From PRX, this is the Moth Radio Hour. I'm Jay Allison, producer of this radio show,

and in this hour we present a live moth event held at the historic Paramount Theatre in

Austin, Texas. Your host is Ophira Eisenberg. Good evening everybody, welcome to the

Moth. I'm so proud to be in Austin. Thank you. Basically the moth is a non-profit

organization dedicated to the art of storytelling. It sounds so simple and it

is and it's amazing. It was started by an author by the name of George Dawes Green

who was living in the south and he had these fond memories of sitting on the porch late

at night telling stories him and his friends would say late night telling stories to each

other and as it got later the moths would be drawn to the porch lights. Thus it was called

the Moth and when he moved to New York, New York obviously has a fast pace. People are

just going very quickly. They talk in sound clips and he just was so you know he reminisced

of these times where he would just hang out and tell stories and you really miss that.

So he started a storytelling salon in his living room and then it grew. People were

excited by this and it grew to little venues and then it grew more to larger clubs and

now we are going to theaters across America. We have a award-winning radio show and our

theme tonight is nine lives. So when we do the moth all of our storytellers have done

amazing things, they are incredible people but by introduction we always ask them a question

that has to do with our theme. So for tonight our question is who or what would you like

to come back as for your 10th life. Our first storyteller said very clearly, Emilou Harris.

Perfect idea Emilou Harris and she said because I'm sick and tired of pretending to be

her at karaoke. Please walk the stage, Trisha Coburn everybody.

I grew up in a small town that sits at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains,

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