On the Road with Silver John: "O Ugly Bird!"

Here's our first new feature of 2011, focused on the work of the renowned American Gothicist Manly Wade Wellman.  For over three decades starting in 1951, Wellman published a series of stories (not to mention five novels) about a heroic figure called Silver John--a wanderer of the Southern Appalachians who wields a silver-stringed guitar and a mean knowledge of the occult (both of which come in handy as he encounters various supernatural pitfalls).  The Macabre Republic feature On the Road with Silver John will offer ballads about the Balladeer, quick poetic teases for Wellman's tales.  My hope here is to encourage the modern generation of readers to seek out Wellman's terrific folkloric fantasy/horror narratives.  I'll cover the Silver John stories (collected in Owls Hoot in the Daytime & Other Omens) one at a time, starting today with the volume's lead-off piece, "O Ugly Bird!"


"O Ugly Bird!"

Greedy Mr. Onselm terrorizes with his hoodoo,
With the swoops of his grotesque avian twin.
But now John the Balladeer has come along,
And he's determined to do both wretches in.

He's the hero for which the harried folk
Of the mountain have long been praying.
Pure of heart, and savvy enough to know
That a guitar's good for more than playing.