It’s 1909, and the Golden Fleece Traveling Players have arrived at the Woodland Opera House to present a melodrama, Daughter of the West. But strange accidents disrupt preparations for the performance — and the ghost of William Porter, who has haunted the Opera House since dying there in a fire in 1892, takes credit for the trouble when he appears to one of the company’s players.

This is a partial synopsis of the WOH’s current play, Ghost of the Woodland Opera House, and here’s the Halloween angle — some of the story is true. Today on Davisville we talk with Matthew Abergel and Bob Cooner, the co-authors of the play, which Matthew is also directing.

This past week, we lost singer-songwriter Mary McCaslin as well as the obsessive 78 rpm collector Joe Bussard.

Through her solo work and recordings with her partner Jim Ringer in the '70s, McCaslin helped create a unique California-centric folk style. Her songs continue to resonate and her influence on other singer-songwriters ensure that her musical legacy will continue.

Bussard -- an amateur musician -- was passionate about perserving recordings made by unheralded jazz, blues, folk, country and gospel musicians during the first half of the 20th century. He eventually released some of these recordings through his own label, Fonotone.

Timothy Walker is a folk musician and singer-songwriter originally from the Atlanta area, but currently residing in Davis as he works on his PhD in English literature. He performs and writes music under the stage name Threadbare, Brother. His first full-length record, When the War is Through, was released in 2011. The album explores the themes of spiritual transformation in the midst of personal grief and uncertainty.

After a long hiatus from performing, he is working on a new set of songs that seek to portray the complexities of queer love, loss, and longing in the aftermath of religious trauma.

Listen to this program over the air, via streaming on kdrt.org, via the show archives, or on most podcast apps under the name Listening Lyrics.

Brother Bill is back, fresh from the Eagle Festival -- the bird, not the band -- in far western Mongolia. Of course he managed to bring back some traditional and not-so-traditional music, including by The Hu -- not The Who -- a folk metal Mongolian band now touring the States.

Where else can you hear throat-singing metal except on The Folk Brothers?