This week, Hindman, Kentucky writer, educator, vocalist and world champion mountain dulcimer Jedi Sarah Kate Morgan recorded live at the Ozark Folk Center State Park.  Also, a special performance by the 2024 Ozark Folk Center Mountain Dulcimer Contest winner Melinda McMillan of Martinsville, IN.

“Born of Appalachian soil in Sharps Chapel, Tennessee, Sarah Kate Morgan sings, plays, and writes like she’s been in these hills since the dawn of time. She’s had plenty of varied influences, beginning with hearing a classical music CD belonging to her family and going on to discover old time music through a dulcimer built by her grandfather. She began playing dulcimer at age 7. 

This proved to be a pivotal moment. At 18 years old, Sarah Kate placed 1st at the 2012 National Mountain Dulcimer Championships in Winfield, Kansas. She’s gone on to build a unique personal style which honors mountain dulcimer giants such as Jean Ritchie while working across genres to build something new. Her dexterous approach to the instrument is one that only masterful artists can bring to the table; much like Bruce Molsky and the fiddle, having been a dedicated student of the dulcimer’s complexities Morgan is able to distill them into a beautifully polished package. 

Well-known and widely respected as one of the leading experts of the mountain dulcimer, Sarah Kate is also a first-rate singer and songwriter. Her earthy and poetic lyrics embrace the highs and lows of southern Appalachian life while her voice does the same – moving between alto and soprano parts with ease. Her crystal-clear but rootsy vocal style combines the best of country, old time, bluegrass, and gospel influences who, like Morgan, foreground their cultural roots. All of this goes hand in hand to create a musical experience akin to a sonic baptism.” - https://www.sarahkatemorgan.com/bio-1

In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, OHR producer Jeff Glover offers a 1981 archival recording of Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry member Ramona Jones fiddling out a square dance on the traditional tune “Liberty,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives.

In his segment “Back in the Hills,” writer, professor and historian Dr. Brooks Blevins profiles self-promoting Ozark folk artist and entrepreneur L.L. Broadfoot.

Ozark Highlands Radio

OHR Presents: Sarah Kate Morgan

I have the privilege of participating in a Blues Workshop presented by Bing Futch at the Ohio Valley Gathering 2015.  Bing and I are playing an example of 12-Bar Blues.

Blues With Bing

From my new album "Unresolved Blues", this tune was inspired by no-one in particular, but we all know them well.

Listen Closely Mama - Mountain Dulcimer Blues

From my 2013 album "Dive!", this song deals with the walls that we put up to protect ourselves.

I Keep My Distance - Alternative Mountain Dulcimer

This week, a special road trip episode featuring Celtic-American Roots music “super group” RUNA recorded live at the 2024 Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield Kansas, a four day acoustic music marathon and arts & crafts fair held every September 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, that began as "Jam Bands" in the campgrounds, have even been invited to perform at the festival.

Celebrating fourteen years together as a band, Celtic-American Roots music “super group” RUNA continues to push the boundaries of Irish folk music into the Americana and roots music formats. Interweaving the haunting melodies and exuberant tunes of Ireland and Scotland with the lush harmonies and intoxicating rhythms of jazz, bluegrass, flamenco and blues, they offer a thrilling and redefining take on traditional music.  Seeking to preserve and continue a traditional culture in a modern age, RUNA creates the backbone of its signature roots sound from the musical and geographical diversity of its individually established band members.  Their strive for excellence and creativity blazes a trail for the future of folk music, earning them the reputation as one of the most innovative Irish folk groups of this generation.  RUNA consists of vocalist Shannon Lambert-Ryan of Philadelphia, Dublin-born guitarist, Fionán de Barra, acclaimed drummer Cheryl Prashker (Full Frontal Folk, Jonathan Edwards), fiddler Jake James of New York, and three-time Canadian fiddle champion Tom Fitzgerald, who also plays mandolin. - https://runamusic.com/about 

In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, OHR producer Jeff Glover offers an archival recording of Ozark original Mike McGhee performing the Classic Child ballad “Barbara Allen,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives.

In this week’s guest host segment, renowned traditional folk musician, writer, and step dancer Aubrey Atwater profiles the legendary Ozark song catcher, Mary Celestia Parler.

OHR Presents: RUNA @Walnut Valley

This week, a special road trip episode featuring up and coming California based bluegrass phenomenon AJ Lee & Blue Summit recorded live at the 2024 Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.  Also, a bonus performance from IBMA award winning hit maker Chris Jones & The Night Drivers.

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, that began as "Jam Bands" in the campgrounds, have even been invited to perform at the festival.

AJ Lee & Blue Summit are an award-winning energetic, charming, and technically jaw-dropping band quickly rising on the national roots music scene. Based in Santa Cruz, California, the group met as teenagers, picking and jamming together as kids at local music festivals and jams until one day, they decided they would be a band.  Their first gigs were local, small venues, cafes, restaurants, coffee shops, where they’d play for multiple hours honing their set list and learning shared musical vocabularies. Now, as they criss-cross the country performing hundreds of shows a year to larger and larger audiences, you can sense the intention they had back then – to make music together not for just aspirational reasons, but because it’s fun – and it’s all you want to do as young musicians. Currently made up of Lee on mandolin, fiddler Jan Purat, and guitarists Scott Gates & Sullivan Tuttle, the band carries that youthful, festival-parking-lot energy with them still today, but at the same time there’s a genuine ease and confidence to their music making. This is not the bluegrass of ambitious musicians intent on industry success, this is music made firstly for the joy of making it and primarily made for each other. 
https://www.bluesummitmusic.com/about-us-1  

Chris Jones & the Night Drivers make some of the most distinctively elegant yet driving bluegrass music heard anywhere today.  Deeply rooted in tradition but never bound to it, they deliver original music with tight arrangements, emotional authenticity, and engaging humor.  Collectively, Chris Jones & the Night Drivers have won 12 IBMA awards and have racked up 24 #1 songs.  In July of 2022, they made their debut on The Grand Ole Opry and were soon asked to return.

