Anyone want to go have a drink , listen to some music at the Shantyman? I guarantee you're life will never be the same! What an amazing bunch of stories! From shanghied sailors to the future world, the show must go on. All the stories are amazing but Open Mic has got to be my favorite. This is one anthology you absolutely must read. It's fantastic.

I really enjoyed this anthology. I’m a music lover and these stories revolving around the fictional club, The Shantyman, really worked for me. A few stand outs are Matt Hayward’s Dark Stage, Jeff Strand’s Parody, Bob Ford’s Ascending and Adam Cesare’s The Southern Thing. This is a must read for any horror fan!

You've probably read anthologies in the past that have mixed horror and music but this one is a little different. Welcome To The Show includes 17 horror stories that are all set in a fictional San Francisco night club called The Shantyman. Edited by Matt Hayward and Doug Murano this book takes you from The Shantyman's disturbing origins right up to it's apocalyptic future. Demons, vampires, other dimensions and the end of the world, its all here under one roof. One story I liked here was Parody

Great read.Loved this Anthology. As a musician these stories really struck a nerve and inspired my music. Buy this book, do it!

Well, damn! 17 stories and I liked 16 of them - impressive, to say the least.There are some great writers involved with this anthology and some great stories about The Shantyman. Solid stories by Janz, Skipp, Smith, Rolfe (probably one of the best I've read by him), Cesare, Keene and Sangiovanni, if I had to highlight them, but there are three more I want to mention.PARODY by Jeff Strand - yeah, most of you know how much I love his work. This one was even more special: 'Weird Al' Jankovic...yip,...

4.5/5 stars!WELCOME TO THE SHOW is a themed anthology with all of the stories revolving around, (or involving in some way), a rock 'n' roll club named The Shantyman. That's it! There's no hard thread connecting all the tales other than the club itself. That makes WELCOME TO THE SHOW different because there's no one "bad guy" to blame things on. In this case, the "bad guy" is anyone or anything the writer wanted them to be. In this regard, I think the authors involved had a lot more leeway as far...

Review copyWelcome To the Show is a shared world anthology. They don't always work, but this one's premise is simple enough and every one of the seventeen stories in the collection is true to the theme.There's a well-known club in San Francisco where nearly everyone who's anyone has played at one time or another. The place is called The Shantyman. The thing is, despite its legendary status, the place has experienced its fair share of tragedy and there are tales to be told.I wondered about the or...

I don't read a lot of anthologies, but I couldn't pass this one up. Lotta talent in these pages and I found the shared universe angle intriguing. Some stories were better than others, but there really wasn't a bad one in the bunch. John Skipp's "In the Winter of No Love" was a real standout, by far my favorite of the lot. Definitely grab this if you're a fan of the horror genre; there's a little bit of something for everyone.

“Welcome to the Show” is a superb collection of widely-divergent horror stories, centered on a common locale, a mysterious (and fictional) San Francisco nightclub called The Shantyman. The nightclub has been home to a diverse range of musical styles as well as a diverse range of horrors. Some of the stories have supernatural elements; some do not. The stories range from shocking to subtle; from heartbreaking (“A Tongue Like Fire” by Rachel Autumn Deering) to paranoid (“We Sang in Darkness” by Ma...

Bring your curiosity, but leave your inhibitions at the door. The show is about to begin…Sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll. It's the age-old cliché with music venues being considered places of hedonism and excess. But what if these places weren't only filled with people looking for a good time but also with the supernatural, the unexplainable, and the psychotic. The seventeen stories collected in Matt Hayward and Doug Murano's anthology, Welcome to the Show centre around The Shantyman, a fictional m...

I have read several anthologies so far this year, and hands down WELCOME TO THE SHOW has been the best. Matt Hayward and Doug Murano have pulled together a who's-who of the top writers around today to weave an unforgettable narrative around the fictional showroom, The Shantyman.This collection of 17 unique stories has something for everyone. Ghosts, demons, time travel, vampires, curses, rips in the fabric of space,,,it is all here. You might think, "how can all these types of stories fit togeth...

