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When Miners March - The Battle of Blair Mountain (8 CD Audiobook) - Music CD included FREE |
| A rarely told event, The Battle of Blair Mountain saw several notorious events. The most grievous would be in the waning days of a hot summer of 1921, The United States Federal Government would call out the military and for the only time in history use aircraft to bomb its own people in a failed attempt to quell civil disobedience. The last week of August saw a band of 2000 brave miners begin a 67 mile march to Logan County, WV growing to over 10,000 miners and supporters before it was over. WV Actor and Producer, Ross Ballard has captured in audiodrama the once hidden crimes committed by rich mine owners against a desperate multicultural working class. The listener will hear several of the Mountain State’s notorious governors try to explain away their collusion with powerful out of state interests while men, women and children were gunned down in their tents. No matter what you’ve been told, here is the true story. | |
Price: $28.95 |
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| National Review | |
| * * * * * BookLoons.com Online Magazine reviews "When Miners March" 'With more corruption than in Enron, and the kind of violence one expects to see in Iraq, this audiobook brings to life a world of miners, unions, and government interventions that is simultaneously shocking and inspiring. In the first decades of the twentieth century, the United Mining Workers banded together in West Virginia to establish a union and protect miners who were exposed to horrible conditions that threatened their safety, health, and economic freedom. As workers strived to gain rights, owners pushed them to further depths of degradation. With command of the narrative and a flair for drama, Ross Ballard breathes vitality into history.' |
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When Miners March - The Music Soundtrack (16 songs) Plus a FREE Disk # of the audiobook! |
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You asked for it, you got it. A separate soundtrack release of all the great music included in the audiobook version. A 16 song CD of mining and soul searching is yours to enjoy featuring the likes of Hazel Dickens, Elaine Purkey, Mike Morningstar, John Lilly, T. Paige Dalporto, David LaFleur, and so many others who contributed their talents. Plus, we're so sure you'll buy the full audiobook after listening to the music, we've included a FREE copy of Disk #1 the story of "When Miners March"! Remember these make great gifts too.
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Price: $14.95 |
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| Music Review | ||||||||||||||||
| * * * * * BookLoons.com Online Magazine reviews "When Miners March" 'Some sixteen catchy and powerful songs are sprinkled throughout the audiobook and compiled together as a soundtrack on the last CD. Most songs including the title track, When Miners March, were written specifically for the audiobook while some were previously released. Though none of these songs emerged directly from the Battle of Blair Mountain or even United Mine Workers, their lyrics and soul still inspire listeners with the miners' struggle.' |
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A book that touches so many emotions including love, self-destruction and PTSD |
| Lost Highway tells the story of Sapper Reeves, a gifted country music singer/songwriter working the rainy backroads and smoke-filled taverns of the southern mountains in the years just after World War II. Leaving his wife and son behind in his small West Virginia hometown, he is able to make only a paltry living with his music, and finds that his talent is as underappreciated as the country he and his band travel through. Eventually, Sapper reaches a crisis of faith, one that reverberates from the ragged hope of the fiercely independent Appalachian soul to the anguish of Vietnam where his son serves as a Marine. - Lance Eaton | |
Price: $28.95 |
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| Audiobook Review | |
| * * * * 1/2 CurledUp Online Magazine reviews "Lost Highway" 'Mountain Whispers may be one of those “small” publishers that barely make enough to justify their existence, but all audiobook fans should certainly applaud their existence and efforts. Their attention to detail and devotion to making superior-sounding audiobooks often means their products embody what fans think of when they think of audiobooks. Their latest production, Lost Highway, merely reinforces this. Country music fans will find it much more relevant. The quality of the production genuinely propels the story to a wider audience and provides another great example of an audiobook’s true potential. ' |
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The Great Baltimore Fire! |
| 1904 was expected to be a year of new inventions, imaginative innovations
and great civic pride. After all, there was The World's Fair in St. Louis
to attend, Teddy Roosevelt had defeated Alton B. Parker for the US Presidency,
the "Caterpillar Track" made its debut revolutionizing the construction
industry as well as the art of land warfare, and a true American favorite
was born - the ice cream cone. While many lofty predictions of greatness
did come true, that fateful year would also turn out to be one of unimaginable
tragedy, of perilous worry, and of great destruction.
