CDs

It’s With Me All the Time

The story on this CD is Claude Dolin’s. It is Bil Lepp speaking, but it is Claude words. In the late 1990s, award winning storyteller Bil Lepp set out to interview West Virginia veterans of WWII in the hopes of publishing a book. No publisher was interested in the stories Bil had collected, so they sat silently on his shelf for years. Known for his hilarious, award winning tall-tales, Lepp felt it was time to breath life into these more serious stories. The result is It’s With Me All the Time.

$15

DIABLO or How I Met My Wife

New! Hot off the Press

$15

Vampire Santa

This CD has nineteen tracks, but is essentially one very long story about strike anywhere matches, stretching cinder blocks, Jell-O balloons, Vampire Santa, subversive reasons to read books, and killing inflatable Easter bunnies. It’s fun entertainment for the whole family.  As my buddy Eric says, “You can share it with everyone, from your parole officer to your pastor.” Recorded live at Timpanogos Storytelling Festival in Orem, UT, and at The Ark in Ann Arbor, MI. This is not a Christmas album … but it would make a great Christmas present.

Stories: Welcome • Introducing Uncle Deebo • Strike Anywhere Matches • Anything Can Stretch • Jell-O Balloons I • Reading Cooper • Scouts in Action • There Are Things in Books • Burning Haywood • Easter Bunnies Begin • Vampire Santa • I am Not a Physicist • Don’t Get Attached to Balloons • Easter Bunnies Must Die • Jell-O Balloons II • A Quick Word From Bil • Scouts in Action Again • More on  Floating Eggs • Fump. Tink. Whizzz.

$15

Buck Meets the Monster Stick

Recorded and Released in 1999

Stories: There Stands a Bridge • The Seventh Second • Johan-The Real Story • Buck Ain’t No Ordinary Dog • The Monster Stick’s Last Ride

$15

The Divine Bovine

Recorded and Released in 2005

Stories: The Ojai Mountain Lion • Deer Hunting, Detroit Style • Soul in Hawk (Cuss Runner)  • Thinking Behind • The Armadillo Recon Unit • Montina the Divine Bovine

$15

Fire! Fire! Pants on Liar

This cd is geared more toward teens & adults. Fire! Fire! is not the story about the burning bicycle.Recorded live mostly at St. Albans Library, released in 2008

Stories: A Plea for Plungers • Fire! Fire! Pants on Liar • The Inflatable Easter Bunnies of Halfdollar Must Die • Yard of the Week • Church Rodeo • Flyin’ High (My brother Paul’s story about catching an airplane with a fishing pole.)

$15

The Great Rope Swing Misadventure

Recorded partly in Pigeon Forge, released in 2006

Stories: Lessons Learned in East Berlin • Unsimple Gifts • The Great Rope Swing Misadventure

$15

King of Little Things

This cd is aimed at kids from about fourth grade down, but is fun for the whole family.
Recorded and Released in 2008
Winner: 2009 Parents’ Choice Approved Award & NAPPA Entry of the Week

Stories: King of Little Things • Dimes • Candy Monster

$15

Mayhem Dressed Like an Eight Point Buck

This cd is suitable for all ages.
Recorded live at Tamarack, released in 2003
Winner:  2008 NAPPA Honors Award

Stories: Mr. Lepp, I Gotta Go • Woodpeckers Just Don’t Make the Best Pets • Stereotypical Clergy • Something in the Water  • Mayhem in three Parts: Making it Mine • Jimmy Carter • Mayhem Dressed as an Eight Point Buck

$15

The Teacher in the Patriotic Bathing Suit

This cd is good for the whole family.
Recorded live and released in 2005
2006 Parents’ Choice Approved Award & 2008 Storytelling World  Award Honors

Stories: The Teacher in the Patriotic Bathing Suit • Das Buck • Stop Sign Man • When Pigs Fly

$15

Punching the Lard

This double cd is aimed mostly at adults and older teens. You may want to listen to it before you share it with younger kids, especially “Guy on Train.”
Recorded live at the National Storytelling Festival, released in 2007

Disc 1: Ed’s Intro • Low on Faith • Mr. Koski’s Mailbox • Lessons Learned in East Berlin • Guy on Train • Don’t Punch the Lard
Disc 2: At the River Kwai • Drinking from Rivers • Put it in the Blue Truck • What? I’m Done Now?

$20

DVD

Seeing is Believing

Suitable for the big ones and the little ones in your family, or anybody else’s family.

Filmed & Released in 2009

See Is Believing is a live recording of six of Bil’s most requested tales. Five of the tales feature Skeeter Barth, Bil’s best pal. The stories chronicle Bil & Skeeter’s exploits from their first meeting at five years old through their trip to Montana where they convince three other campers of the existence of Montina the Cow Goddess. Along the way, they prove their fourth grade teacher is Wonder Woman, save Easter bunnies from their sufferings, drive around town dressed as deer, and so much more!

Stories: Making it Mine (Peeing on Trees) • The Teacher in the Patriotic Bathing Suit • The Inflatable Easter Bunnies of Halfdollar Must Die • Mayhem Dressed as an Eight Point Buck • The Divine Bovine • and the bonus track Plungers

$20

Story Collections

 The Monster Stick and Other Appalachian Tall Tales

$10

Aramadillo Recon Unit and Other Tall Tales

$10

Inept: Impaired: Overwhelmed
Tall Tales from West Virginia and Beyond

$10

Novel

Halfdollar

Nationally acclaimed storyteller and five-time champion of the West Virginia Liars’ Contest, Bil Lepp, a resident of South Charleston, WV, has published his first novel. Halfdollar is a fictional account following the lives of several young people as they grow up in the small West Virginia town of Halfdollar.

Employing the humor and keen insight that have made him a sought after speaker and storyteller, Lepp takes his readers on a thirteen year trek following the lives of Skeeter, Edison, and a girl named Charolais as they grow up in a small, Appalachian town named for a gambling mishap.

“It is everything you need in a story,” says Lepp. “I think the story really encapsulates life in Appalachia. And I haven’t swept much under the rug. There’s plenty of good times, high-jinks and humor in the book, but there’s also poverty, racism, and abuse. I’ve tried hard to accurately depict the lives of people in small town Appalachia. I learned a lot in the several small towns I lived in. It wasn’t all stuff I wanted to know, but it all influenced the stories I create. I think I’ve been fair in my depiction, but I’m still not telling you the names of the towns I based the story on. It will be clear enough to the folks in those towns. With any luck, somebody will recognize their town and then try to ban the book. If that happens, sales will go through the roof.”

Those readers and listeners familiar with Lepp’s other books, audio recordings, and stories will recognize many of the characters in the novel. Follow the intrepid prankster Skeeter, the good natured country sheriff Hasbro, and a character called Edison who is loosely based on the author. Even the famous Buck-dog makes a brief appearance.

After years of developing these characters in a series of tall-tales, Lepp has finally completed Halfdollar. This novel length story offers a backdrop and background of the stories and characters. “I just felt like it was time for the world to see where all these characters came from,” explains Lepp. “I wanted the rest of the world to know what I know about these characters and this town I’ve created.”

$14.95