From January 11 to 19, the evening of storytelling and music will appear in Chattanooga, Huntsville, Murfreesboro, Nashville, Memphis, Booneville, Oxford, Birmingham, Montevallo, Montgomery, and finish in Carrollton, Georgia.

Click here to see further details and to purchase tickets.

Here’s The Unchained Tour’s mission statement:

Unchained believes that the art of the raconteur—the telling of unscripted, personal, porch-style stories—is one of the great arts, and that nights of storytelling are vital to any vibrant and healthy community. Our mission is to bring brilliant raconteurs, along with musicians and writers and other artists, to towns large and small across the South—and eventually across the continent. Weâ€ll champion the local and home-grown: independent bookstores, community gardens, performing cafes. Weâ€ll advocate getting offline and off the grid, and wherever we go weâ€ll celebrate the pleasure and inspiration of raconteuring.

A scene from the video below.

Chistopher Paul Stelling at the Telfair Academy during the 2012 Savannah Stopover

Christopher Paul Stelling — a Brooklyn singer-songwriter whom I had the good fortune to hear at the 2012 Savannah Stopover — will also perform.

Click here for more about Stelling and each of the raconteurs. The Unchained Tour also has a vibrant Facebook page.

If you’re unfamiliar with the work and play of Unchained, take a look at this video:

But many of Oliver’s stories aren’t so light: the Savannah that he inhabited with his mother and sister shaped — some might say warped — him in wondrous ways.

Now the cult performer is getting wider acclaim than ever before for his current one-man show Helen & Edgar, now playing at Theatre 80 in the East Village.

Helen & Edgar, produced by The Moth founder George Dawes Green and directed by Catherine Burns, got a rave review from Ben Brantley of the New York Times: At Home in a House of Horrors.

From the review:

An image from the promo video

Iâ€m choosing not to provide too many details. You need to hear and see them as they are spun out by Mr. Oliver, who, when he performs, seems to be all eyes (alert, alarmed, prayerful) and hands (fluttering, clasping, beseeching). Like certain figures drawn by Edward Gorey, he has the carriage of a drooping lily.

There is something Victorian, as well as Gothic, about his presence — and his sentimental embrace of darkness. As was evident in his earlier “East 10th Street: Self Portrait With Empty House,” staged in New York three years ago, Mr. Oliver has made pets of the ghosts of loneliness, fearfulness and loss that most of us do our best to keep at bay.

By the way, projections of Louise Oliverâ€s sketches and paintings are shown during “Helen & Edgar,” cityscapes and portraits drawn with the shimmering bluntness of an eternally untutored child. Mr. Oliver says he feels that there is “an innocence to motherâ€s work that is like a form of revelation.” Forms of revelation obviously run in the family.

Here’s the promo video:

From Joan Juliet Buck (one of the last tour’s raconteurs) writing in the New York Times Style Magazine, “A Bus Called Wanda”:

Most Moth stories begin with a “So.” This means: Weâ€ve been talking for a while; it means, youâ€re already with me.

So: when George Dawes Green was young, he would stay up all night in Georgia drinking bourbon and telling stories as moths flapped against the screened-in porch of a schoolteacher named Wanda Bullard. When he moved to New York to write novels that won prizes and were turned into movies, he no longer told, or heard, any story from beginning to end. Someone would start a story at a cocktail party or dinner, but as soon as they drew breath or paused for effect, someone else would jump in to top it. In New York, every little story was crushed before it was born.

Encouraged by Wanda Bullard, George started the Moth in 1997, so that people could tell their stories in front of audiences, and those audiences turned out to want nothing more than to listen.

Across the Atlantic, as the editor in chief of French Vogue, I watched a thousand fashion shows without stories and developed an urgent need for stories without fashion shows. The Moth was everything I longed for.

And from Hillary Brenhouse writing in Oxford American, Storytelling with Edgar Oliver:

In October, Edgar will star in a one-man show in which heâ€ll summon memories of his youth, in the sixties and seventies, in Savannah, Georgia. “I want to call it ‘Helen and Edgar,â€â€ he intones. “Isnâ€t that a beautiful title?” I tell him I think it is. “Oh, goooody!” And then: “If I can convey Helen, Iâ€ll be so happy.”

The production will run in New York. Edgar has lived and written and performed in that city for thirty-five years and earned himself as many epithets—“the East Villageâ€s last bohemian,” “downtown New Yorkâ€s avuncular eccentric.” But for all of his achievements in theatre and in verse, he is only now finding a more widespread renown. For one thing, the burgeoning live storytelling scene has embraced Edgar; he is particularly beloved by The Moth, an organization that has raised storytelling to performance art and that moves crowds with its events. For another, he occasionally appears on Oddities, a reality TV show about an offbeat antique store, the promotion for which features Edgar admiring a straightjacket.