From the turn of the 20th Century to the fall of 1904 nearly a dozen
major metropolitan disasters struck a bewildered population in North
America. Among these unfortunate cities were Chicago, IL; Hoboken, NJ;
NY City; Toronto, Canada; and Baltimore, MD. In each conflagration, an
overarching question rose to shadow the hope of salvation: Who will save
us? Where are the heroes? On a cold and windy Sunday morning in 1904,
public safety workers from Baltimore, Washington, New York City, Philadelphia,
York, Harrisburg, Atlantic City, Wilmington, and many other brave cities
would answer the call. This is their story. We are forever grateful… |
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Price: $28.95 |
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| Audiobook Review - The Free Online Library | |
| * * * * * Free Online Libraryreviews "The Great Baltimore Fire!" 'It started as a little fire in the Hearst building on a bitterly cold February night in 1904. Due to a cost-cutting measure, there was no night watchman on duty to observe or extinguish it. Less than 36 hours later, a major part of the city of Baltimore had burned to the ground. This audiobook recounts those horrific hours. It chronicles the bravery of firefighters from Baltimore, Pennsylvania, Washington, DC and New York City who rushed to the blaze, sometimes in frigid, unheated railroad cars, and whose heroic efforts finally extinguished the fire, miraculously without the loss of life. Listeners see the growing pains of a young country--because fire hydrants were not nationally standardized, the Washington DC fire hoses would not fit the Baltimore hydrants. Listeners hear of the ingenuity of business people desperately trying to save their businesses, sometimes successfully, and the kindness and decency of ordinary people who brought sandwiches and food to the hungry and exhausted firefighters. Ross Ballard beautify narrates this exciting story as a fast-paced dramatization, using a background of lively sound effects. Susan Offner, Teacher, Lexington HS, Lexington, MA' |
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Edgar Allen Poe vs. James Whitcomb Riley in a poetry smackdown. Bring your dualing pistols... |
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| From 'The Raven', to 'Annabel Lee', to 'The Bells' and many other spine tingling poems, Edgar Allan Poe is brought to life in this set of his greatest works. Listen to each word banging home a macabre thought or slice through the turf of a fresh grave. And not to be out shocked, is another of America's best writers and poets James Whitcomb Riley. These two very different yet strangely connected geniuses are compared and contrasted, paired with sweet and strange music as smooth as a magic carpet. The collection brings out the things your high school teacher didn't tell you. (Fact: That day in October of 1849 would not only see Edgar A. Poe slip into death, but would see James W. Riley breath the new air of birth. Coincidence? I think not. And there's more. We have Egar Allan Poe's last poem penned by the attending physician as the great poet drew his last breath and spoke to God... | ||||||||||||||||||||
Price: $14.95 |
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| Edgar Allan Poe vs. James Whitcomb Riley - Poetry List | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Daughter of the Elm by Granville Davisson Hall (written in 1899) On Five Murder/Mystery CD's |
A moving Daughter of the Elm (ISBN 0-9717801-1-9), set in the rough and tumble days of Civil War Clarksburg, touched off quite a controversy at home while climbing the “must read” list of many scholars and socialites from New York City to San Francisco. The true story of the beautiful Lorraine Esmond, her determined fight to stay above the immorality of a criminal family, and her forbidden love for the man she barely knew, is as real today as it was over 100 years ago. Now WV Writer/Producer Ross Ballard II has uncovered this long lost murder mystery. On the artistic side, Ballard and his team weave thrilling old time radio drama, emotional violin music from one of Appalachia’s best fiddle players, Leonard Carpenter and explosive sound effects to guide the listener along a murderously twisted path. “A suspenseful crime story I would loved to have prosecuted way back then,” says Scott Reynolds assistant prosecuting attorney for Kanawha County. With impeccable Victorian English, “Daughter of the Elm” lives again with the vitality and suspense Granville Davisson Hall originally intended. |
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Price: $26.95 |
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| Product Reviews | |
| * * * * * AudioFile Magazine reviews "Daughter of the Elm" Granville Davisson Hall Read by Ross Ballard II Written in 1899, DAUGHTER OF THE ELM tells the true story of Loraine Esmond, a young woman raised on the wrong side of the tracks in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Told with clear and gentle affection by educator and storyteller Ross Ballard II, this production features background music by Appalachian fiddler Leonard Carpenter. This long-forgotten novel is profound and moving as it follows Loraine's moral struggle as she bears the knowledge that her brothers have been involved in robbery and murder. The story and music work well together. But it is Ross Ballard's soothing West Virginia intonations that make DAUGHTER OF THE ELM a remarkable and memorable audiobook. |