If you follow my book reviews or read my blog, you'll know I'm a huge fan of anthologies. I love a big round-up of horror's best, especially in a themed anthology.WELCOME TO THE SHOW centers on The Shantyman, a bar in the Tenderloin district of San Fransisco. The tales are told from The Shantyman's past and present and not one story is alike because of the wide variety of storytelling voices represented here.I thought I would highlight some of my favorites from the collection:NIGHT AND DAY AND I...

This book was sent to me from Crystal Lake Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Full video review to come soon!Welcome to the Show is a horror anthology edited by Doug Murano and created/compiled by Matt Hayward, a new rock star of horror. Each story featured in these pages revolves around a fictional San Francisco music venue called The Shantyman, a place that is all about the music... and the evil, of course. Demonic dealings, ghostly possession, alternate dimensions, murder and mayhem...

Welcome to the Show, edited by Doug Murano, is next on the review shelf, a collection that I was drawn to because of authors like Brian Keene, John Skipp, Jonathan Janz, and Jeff Strand. It's an unusual collection, in that it's based around a fictional concert hall known as The Shantyman, a building that connects the stories and (pardon the pun) sets the stage for the horror.It's an uneven collection, perhaps because I'm just not that interested in the stories behind the music, but there were de...

There were a few crucial things that attracted me to Welcome To The Show: 17 Horror Stories – One Legendary Venue and led to me asking the publisher, Crystal Lake Publishing, for a review copy of the anthology. The first thing was the impressive number of first-class, and even legendary, horror authors that were listed as having stories published in the anthology; any collection that includes the likes of Jeff Strand, John Skipp, Rachel Autumn Deering, Max Booth III and especially Brian Keene, i...

Seventeen stories fill these pages, all linked together by their common setting – The Shantyman, a bar and club, cursed, home to demons and vampires, aliens and madmen across the decades. Each story brings its own visitors to The Shantyman - customers, staff and performers – none of them leave in the same way, if at all.This is a strong selection and a collection in which all clamour for the title of ‘favourite’. Some though did exert a slightly stronger pull, including What Sort of Rube – a goo...

Although themed anthologies are common in today's publishing, they are, more often than not, focused on a concept or ephemeral idea, like the recent Lost Highways anthology, also from Crystal Lake Publishing, where each story played on the concept of life on the road. Rarer are those anthologies, at least outside of media tie-in properties, where the stories are united by a shared world concept, with the focus aimed toward a singular location. Matt Hayward's Welcome to the Show could have very e...

Review: WELCOME TO THE SHOW. (Anthology compiled by Matt Hayward and edited by Doug Murano)If I should ever be asked to identify my single favourite Crystal Lake Publishing anthology, I couldn't answer--for I deeply admire each and every one. This publisher consistently chooses authors, editors, and artists who produce work of the highest quality.WELCOME TO THE SHOW is a themed Anthology, set in the venue of an unusual (and long-lasting) nightclub tucked away in a not-so-classy neighborhood in S...

WELCOME TO THE SHOW is a collection of tales surrounding the fabled San Franciscan concert hall, The Shantyman. In my opinion, rock and horror go together like peas and carrots, so this should be right up my alley. Without further ado, lets jump right in -What Sort of Rube - Alan M. ClarkAbsolutely loved this one. Such a great voice and I found myself completely engrossed in it. A jealous father, island cannibals, and and old world curse? How can you not love it? This is my first time reading an...

Welcome to.....A great urban legend that just didn’t quite work. So, here’s the thing.... Alan M Clark starts us off with a little bit of history. Excellent story and I couldn’t wait for more. I knew I was going to read tales from Jonathan Janz, Bryan Smith, Adam Cesare, Matt Hayward, Brian Keene, Glenn Rolfe, Patrick Lacey, John Skipp, Jeff Strand, and many more of my favourite horror writers. As stand alone stories, some were better than others. What didn’t mesh for me was the stories never co...