Gary Carden is a folklorist and a storyteller. He was raised by his grandparents after his father, a mountain musician, was murdered by a local drunk when Gary was two years old.
As a consequence of living in a Scots-Irish household, he experienced the best and worst of that tradition: storytelling, music, superstitions, traditions and a belief in “bad blood” which he allegedly had.
Gary graduated from Western Carolina University near Sylva, NC. He taught literature and drama for fifteen years, worked for the Cherokee Indians for fifteen years and spent the last fifteen years as a lecturer and storyteller.
He grew up with cows, June apple trees, comic books, the Farmers’ Federation, and Saturday movies. He told his first stories to a hundred and fifty white leghorn chickens in a dark chicken-house when he was six years old. His audience wasn’t terribly attentive and tended to get hysterical during the dramatic parts.
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