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For those who love good courtroom drama Vietnam is once again on our nation's mind. |
AudioBooks Today says - "The book is written in the first person — a style that complements Ross Ballard’s accent and smooth delivery. He applies gentleness where needed and yet holds the firm tone when required, and he can change from one to the other with great ease… If you are looking for one man’s experience in the Vietnam War and the lessons he learned during his 10 months in Bien Hoa, this audiobook deserves your attention.” |
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Price: $28.95 |
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| Product Reviews | |
| * * * * 1/2 Audiofile Magazine reviews "Conduct to the Prejudice of Good Order" by Written by Dan Dane, Performed by Ross Ballard II This intelligent and unblinking glimpse of the final years of the Vietnam War is billed as a "JAG CORP" novel, but it's much more. This is the real unvarnished deal. Unlike the glitzy television show "JAG," Army lawyer and draftee Captain William Blake is on the muddy, loud, bloody, and many times, mundane front lines near Bien Hoa, facing endless streams of drug possession charges and AWOL cases. Not a lawyer's paradise. Ross Ballard's youthful, engaging reading reflects Blake's path from idealism to resignation to drama--as he is finally pushed to confront his superiors' apathy in his attempt to exonerate a fellow soldier. "The background jungle sounds and ubiquitous helicopters overhead mirror the book's gray realism, while Mike Morningstar's poignant incidental music and final song add further to the heart-wrenching realization that nothing was simple in Vietnam." A great courtroom novel. |
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Heroes and Hell'yuns - Stories from the New River Gorge - Vol. 2 (On one 78 minute CD) |
| Fresh from the artistic success of his last New River Gorge audio book, "Kegs of Powder", West Virginia recording artist Ross Ballard II now interprets eight of the most fascinating early American stories ever told. Set deep in the heart of Appalachia well known legends like John Henry, the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s, and The Gatling Gun stand side-by-side with the lesser known but equally notorious likes of Lawman Harrison Ash, Conman W.W. Byrd, and the evil Baldwin-Felts Thugs. By combining the diverse talents of singer/songwriter Mike Morningstar and author Melody Bragg, Ballard has brought together the magical and mystical spirit of the human soul with the rowdy and rambunctious vitality of an untamed wilderness. A sweet blend of outstanding storytelling, original mountain music and dynamic sound effects gives this effort the reminiscent feeling of the days when Radio Theater was king. | |
Price: $12.95 |
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| Wonderful shortstories of America's Wild and Wonderful past | |
| * * * * Preface to"Heroes and Hell'yuns - Stories of the New River Gorge" 'MountainWhispers.com Audiobooks turns back the clock to a wild and wooly time when the difference between an lawman and an outlaw was sometimes just a matter of perspective. These true stories seem at times larger than life and for a good reason. The men and women who tamed "The Wild East" had to be as rough and as tough as the mountains they tamed. Hear the story of Harrison Ash, the real lawman as tough as Matt Dillion ever was on TV. Learn that Richard Gatling did not invent the machine gun that bares his name - The Gatling Gun |
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Kegs of Powder - Stories from the New River Gorge - Vol. 1 - (On one 78 minute CD) |
| Actor/Producer Ross Ballard II and WV writer Melony Bragg team up to bring you the Tall Tales of southern West Virginia's sorid past. If murder mystery, gun slinging, saloon girls, and the longest continuous poker game ever played is your idea of a fun weekend, this audiobook was created just for you. In tiny Thurmond, WV were it was said a man was killed everyday, the nights could be even wilder. Pay Day Saturday nights for the coal miners, prostitutes and professional gamblers would make Las Vegas seem tame by comparison. There was a reason Thurmond was called "Little Monte Carlo". It was here that the Hatfields and McCoys lived and shot it out. The New River Gorge has a legacy of larceny, and these stories don't disappoint the listener. Enjoy it folks! | |
Price: $12.95 |
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| Wonderful shortstories of America's Wild and Wonderful past | |
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Updated December 2, 2007
| ©2007 MountainWhispers.com Audiobooks | America's source for "Made in the USA" audiobook entertainment |
