LITTLE ROCK — The annual Ozark Folk Festival, celebrating 60 years in Eureka Springs this week, will offer music and more from Wednesday through Saturday, with music that includes not just folk, but also western tunes and a show for children.
Concerts will be held in City Auditorium on Main Street, with related shows in clubs around town. A beauty contest will be held Wednesday night and a parade will wind through town Saturday, when there will also be a Songwriters' Contest in Basin Park on Spring Street.
Riders in the Sky, one of the most honored western music bands, will perform twice on Thursday. A show for kids is at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are $10. The Riders will take the stage again at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in what they call their "cowboy show," at which tickets are $22.
Odetta will headline the 8 p.m. Friday show, with the opening act a new East Coast trio, The Carolina Chocolate Drops. Tickets are $27.
Trout Fishing in America, the Northwest Arkansas duo that has a following of adults and children will headline the 8 p.m. Saturday show, with New England folk/blues singer-songwriterguitarist Chris Smither opening the show. Tickets are $22.
A "Harvest Package" of a ticket to each show is $70.
For more information, call (888) 855-7823.
Riders in the Sky were formed 30 years ago to continue the tradition of singing cowboys deckedout in western wear. Members are Ranger Doug on guitar, Woody Paul on vocals and fiddle, Too Slim on upright bass and Joey the CowPolka King on accordion. In their three decades, the Riders have released more than 30 albums, played more than 5,000 shows, appeared on TV some 300 times and traveled about 3 million miles.
Odetta began her career in the era when Bob Dylan, Eric Anderson, Tom Rush, Joan Baez and Judy Collins were all riding a wave of folk sounds that began in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York. She began a career revival in the late 1990s, and was honored by President Clinton with a National Medal of the Arts and Humanities in 1999.
Trout Fishing in America, theonly festival act based in Arkansas, has widened their appeal to at least 40 states and part of Canada, while releasing a dozen albums that have sometimes focused on either children's songs, grown-up themes or both. Bassist Keith Grimwood and guitarist Ezra Idlet share vocals and storytelling duties.
The Carolina Chocolate Drops are determined to carry on the Piedmont Mountains' black string-band traditions of years ago. The group consists of Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson, two Piedmont natives, plus Dom Flemons, who left Arizona behind to embracethe Carolina sound.
Chris Smither recently released his 12th album, Leave the Light On, which also became his first to be released on his own label, Mighty Albert. He debuted in 1970 with I'm a Stranger Too! and after a second release, was unheard from for more than a decade, due to a bout with alcoholism, he has explained, noting that he just "got out."
Style, Pages 59, 63 on 10/07/2007