And The Beat Goes On

"We're this 'squarshed' together half of one band and half of another."

Festivalgoers in Northwest Arkansas ought to be pretty familiar with Americana rockers The Squarshers by now. They've been playing their way through the local circuit as well as venues for solo shows for a couple years -- bringing a rowdy, down-home kind of good time. What fans may not know is the four friends came up with the idea, the name and the decision to follow through with the group at a little folk/American roots music festival in Eureka Springs a couple of short years ago.

"We'd never been officially in a project together -- that specific group," Patrick Calaway, bass player, continues in recalling how the band got its start. "Our hotel room was right under the stage, and you could hear everything in there, and the idea came right there in the hotel room."

At the festival, "there's music everywhere, and there's musicians everywhere, and it creates such an awesome vibe of people all excited about the same thing. It puts you in that kind of mood. You have to be in just the right mood to want [to pursue] something like that," adds John Henry, guitarist. "It's really awesome to see that we were able to build something out of that [moment]. And to see that it came out of a music festival at an [unusual] time."

The Ozark Mountain Music Festival -- OzMoMu for short -- expands for its fourth year by welcoming its first nationally touring band to the lineup. The little music festival that could continues growing and has seen yearly success in a period of turbulence for the Northwest Arkansas festival scene. Not only does it put on a successful show for its audience, the festival had a hand in the formation of Opal Agafia and the Sweet Nothings as well.

"I saw Opal sing for the first time at our locals night two years ago, and the next year she [and her band] were performing on our stage," says festival coordinator Mary Howze. On Thursday evening of the festival, anyone is welcome to bring instruments and jam with the performers. "It's a really intimate festival. There's no backstage [so] people get to meet the artists. You really get to know [people] when it's such a small venue, and you're hanging out for four days."

The historic 1905 Basin Park Hotel is the host of the four-day event, providing the festival element of seeing live music and overnighting in the same place. The 11 bands perform on multiple stages in the venue, and unofficial shows across Eureka Springs add to the musical vibe of the city all weekend. Howze says it's a great relief from the mid-winter festival blues.

"There's a lot more 'get down' than your average folk festival," Calaway says. "It seems to be bands like us that are maybe a little harder hitting. You're not going to do a lot of sitting down at a festival like this. You gotta get up to get down!"

NAN What's Up on 01/13/2017