Happy Halloween.

Today’s Halloween edition of The Lost Child is mostly made up of southern haunting and supernatural tales, with stories of ghosts, witches, zombies, and haints. A few spooky tunes for the season are scattered in also, along the way.

In case you missed it, or want to hear it again or share it with a friend, you can stream the whole episode anytime here —

— and I’ve got an extra 90 minutes of Halloween-themed music available for streaming here.

Many of the stories in today’s show come from the online archives of the Digital Library of Appalachia (Blue Ridge Institute and Museum, Ferrum College), the Library of Congress, and the Association for Cultural Equity: all excellent resources, and all searchable and streamable anywhere, for free.

Even better, perhaps, than the ghostly specifics of the stories themselves, the true highlight of today’s episode may be its gathering of warm and wonderful accents. I hope you’ll give it a listen.

Here’s the playlist and source info:

1. Sandy Shelor: Giant cat ghost
   Recorded by Kip Lornell, Carroll County, Virginia, 1970s
   Digital Library of Appalachia

2. Cora Jackson: Ghost story, ten-foot woman
   Recorded by Kip Lornell, Fairfax County, Virginia, 1977
   Digital Library of Appalachia

3. The Phantom Five: Graveyard
   Skull Records, 1964

4. Ed Harris: Haunted house
   Recorded by Kip Lornell, Chilhowie, Virginia, 1977.
   Digital Library of Appalachia 

5. 11 and 12 year old girls: Conversation about ghosts
   Meadville, Mississippi, c. 1972-3
   Library of Congress 

6. Bessie Jones: Ghost story about a haunted church
   Recorded by Alan Lomax, Greenwich Village, 1961
   Bessie Jones lived in St. Simon Island, Georgia. 
   Association for Cultural Equity

7. Aunt Jenny Wilson: Witch Story #1
   Recorded by Fred Coon, Peach Creek, West Virginia, c. 1960s
   from Aunt Jenny Wilson: Recordings from the collection of Fred Coon, Field Recorders’ Collective, 2007.

8. Kip Tyler: She’s My Witch
   Ebb Records, 1958

9. Margarie Quinlin: Lamb of God story
   Recorded by Kip Lornell, Patrick Henry Community College, Martinsville, Virginia, 1985
   Digital Library of Appalachia 

10. Burl Hammons: Turkey in the Straw (story)
    Recorded by Carl Fleishchauer and Alan Jabbour, Stillwell, West Virginia, 1972. From The Hammons Family: The Traditions of a West Virginia Family and their Friends, Rounder Records, 1998.

11. Quincy Higgins: Hant tale and witch story
    Recorded by Patrick Mullen, Sparta, North Carolina, 1978
    Library of Congress

12. Herbert Fulk: Witch stories
    Recorded by Patrick Mullen and Blanton Owen, Toast, North Carolina, 1978
    Library of Congress

13. Lilia Huddie: Broom test for Liz Deavers
    Recorded by Roddy Moore, Wytheville, Virginia, 1970s
    Digital Library of Appalachia 

14. Lou Rawls: Season of the Witch
    from The Way it Was — The Way it Is, Capitol Records, 1969

15. Texas Gladden: Ghost story of Civil War soldiers and a haunted house
    Recorded by Alan Lomax, Manhattan, New York, 1946. Texas Gladden was from Saltville, Virginia. 
    Association for Cultural Equity

16. Eartha White: A ghost story
    Recorded by Robert Harrison Cook, Jacksonville, Florida, 1940
    Library of Congress

17. Lightnin’ Hopkins: Black Ghost Blues
    from Soul Blues, Prestige Records, 1964

18. Zora Neale Hurston: Haitian zombies
    Mary Margaret McBride Show, 1943

19. Bessie Jones: Ghost story about a haunted wood
    Recorded by Alan Lomax, Greenwich Village, 1961. Bessie Jones lived on St. Simons Island, Georgia.
    Association for Cultural Equity

20. Lee Morse and her Blue Grass Boys: ‘Tain’t No Sin (To Dance Around in Your Bones)
    Columbia Records, 1930

21. The Phantom Five: Graveyard
    Skull Records, 1964

22. Kathryn Tucker Windham: Don’t be afraid of ghosts
    Alabama Folk Sampler Stage, City Stages, Birmingham, Alabama, 1998. Kathryn Tucker Windham was from Selma, Alabama.
    Alabama Folklife Collection, Alabama Department of Archives and History

Thanks for tuning in.