in the company of such "tall tale" legends as Pecos Bill, Paul Bunyan, John Henry, and Calamity Jane. Together, they battle the same villains Daniel is facing in his "real" world.

But how do you dramatize a tall tale that's so ingrained in our psyches? Writer Leon Martell and composer Penka Kouneva have avoided the question altogether. Instead of dramatizing the John Henry ...

Sometimes, though, tall tales center on a real person around whom stories gather, people like Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Calamity Jane, John Henry, Molly Pitcher…and John Chapman. John Chapman ...

Now think of that man–his lanky figure in an old suit and an unpressed shirt–walking step for step with Paul Bunyan, setting up a rail spike for John Henry. What you’ve got is a tall tale.

After Carolyn Krause heard Charlotte Blake Alston at the recent Flatwater Tales Storytelling Festival tell the story of John Henry, the African American folk hero and legendary railroad worker, she ...