The performance, which packed about 350 of us into the spare ballroom at the Knights of Columbus on Liberty Street, was simply beautiful on many levels. George Dawes Green, founder of The Moth, is the visionary behind The Unchained Tour, but he obviously has a huge cast of supporters.

The host for the evening was the sharp-tongued Peter Aguero, who in the second half of the show told a bawdy, hysterical story involving an appendectomy wound and sex with his then-girlfriend-now-wife. Aguero works routinely with The Moth and has his own “improvised storytelling rock band”: The BTK Band.

The musicians for this tour were Rachel Kate (Gillion) and Joel T. Hamilton. Some in the audience probably remembered Rachel Kate from her former band The Shaniqua Brown, but she is quite a different presence with just a guitar. I had never heard or heard of Hamilton, but I loved being transported by his music. I will listen to him again, for sure.

Dawn Fraser told a beautiful story about her twin brother — a runner who participated in the Special Olympics after her own competitive career was cut short by a bad injury.

Savannah native Edgar Oliver, whose one-man show Helen & Edgar opens in NYC on October 9th, told a story of losing all the “military records” in his care when he was a cadet at Benedictine Military School. The subtle and very funny details conveyed the dreamy distractions coupled with the mundane duties of adolescence.

At one point George Dawes Green took the stage to extol the virtues of independent bookstores specifically and local shopping generally. He called Joni Saxon-Giusti to the stage — The Book Lady. George is passionate when he talks of tuning out the online world and focusing on old-fashioned hardbound books. George had asked Joni to come to the stage with a book, and she chose The Devil’s Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea, who recently gave the Ursrey Memorial Lecture presented by the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home. (Both Joni and I are past presidents of the Home.)

George’s message is compelling, for sure, but I’m in the camp of taking ownership of the technology rather than shunning it. I think newer technologies have much more power to overcome isolation than to create it.

During the intermission, some audience members submitted their names for a chance to tell 1-minute stories.

Tom Kohler, longtime head of Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy was among them. Seeing his old Armstrong history professor John Duncan with his wife Ginger (owners of V&J Duncan with its trove of antique maps, books, prints, etc.), Tom began his story: “I love you, John Duncan.”

Peter Aguero and Rachel Kate applaud Neil Gaiman at the end of his story. At least a few of the hearts are in focus.

After the class calmed down, Duncan gave the young adults a simple lesson in free speech, academic freedom, and the adult world:

“Ladies and gentleman, I’ve just shown you the difference between high school and college,” John Duncan told that history class 40 years ago. “If we were in high school, you could get me fired. But we’re in college, so you can’t.”

I’d heard Tom tell that story before, just sitting around somewhere, and I was thrilled that it found a larger audience.

No secret: many in the crowd were there to see Neil Gaiman, whose works like The Sandman and Coraline have made him a towering figure in some literary spheres — and a huge favorite among a subset of young readers. Gaiman was the final storyteller of the night, and he told a moving one of finding a dog, of adopting it, of going on a 3-day date only to be spurned, but I’ll let him describe it:

Last night I told a story about chains: about my dog, who spent the first three years of his life on four foot of chain, and about the chains that bind us, and about love, which, only after I told it, I realised was peculiarly appropriate, given the name of the tour. It’s called Unchained.

Neil Gaiman graciously greeted fans and signed autographs after the show.

George was effusive at the end of the show in his praise of Gaiman, who apparently has pledged a significant sum for five years to The Moth’s new high school slam storytelling program. It was amazing and generous that someone of Gaiman’s stature and apparent wealth gave nine days of his life to The Unchained Tour.

George was also effusive in his praise of Samita Wolfe, The Unchained Tour producer, and other supporters.

What a great night. But a little long — I think almost everything goes on too long. Except life.

Later on at one of my usual haunts, I talked to two close friends deep into the night.

George of course also founded The Moth.

Neil Gaiman has a huge, rabid following — I mean that in a nice way — and his presence on The Unchained Tour as it winds through the American South will certainly attract international attention.

Gaiman has already posted on his journal about the first stop on the tour: In which I am Unchained…

He reflects on both George and on Edgar Oliver, who is among the raconteurs on the un-air-conditioned bus:

Two of the storytellers in the bus have scenes from stories they have told painted on the outside of the bus. They are Edgar Oliver, and George Dawes Green. George’s story picture shows him listening to stories as a boy, while the moths flutter into the porchlight. When George grew up he founded the storytelling movement/institution/ organisation called The Moth. This bus, and the tour, is George’s idea too.