In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, OHR producer Jeff Glover offers a 1984 archival recording of Ozark originals Bob Momich & Adam Fudge performing a banjo duet on the tune “Protecting the Innocent,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives.

In this week’s guest host segment, renowned traditional folk musician, writer, and step dancer Aubrey Atwater dives deep into Aesop’s classic fable about the ant & the grasshopper.

OHR Presents:  AJ Lee & Blue Summit @Walnut Valley

Lutung bingung is one of repertoar music degung classic that adapting from "Lutung Kasarung" story, part of the story taken when Guruminda become a Lutung down to earth, and when he (lutung) come to earth, like confused about that a new place.

In this song, Parahyena is not alone. We are assisted by a guitarist who usually plays classic degung tones, namely Agus Rukmana. He has been exploring, developing and making innovative classic Sundanese tones on classical guitars. Agus Rukmana has also made a recording of souvenirs to 120 countries at the 50th Asia-Africa Summit, at this moment he is devising a method of learning 'ngadegung ku guitar' (playing degung by guitar) and making recordings. 

The playing patterns of music performed by Parahyena and Agus Rukmana, Lutung Bingung song are transformed from pelog and gamelan patterns, but the fingering style technique uses modulation to western conventional chord. In practice, the song is cultivated and recorded live. Audio and visual capture is important, so in this song selected live session for the launch of Parahyena’s new single. 

Lutung Bingung is a collaboration of various types of art that we feel interesting to combine, as for the wayang (Dalang), Arts Dance, and mapping. Great hope this song is acceptable to all circles, especially people outside tatar sunda. Parahyena and Agus Rukmana want to introduce this technique as a Sunda tone game, and this technique can be applied to any musical instrument. 

New single "Lutung Bingung" already be enjoyed on Parahyena Youtube Channel www.youtube.com/parahyena

Lutung Bingung Feat. Agus Roekmana

Ozark Highlands Radio is a weekly radio program that features live music and interviews recorded at Ozark Folk Center State Park’s historic 1,000-seat auditorium in Mountain View, Arkansas.  In addition to the music, our “Feature Host” segments take listeners through the Ozark hills with historians, authors, and personalities who explore the people, stories, and history of the Ozark region.

This week, a very special episode.  Ozark Highlands Radio partners with Oxford American Magazine to bring Chapel Hill, North Carolina based contemporary folk and Americana superstars “Mandolin Orange,” recorded live at South on Main in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas.  Also, an interview with Oxford American Literary Project executive director Ryan Harris.  Mandolin Orange are joined in this performance by Eli West on guitar & banjo, Josh Oliver on electric guitar, Clint Mulligan on Bass, and Joe Westerlund on drums.

“The Oxford American is a nonprofit organization with a mission to explore the complexity and vitality of the American South through excellent writing, visual art, and events programming. Our quarterly print magazine was founded in 1992, and, in addition to winning four National Magazine Awards, has helped launch the writing careers of such noted authors as Jesmyn Ward and John Jeremiah Sullivan, while publishing beloved writers like Charles Portis, Nikky Finney, Peter Guralnick, and many others.

“Our concert series at South on Main in Little Rock is an extension of the magazine, creating meaningful opportunities for the community to experience the most culturally significant artists in our region.

“The OA has a longstanding history of curating great music. Our Winter 2018 issue is dedicated to the music of North Carolina. It is our twentieth installment of the series, which the Houston Chronicle calls "the single best music-related magazine of any given year." Each music issue comes with a sought-after CD, curated by the editors to showcase the region's hugely
varied musical legacy.”

More information about Oxford American programming, the magazine, and their mission can be found at 
https://www.oxfordamerican.org  

“Mandolin Orange is an Americana/folk duo based out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.The group was formed in 2009 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and consists of the group's songwriter Andrew Marlin (vocals, mandolin, guitar, banjo) and Emily Frantz (vocals, violin, guitar). Mandolin Orange has produced five albums of Marlin's original works of American roots music. In the last three years, the group has toured throughout the U.S and Europe, including appearances at Austin City Limits, South-by-Southwest, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Pickathon, and Merlefest. They signed to Yep Roc Records in 2013 and have produced four albums under their umbrella, This Side of Jordan, Such Jubilee, Blindfaller and Tides of a Teardrop.”

Learn more about Mandolin Orange at
-  http://www.mandolinorange.com/#home-section  

In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, musician, educator and country music legacy Mark Jones offers a 1981 archival recording of Ozark originals Pat & Bob Momich performing the traditional tune “Soldier’s Joy,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives.

OHR Presents: Mandolin Orange

All instruments and vocals by Winter Walker. This was a total blast.

FUTURE TENSE (cover)

Winter Singing Pop Medley

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.

OHR Presents: RUNA @Walnut Valley

Ozark Highlands Radio

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