A collection with 11 short stories and 11 flash fictions. They are stories with the same main character traveling the Appalachian Mountains encountering and defeating a supernatural "person" often with the silver strings of his guitar. My favorite of the bunch The Little Black Train.

After reading this, I can say it doesn't feel it was time well spent. The one story in here I liked, I already knew and loved. I am glad to have it off my bucket list because I always wondered what else was out there. Now I know.

I'll hide most of my comments about them under the spoiler tag to save "space".

- 1963 John's My Name (1 page) a few paragraphs telling us a bit about John "... Now I go here and go there, and up and down, from place to place and from thing to thing, here in among the mountains..."

- 1951 O Ugly Bird! - 3* - Our hero comes to town and helps the townsfolk deal with a "hoodoo man" who demands things from them. I'm not really sure what that term means but we do watch our hero deal with a supernatural.

- 1963 Why They're Named That 3* - (1 page) We learn the definition of "gardinel". A house/hut/shack that is to humans as a venus fly trap is to bugs.

- 1953 One Other - 3* - Our hero goes to the top of Hark Mountain to check out the bottomless pit. When he gets there, a woman is casting a spell calling him to her. Coincidence?

- 1962 Then I Wasn't Alone - 3* (1 page) John starts playing a melody and another joins him.

- 1955 Shiver in the Pines - 3* - Our hero and some friends go digging for gold in an old mine that has some lore that has kept people away. We learn why.

- 1962 You Know the Tale of Hoph - 2* (1 page) about Hoph :/

- 1956 Old Devlins Was A-Waiting - 2* - John meets up with some scholars who say they are testing something with ESP but it turns into a time traveling story. I felt it was pretty pointless and a bit confusing.

- 1962 Find the Place Yourself 2* - (1 page) seems like another flash fiction about a house that is like a trap that will eat you.

- 1952 The Desrick on Yandro 2* - John in an airplane. John in a car. Bizarre. A story of a descendant paying the price for his grandfather's nastiness. I was liking the story but then it had a shitty ending. There was a nice build up then he is just murdered by some creatures that have no explainable reason to exist.

- 1962 The Stars Down There (1 page) flash fiction about the edge of the world

- 1953 Vandy, Vandy 2* - some of it went over my head. a male witch courting a young girl who is a descendant of someone he courted 200 years ago. he only gets a chance to court her every 100 years or something.

- 1962 Blue Monkey (1 page) flash fiction with a clever trick to get you not to think about something.

- 1954 Dumb Supper - 3* - John helps a ghost or maybe ghosts reunite.

- 1962 I Can't Claim That (1 page) a cursed man saves himself.

- 1954 The Little Black Train -4* - I first came across this story in The Best Horror Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I was mesmerized. I think it was before I found online cataloging, so pre-2012. It is the second story I had read and loved by MWW and made me seek out this book. I wonder how it held up for me. // I still think it's pretty darn good. I think it's the only one worth the reading time in this book so far but there are a few left with a chance to change my opinion. // John gets invited to a party in the woods because the other musicians backed out due to them being scared of the event. We really get a feel for the party and the reason for it. A woman is cursed and a ghost train is due to collect her at midnight for her bad deeds. While learning and playing the song that tells the story of the curse, John has a hand in effecting the outcome.

I heard a voice of warning,
A message from on high,
'Go put your home in order,
For thou shalt surely die.
Tell all your friends a long farewell
And get your business right -
The little black train is rolling in
To call for you tonight.

A bold young man kept mocking,
Cared not for the warning word,
When the wild and lonesome whistle
Of the little black train he heard.

'Have mercy, Lord forgive me,
I'm cut down in my sin!
O death, will you not spare me?-
But the little black train rolled in.

Go tell that laughing lady
All filled with wordly pride,
The little black train is coming,
Great ready to take a ride.
With a little black coach and engine
And a little black baggage car,
The words and deeds she has said and done
Must roll to the judgement bar.

Oh, see her standing helpless,
Oh, hear her crying tears.
She's counting her last moments
As once she counted years.
She'll turn from proud and wicked ways,
She'll turn from sin, O Lord,
If the little black train will just back up
And not take her aboard.

- 1965 Who Else Could I Count On? (1 page) 4* - that was very good and I can't say anything because it is flash fiction and I will ruin it for people. He encounters his own older self from forty years in the future. He’s traveled back in time to seek his younger self’s aid in preventing a war that will lead to the devastation of the Earth of the future.

- 1955 Walk Like a Mountain - 3* - I was digging this one until the last half. He writes in a way that I can't visualize the setting. It may be the old fashioned dialect but it could be on him also. A man with Giant's blood steals a woman from lower down on the mountain than he is. The people that live lower try to get her back. John climbs to the top of the mountain to see what he can do to help.

- 1963 None Wiser for the Trip (1 page) flash fiction. I wonder where these wee little stories came from. Like his scrap book of stories?

- 1956 On the Hills and Everywhere - 3* - A carpenter comes to a man and says he's looking for work. The man wants him to build a fence. He says he'll do something that will please him by supper.

- 1963 Nary Spell - (1 page) - 3* - Oh my he is just so good at everything. *eye roll*

- 1958 Nine Yards of Other Cloth - DNF - I've had enough. The old southern dialect has lost my interest. In this story, based on skimming, John gets himself a lady. I tried reading it but it was really confusing. I don't know if he changed his technique in story telling but I'm ready to move on. ( )

My brother Tim introduced me to this book, though I did not read it until several years later. Tim passed on this past year, but I still have my original copy of this book that he talked about. It's a short story collection by Manly Wade Wellman featuring his "Silver John" stories. It's a good "stormy night" book that can occupy your evenings quite nicely... unless you sleep alone, then perhaps you want to wait until daylight to read it.