Edgar Oliver’s story shows Edgar and his mother and sister, and painted next to it, the opening of one of Edgar’s stories about Savannah, and his childhood. Edgar is from Savannah, and he lives in New York, but his accent is unlike anyone else’s, probably in the world: it is musical and it is theatrical and it is unplaceable, vowel sounds that are English or Eastern European.

It’s a lovely and elegant post. Click here to read it.

Check out Edgar Oliver’s voice in this preview of his upcoming one-man show in New York, produced by George Dawes Green:

Click through the link on the pic below to get to The Unchained Tour’s Facebook page:

The Unchained Tour is the brainchild of novelist George Dawes Green, founder of The Moth. The Moth of course now has its own public radio show.

George is from Brunswick and has lived in New York much of his life, but he spends a lot of time here in Savannah. I’ve never had a dull moment in the company of George Dawes Green.

George Dawes Green being interviewed by CBS Sunday Morning on the streets of New York

I found the report a little awkward. The first half focuses on storytelling festivals that seem largely geared toward children and feature — at least in this edit — a sort of cloyingly inflated style of speech. Then at right about the halfway mark, the segment moves to George and The Moth, featuring interview clips and some sharp, real moments of adult storytelling.

The Moth and The Unchained Tour aren’t George’s only current efforts to promote a culture of storytelling. He’s also producing Helen & Edgar, the upcoming one-man show by native Savannahian Edgar Oliver at Theatre 80 in NYC. I’ll have more to say about that in an upcoming post. Here’s the preview video:

Tickets seem very likely to sell out for most of the cities on the fall 2012 version of The Unchained Tour, so I’d recommend reserving seats as soon as possible. That’s especially true for Savannah.

If you’re not familiar with The Unchained Tour, it’s an evening of storytelling and music conceived by novelist George Dawes Green to spotlight independent bookstores in the South. George created The Moth, which has been a sensational success — first as individual performances and later as a public radio show.

Check out this recent six-minute video that I’ve posted before, including George Dawes Green, Wanda Bullard, Dan Kennedy, Kate Pierson of The B-52s, Peter Aguero, Elna Baker, Joan Juliet Buck, Michael Trent and Carey Ann Hearst of Shovels and Rope, Edgar Oliver, and a number of other folks.

According to the event page on Facebook, the list of raconteurs for this tour includes:

Neil Gaiman, an internationally acclaimed author of four novels and the recipient of the Hugo Award, Newbery Medal and Carnegie Medal in Literature, among other prizes; Mr. Edgar Oliver, Savannah-born playwright and raconteuring star of the Edinburgh Festival; Peter Aguero, a multi-talented artist currently hosting The Moth and leading NYC’s improvised storytelling rock band, The BTK Band; Rachel Kate and Joel T. Hamilton, two talented Charleston based musicians—music made with hands and feet, chords and teeth.

Neil Gaiman has a huge following and commands really high speaking fees — he’s certainly an amazing get for The Unchained Tour, but I fear a ton of folks are going to be disappointed that they won’t be able to attend the relatively small venues.

An additional storyteller — presumably a woman — is TBA.

$20 tickets for the Savannah show are currently for sale at The Book Lady Bookstore and E. Shaver Booksellers. Click here to purchase tickets online.

If you’re interested in other stops on the tour, click here for the event listing with relevant links on The Unchained Tour website.

Here’s the full schedule:
9/14: Columbia, SC Columbia Museum of Art 7:30pm
9/15: Spartanburg, SC The Showroom 7:30pm
9/16: Tryon, NC Historic Sunnydale 2:00pm
9/16: Asheville, NC Diana Wortham Theatre 7:30pm
9/17: ETSU – Johnson City, TN East Tennessee State University 12:00pm
9/17: Boone, NC Beadbox :: Alchemy Coffee 7:30pm
9/18: Charlotte, NC Booth Playhouse 7:30pm
9/19: Winston-Salem , NC Hanesbrands Theatre 7:30pm
9/20: Chapel HIll, NC Varsity on Franklin 7:30pm
9/21: Charleston, SC Charleston Music Hall 8:00pm
9/22: Savannah, GA Knights of Columbus Hall 8:00pm

Click here for my review of the winter 2012 version of The Unchained Tour.

Some nice moments here with George Dawes Green, Wanda Bullard, Dan Kennedy, Kate Pierson of The B-52s, Peter Aguero, Elna Baker, Joan Juliet Buck, Michael Trent and Carey Ann Hearst of Shovels and Rope, Edgar Oliver, and a number of other folks.

About six minutes, well worth the time: