NEWPORT — Before Henry Boyce was born in 1964, music history was being made on U.S. 67 in Newport. Decades later, Boyce started preserving and celebrating that history.
The 21st annual Depot Days Festival in Newport, which highlights the journey of the Rock ’n’ Roll Highway 67, is scheduled for Friday and Saturday on Front Street in downtown Newport.
“It’s not just another local picnic; it’s not just another county fair,” said Boyce, chairman of the Depot Days Committee. “It’s a celebration of the rich musical heritage in this part of Arkansas, particularly Jackson County, because the performers who came through here were able to improve their talents and move on.”
Those famous entertainers, who stopped at the Silver Moon Club and other places in Newport, included Elvis Presley, right after his first single, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Roy Orbison.
The free-admission festival, sponsored by the Newport Area Chamber of Commerce, includes a blues show Friday, beginning at 6 p.m., and music on Saturday, featuring headliner Rodney Crowell at 8:45 p.m. The Lions Club auction will kick off the festival on Saturday, starting at 9:30 a.m.
The event offers food, as well as a variety of vendors, crafts and children’s activities. The weekend culminates with a fireworks show.
Boyce, 53, is the 3rd Judicial District prosecuting attorney, but he works on the festival year-round and books the bands. He has been involved since the second year of the festival. He was asked to join the committee and got hooked.
He also started the Rock ’n’ Roll Highway Museum, which will be open from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday during the festival.
“[The festival] was originally conceived as sort of a celebration of the renovation of our downtown depot, the Iron Mountain Depot. Within a year or so, the event evolved into sort of a heritage tribute festival to the music of what’s commonly become known as Rock ’n’ Roll Highway 67.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe made that official in 2009 when he signed legislation designating the highway from Newport to Pocahontas with the name.
“In the 1950s, [U.S. 67] was a major artery for musicians traveling between St. Louis and Dallas, including any performers who had Little Rock shows,” Boyce said. “What was really significant about it was, in particular, Jackson County — specifically Newport — had a network of nightclubs, honky-tonks and juke joints; therefore, night life. A lot of them hosted live music, had stages and provided anybody who wanted to try … a place to play.
“It was more than just a bunch of dives; it was a little higher class than that. Newport was a wet county surrounded by dry [counties] — it supplied the juice … to attract the fun-lovers,” Boyce said.
Newport had its own stars.
“Sonny Burgess lived here; he died last year. Billy Lee Riley also lived in Newport,” Boyce said. “It made sense to me to build a festival pretty much around them as living legends.”
He said much of the style of music being played was referred to as rockabilly, a mixture of country and rhythm and blues.
Highlights of the museum, which is housed in the Newport Economic Development and chamber building at 201 Hazel St., include “a stand-up piano that used to sit on the top of the roof of a barbecue joint called Porky’s Rooftop,” Boyce said.
The piano was verified by Burgess and was the same piano there in March 1955 the night Elvis played in Newport. It was less than a year after Elvis released his debut single, [“That’s All Right”], Boyce said. “There’s no video, of course, of the event, but if Elvis played the piano, that’s the one he played.”
He said Elvis toured through Jackson County four times in 1955.
Another of Boyce’s favorite exhibits is a 1957 drum kit from The Clashers, donated by Johnny Pate, who once played with Carl Perkins.
“They can see a 60-year old rock ’n’ roll relic,” he said. “It still has the cowbell and spray-painted drums” with a design.
There will be living legends in the museum, too, Boyce said.
“We always try to provide some of the artists, particularly the older stars, for people who want to see the history and meet the stars,” he said.
Susan Cooley, a member of the Depot Days Committee and the prosecuting attorney’s assistant, opens the museum for the festival. One of those stars will likely be Pate.
“He’s the nicest man,” she said. “I expect to see him; he comes every year to Depot Days.”
She said Pate lives in Northwest Arkansas, and his wife comes with him.
Boyce said anyone who loves music will enjoy the festival.
“We attract several thousand people over the two-day festival,” he said. “We’ve done polls of the people who attend; at least 75 percent are coming from outside the county.”
Cooley said the nonprofit organization D.R.I.V.E — Downtown Revitalization and Improvement Volunteer Effort — is the festival’s funding mechanism.
Julie Allen, executive director of the Newport Area Chamber of Commerce, said the festival “is its own niche,” and “people who make the pilgrimage come from all over — we’ve had some from Australia and Wisconsin.”
It’s a celebration of a significant part of Newport’s history, she said, “so we’re excited about it.”
For more information, go to the Depot Days Facebook page, visit the www.depotdays.org, or contact the Newport Area Chamber of Commerce at director@newportarchamber.org or (870) 523-3618.