of trophies, ribbons and prizes. They also performed with the Holy Tone Quartet. The brothers are from Lyman, South Carolina. Their music represents an old-school style of singing that dates back to antebellum days featuring rich harmonies of call-and-response, shouts and praise all sung in an old time acapella style. Since 2002 Leon and Marshall have been calling themselves the “Old School Duo”. They have been featured at churches, festivals, and gatherings throughout the region, also including on the Carnival Glory Ship in South America (Belize).