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 Eureka Springs hard-driving folk quartet, Front Porch, recorded live at Butterfield Stage in Railyard Park in historic downtown Rogers.  Also, commentary from Rogers Arts & Culture Coordinator Kinya Christian on the exciting things happening in the Rogers Entertainment District.

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.

Front Porch is a hard driving four piece folk ensemble.  Self described as “contemporary bluegrass, old time and mayhem from Northwest Arkansas,” the band is based in Eureka Springs.  Front Porch is Petey Wesley on banjo & fiddle, John Henry Holthus on guitar, Alex Hawf on mandolin, and Cameron Keeling rounding out the low end with upright bass.  In true bluegrass fashion, all the guys in the band sing, but that’s where the traditional ends.  Front Porch performs with all the usual ingredients of bluegrass and folk but bakes them up into a post-punk old-time acid jazz barn-burning bluegrass fusion that will have you jumping.

In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, OHR producer Jeff Glover offers a 1981 archival recording of Ozark original Uncle Floyd Holland performing the tune “Nellie Gray,” 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 variations of the traditional folk song “Polly Put the Kettle On.”

Sound Beat episodes for the month of October 2023

Antonio Sacre and Dolores Hydock share stories recorded live in the Apple Seed Studio.

(2:01) "Nina's Rainbow" by Antonio Sacre about struggling as a parent with fighting children and stopping to create a little magic.
(10:08) "Becoming Mrs. Nash" by Dolores Hydock about a generous neighbor and about aging beautifully.

Great stories can change your world. Subscribe to The Apple Seed Hosted hosted by storyteller Sam Payne. A production of BYUradio.

The hilarious personal story "Mamma's Coat" by Barbarba McBride Smith and a historical/ghost story "The Chain of Memories" by Liz Weir.

Old time music is a way of communication. A way to welcome rain after a drought or shoo a cold. Many men took it on the road. But the women stayed home. Rene Rodgers and Toni Doman (Birthplace of Country Music Museum) give us a taste of women musicians from Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn, to Cathy Fink and Amythyst Kiah.