Sing a Song of Dread: The Place Where Music and Horror Meet Hardcover Edition

by Gary Hill (Editor, Contributor), Del Merritt (Contributor), R. C. Mulhare (Contributor)

Music and horror - does it seem like a classic match to you? It does to me. Then again, I'm a very music-minded person. Music is an integral part of most things in my life. So, pairing it with horror, which is another foundational block of my interests, seems natural to me.
I have merged music and horror in a few tales, which are included here. I have paired it with science fiction in my novella "Wizard Song" and in the sequel to that one that is currently in my "Works in Progress" folder.
My story, "The Debut Tour" starts things here. It was my first tale to get published. It was my attempt to create a modern Lovecraftian narrative, and I think I did a pretty good job of creating something that has that kind of mode and vibe. It's the story of a reporter on tour with a band when strange things start happening.
Next comes "B3/\+ z ||\| +h3 \/\/|+cH H/\Us (Beats in the Witch Haus)" by R. C. Mulhare. In her tale two people are happy to get access to a famous spooky house to record a new album. Things begin to happen that make them wonder if it was the stroke of luck they envisioned it as or not.
Elizabeth Gaskill's classic "Old Nurse's Story" from 1852 is next. It's often cited as a spooky Christmas tale because it is set in the winter. It's a creepy ghost story, designed to create chills no matter the season.
Things turn more light-hearted with my story "I Saved the Beatles." A first-person tale told by a vampire, it is what I call a "feel good" vampire story. It recounts something that happened during The Beatles' first visit to the United States. Well, it didn't really happen - or did it? As the narrator says, no one outside of a few characters in the story would ever know it occurred.
Next I include an H. P. Lovecraft story from 1921. In "The Music of Erich Zann" the narrator relates a strange tale of an odd house on a street that doesn't exist in France. Strange music is a means of protecting mankind in this cosmic horror tale.
R. C. Mulhare is back with "Blood on the Stage." Her tale is a reimagining of Poe's "Masque of the Red Death." A Cajun musician is on a cruise ship that is taking its wealthy passengers on an excursion to take divert their minds from a pandemic that is gripping the planet.
"Isabelle's Song" by Del Merritt comes next. Strange things begin to transpire when a young girl finds an old piece of sheet music and plays it. It's a ghost story with a very classic vibe.
My story " On The Road With..." is the parting shot in this book. Similar to the tale that opened the book, a reporter is on tour with a rock band. The threat is a different one than was presented in that story, though.
I hope you enjoy this collection of horror with music connections. I know I enjoyed reading (and re-reading) all of these stories getting it ready for publication. I think it's a fun anthology.

Gary Hill

166 pages, Hardcover

Published October 6, 2023

About the author

Gary Hill has been publishing Music Street Journal (musicstreetjournal.com) since 1998. Since 2018 Hill has published MSJ simultaneously on-line and in book form. He also published all the archives in book form. In 2019 Hill began a series of books under the Music Street Journal banner focused on the Rockford, Illinois music scene titled, "Music Street Journal Local: Rockford Area Music Makers." In August of 2006 his first book The Strange Sound of Cthulhu: Music Inspired by the Writings of H.P. Lovecraft was published. Since then several other books (The Concert Photography of Gary Hill, the original edition of Strange Realities: Collected Short Stories and More by Gary Hill Expanded and Revised Edition, Poetry of the Air: A Collection of Love Letters from Musicians to Music and The Suite Music World of Gary Hill and a series of three books The Dark Starr Files) have been released. Wizard Song, his first book length science-fiction piece was released on March 31st, 2020. Hill has also written for cable television (Cops 2.0 on G4), All Music Guide, Demand Media Studios and more. He launched Tale of Wonder and Dread Publishing to release science fiction and horror books in 2018, but published a collection of those types of stories in 2017 titled "Dark Dreams and Worlds." Under the Tales of Wonder and Dread nameplate, Hill has published more than a dozen books including a series on Rockford Illinois cemeteries (Rockford's Final Resting Places), Spooky Rockford and Spooky Rockford Two and Spooky Berwyn. Hill launched Spooky Ventures in 2019 and has been doing video interviews, Spooky News segments and more for the Spooky Ventures YouTube Channel since then.