HEADLINERS:

    WEST PLAINS, Mo. – The four featured headliners for the 16th annual Old-Time Music, Ozark Heritage Festival will represent a wide variety of styles within American roots music.  The festival will take place 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. June 18 and 19 on and around Court Square in West Plains.  Admission is free.
    Featured performers include Jay Farrar of St. Louis, the Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys band, The Gordons from southwestern Illinois, and musicians featured in the 2010 film “Winter’s Bone” or its soundtrack.  The film is based on a book written by West Plains resident Daniel Woodrell.  Each performer has strong ties to the Missouri Ozarks, and all have been influenced by musical traditions of this region, said local folklorist and festival committee member Matt Meacham, West Plains.
    “We’re especially pleased that each of our featured guests has strong ties to the Missouri Ozarks and that all of them have been influenced in one way or another by musical traditions of this region.  They demonstrate the national significance and widespread impact of folk culture from our part of the country,” Meacham said.
    “It’s important to remember that although we’re very excited that all of our featured guests will be joining us and will make valuable contributions to our festival, they represent only part of the musical content of the whole event.  As always, the festival will also include many performances and other events featuring talented musicians from our local area and throughout the region, and there will be many opportunities for performers and visitors alike to share in participatory music-making,” Meacham added.

JUNE 18

    Featured performers on June 18 will be the musicians featured in “Winter’s Bone,” followed by Jay Farrar, a truly iconic figure among enthusiasts of alternative country music, Meacham said.  A singer, songwriter and guitarist, Farrar is known for his stark, imagistic songwriting and distinctive singing voice, and is a founding member of influential alternative country bands Uncle Tupelo (in the mid-80s) and Son Volt.  He has released several solo albums, and collaborated on projects with various other musicians, Meacham said.
    The Uncle Tupelo band’s style integrated influences from traditional country and string band music with elements of alternative/independent rock.  It became one of the main inspirations of the “No Depression” movement in alternative country music, giving many young fans of alternative rock a point of entry into country music and the musical traditions from which it emerged, Meacham explained.  Son Volt, founded in the mid-1990s, has released six original albums, most recently “American Central Dust” on Rounder Records (2009).  Farrar has released four solo albums, with his most recent recording project a collaboration with fellow singer/songwriter/guitarist Ben Gibbard and titled “One Fast Move or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur,” (on Atlantic/F-Stop Records, 2009), which is an outgrowth of writing and recording music for a recent documentary film about author Jack Kerouac, Meacham said.
    Farrar is originally from Belleville, Ill., immediately southeast of St. Louis.  He often refers to places in Missouri and downstate Illinois in his original songs, Meacham added.  His father, Jim “Pops” Farrar, was originally from Salem, Mo., and was a traditional musician in his own right.  Jay Farrar wrote a song entitled “Dent County” (the name of the county in which Salem is located) as a tribute to his late father and recorded it on his 2003 album “Terroir Blues.”
    The film “Winter’s Bone” was written and directed by Debra Granik and is set in the Missouri Ozarks.  The film was awarded the Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and is slated for theatrical release this summer by Roadside Attractions, Meacham said.  The film features music performed by a number of traditional musicians from the Missouri Ozarks; a soundtrack recording featuring additional regional traditional musicians is in progress, he added.
    Several musicians featured in either the film or the soundtrack recording (or both) will perform at the festival, prior to Farrar’s performance.  They include singer Marideth Sisco and guitarist Dennis Crider, both of West Plains; banjoist Van Colbert, Willow Springs; multi-instrumentalist Bo Brown, Springfield; fiddler Billy Ward and bassist Tedi May.  Sisco, Crider and Colbert all are well-known to Old-Time Music, Ozark Heritage Festival audiences.  Sisco and Crider are members of the Davis Creek Rounders based in West Plains.  Colbert is a member of the Colbert Brothers of Willow Springs.  All three participate in musical events in the area.
    Bo Brown, who sings and plays mandolin, guitar, dobro and bass, has been involved in various Springfield-area bands since the 1970s.  He was a member of the Undergrass Boys which toured extensively in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  He is now a member of two groups, the Lowdown Fancy and the Hillcats.  Billy Ward and Tedi May are members of Dirt Road Delight, a band that contributed to the film’s soundtrack.  Both are natives of Taney County but are now based in Georgia.  Ward has won several national-scale contests in both fiddling and guitar flatpicking in recent years.  May reportedly was the first woman to graduate with honors from the Atlanta Music Institute with a degree in bass.  She has recorded and performed extensively with several bands.

