This week, a special road trip episode featuring world renowned cowboy singer-songwriter and story teller Dave Stamey recorded live at the 2024 Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.

The annual Walnut Valley Festival, now in it’s 53rd season, is one of the oldest and most respected acoustic music festivals in the world.  Held at the Winfield, Kansas fairgrounds, more than 30 musical acts will perform on four separate stages, presenting over 200 hours of live music.  Also, there is a dedicated contest stage where contestants vie for national and international championships in Finger Style Guitar, Flat Pick Guitar, Bluegrass Banjo, Old Time Fiddle, Mandolin, Mountain Dulcimer, Hammered Dulcimer, and Autoharp.  There is a juried arts and crafts fair, exhibits by renowned instrument makers and music shops, family activities, a bevy of food vendors, a farmer’s market and even a pub!  An unusual aspect of Walnut Valley is its campground tradition.  Campsites are not reserved and campers line up to claim a choice campsite during the "Land Rush.”  Walnut Valley Festival goers often bring their own musical instruments to participate in the sometimes all night campground jam sessions.  Bands like Old Sound and Sally & The Hurts that began as "Jam Bands" in the campgrounds, have even been invited to perform at the festival.

Cowboys and Indians Magazine has called him “the Charlie Russell of Western Music.”  Western Horseman Magazine has declared his “Vaquero Song” to be one of the greatest Western songs of all time.  True West Magazine named him Best Living Western Solo Musician four years in a row.  Dave Stamey has been a cowboy, a mule packer, a dude wrangler, and is now one of the most popular Western entertainers working today.  He has been voted seven times Entertainer of the Year, seven times Male Performer of the Year and Five times Songwriter of the Year by the Western Music Association and received the Will Rogers Award from the Academy of Western Artists.  He’s delighted audiences in twenty-three states and finds that he prefers this to being stomped by angry horses.  In November 2016, Dave was inducted into the Western Music Hall of Fame. - https://davestamey.com/   

In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, OHR producer Jeff Glover offers a 1978 archival recording of Ozark original cowboy Glenn Ohrlin performing the song “Tying Knots in the Devils Tail,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives.

In his segment “Back in the Hills,” writer, professor and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins continues his three part series on the surprisingly violent history of tornadoes in the Ozarks.  

OHR Presents: Dave Stamey @Walnut Valley

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 on a musical journey with historians, authors, and personalities who explore the people, stories, and history of the Ozark region.

New tracks tagged #Walnut Valley