Ozark Highlands Radio is a weekly radio program that features live music and interviews recorded at Ozark Folk Center State Park’s beautiful 1,000-seat auditorium in Mountain View, Arkansas.  In addition to the music, our “Feature Host” segments take listeners through the Ozark hills with historians, authors, and personalities who explore the people, stories, and history of the Ozark region.

This week, a special road trip episode.  OHR visits Rogers, Arkansas’ Railyard Live Concert Series featuring singer-songwriters Will Gunselman & Ashtyn Barbaree recorded live at Butterfield Stage in Railyard Park in historic downtown Rogers.  Also, an interview with Ozark original Will Gunselman.

Rogers, Arkansas’ Railyard Live Concert Series began in 2021.  Held on the city’s Butterfield Stage next to Railyard Park in historic downtown Rogers, it features live concerts every weekend throughout the Spring, Summer, and Fall.  All of the Railyard Live events are either free to the public or at very low cost of admission.  The concert series features a wide array of musical styles and interests designed to appeal to the diverse population of Rogers and invite them to experience the newly revitalized Railyard Entertainment District.  The Ozark Folk Center State Park and the City of Rogers, Arkansas partnered to bring Ozark Highlands Radio to capture a little slice of this modern Ozark culture.

Will Gunselman is a singer-songwriter from Bella Vista, Arkansas.  Will’s vivid writer’s voice along with his unique style invents an honest and authentic Ozark story.  Honing his art through decades of live performance, Will has crafted a simple sound that is modern and relatable but reveals a rich patina of life lived.  Although plaintive, his music, rooted in folk, country and blues, dwells on the positive nature of experience and seeking joy in the everyday.  Like traversing the river Will ardently describes in his song Buffalo River Run, sitting with a set of his music is a journey bent with scenic vistas of the soul.

Ashtyn Barbaree is an internationally touring gritty Americana singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Fayetteville, Arkansas.  Sweet, soulful, charming and relatable, her lyrics have found their way into the hearts of folks from all walks of life.  She has a smokey, yet silky voice accompanied with harmonies, guitar, tenor 8-string ukulele, upright bass, pedal steel, drums and piano.
https://www.ashtynbarbaree.com/about

In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, OHR producer Jeff Glover offers a 1981 archival recording of bluegrasser Lenny Wallace performing the tune “Take Your Shoes Off Moses,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives.

In this week’s guest host segment, renowned traditional folk musician, writer, and step dancer Aubrey Atwater explores the theme of riddles and trick questions in traditional folk music.

Sound Beat episodes for the month of April 2024

Last year, thick smoke from Canadian wildfires wafted down and blanketed a broad swath of the East Coast - from New York to North Carolina. The wildfire smoke had us East Coasters feeling like the apocalypse had arrived. But fires aren’t always doom and gloom. Stockton Maxwell says they can actually be restorative for forests. And: Coral reefs are one of the most beautiful ecosystems of the natural world. But they’re more than just a feast for the eyes. Pamela Grothe says coral reefs offer a map to the past, helping researchers track climate history over many hundreds of years.