JUNE 19
    Featured performers June 19 will be The Gordons, followed by Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys.  Meacham said the latter is probably the single most influential band in the history of western swing, a genre that resulted from the hybridization of music of the string band tradition, especially Texas-style fiddling, and early live radio-style country music with 1930s and 40s pop and jazz, especially big band and swing, as well as traditional blues.
    The group was founded in 1933 in Waco, Texas, by accomplished fiddler Bob Wills, who had played in several bands, most notably the Light Crust Doughboys.  In the late ‘30s and early ‘40s, while based in Tulsa, Okla., Wills expanded the Texas Playboys into an 18-piece band, combining elements of the country string band ensemble style with elements of the big-band jazz ensemble style, Meacham said.  Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys became one of the most popular musical acts in the country in any genre in the early ‘40s.  Wills was known as “The King of Western Swing.”  Though the popularity and commercial success of Western swing declined somewhat after World War II, Wills and his band remained widely respected and retained a loyal until Wills’ death in 1975., Meacham said
    Best-known selections (some songs, some instrumental numbers) include “San Antonio Rose,” “Take Me Back to Tulsa,” “Stay a Little Longer,” “Faded Love,” “Right or Wrong,” “My Window Faces the South,” “Cherokee Maiden,” “Steel Guitar Rag” and “Maiden’s Prayer.”
    The Texas Playboys have continued to perform occasionally since Wills’ death.  Their last performance under the name Bob Wills’ Original Texas Playboys took place in 1986, but the current version of the group, Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys, still includes musicians who were members of the Texas Playboys when the band was under Wills’ leadership.
    The current lead vocalist and spokesman is Leon Rausch, a native of Billings, Mo., who was a member of Wills’ band in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s and performed with him again in the mid-’70s.  The band also features guitarist Tommy Allsup, known for his performances with Buddy Holly and Bob Wills and produced recordings by Wills in the 1960s, Meacham added.  Rausch was raised in a musical family in Billings and performed with various musicians in southwest Missouri in his early years.
    The Gordons is a husband and wife duo from Sparta, Ill.  Roberta Gordon plays autoharp and sings vocals.  Gary Gordon plays guitar and provides vocals.  They specialize in neo-traditional, contemporary folk and traditional country music.  Their most recent album, “Our Time” (Inside-Out Records, 2008) was one of the top 10 albums on the national Folk DJ chart maintained by the Folk Alliance for 2008.
    The duo formed a bluegrass band in the mid-1970s and performed at numerous bluegrass festivals and other venues.  They became well-known in bluegrass circles, especially in mid-America.  After living in Charlotte, N.C., for several years in the ‘80s, they returned to southern Illinois and have since performed frequently.  Stylistically versatile, their music spans various genres of American roots music – traditional country, bluegrass, country-rock, blues, etc. – but in recent years, they have gravitated toward neo-traditional and contemporary folk music, including many original compositions, Meacham said.
    The Gordons have released several albums, including five since 1995 that have been critically acclaimed and brought them increasing national and international recognition: “Family Bible” (1995), “End of a Long, Hard Day” (1997), “Live in Holland” (1998), “Time Will Tell Our Story” (2002), and “Our Time” (2008).  They have developed a particularly strong reputation among European enthusiasts of bluegrass and American traditional music, performing at the European World of Bluegrass Festival and touring Ireland, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic in the late ‘90s, Meacham said.
    The Gordons frequently participated in festivals, jam sessions, etc., in the southeast and south-central Missouri Ozarks during their early years, and they consider traditional and bluegrass musicians from this region – including Dub Crouch, Ray Gore, Don Brown, Norman Ford and others – to be among their most important teachers and influences, Meacham said.