When the weather turns cold and dreary and the wind whips around every corner, then it’s storytelling time.

And, there’s no better story place than the Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival held annually the last weekend in January at the We Piddle Around Theater in Brundidge and the Trojan Center Theater in Troy.

The Festival features four of the top storytellers in the country, pre-show music by traditional pickers and a folk art exhibit including the work of Alabama artists Mose T., Woodie Long and Charlie Lucas.

This year’s Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival will feature tellers who are all back by popular demand.

Donald Davis, the Dean of Storytelling, will be back for the seventh year.

Wilma Dykeman of the New York Times said of Davis, “I could have listened all morning to Donald Davis. His stories often left listeners limp with laughter at the same time they struggled with a lump in the throat.”

Sheila Kay Adams is a master storyteller, award-winning banjo player and author. She is the seventh-generation bearer of her family’s 200-year-old ballad singing tradition.

Adams embodies a depth of family and regional tradition and represents it to the rest of the world with authority and affection.

Andy Offutt Irwin is a two-time teller at the Pike Piddlers Storyteller and the featured teller at the Chili County Christmas storytelling event in 2010.

Story enthusiasts have begged him back. Irwin has promised to bring a bushel of stories about his wacky Aunt Marguerite Van Camp.

Michael Reno Harrell is a talented storyteller and singer/songwriter from the mountains of Western North Carolina. Harrell’s performances are compared to his granddaddy’s pocket knife — well warn and familiar feeling, but razor sharp and with a point. He’ll tell a story and then he’ll sing a story.

The Pike Piddlers Storyteller Festival opens on Friday night, Jan. 25 with “Supper, Stories and Such” at the We Piddle Around Theater in Brundidge. Tickets are $25 and include the pre-show music, a full county supper served family style and storytelling.

On Saturday, the Festival moves to the Trojan Center Theater on the campus of Troy University with three storytelling concerts, at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. ($10 each) and at 6:30 p.m. ($15). All day tickets are $30.

Each storytelling concert will feature all four tellers and different stories will be told at each concert.

Pre-show music will be by the Lighthouse String Ensemble (10 a.m.) The Benton Brothers and Company (2 p.m.) and the WPA Scratch Band at (6:30 p.m.).

For tickets call, 334-735-3125 or visit the ticket outlet at studio 116 in downtown Brundidge or call 334-735-3675 nights and weekends. Vistit the We Piddle Around Theater website at www.piddle.org.