Hootenanny
An old-time Hootenanny will happen Saturday, March 25, from 4:00pm to 9:00pm in the Courtroom of the Stone County Courthouse in Mountain View.
This informal gathering with folk music and sometimes dancing will be in celebration of the venue that led to the creation of the Arkansas Folk Festival sixty years ago and the Ozark Folk Center that is celebrating its first fifty years, their Jubilee this year.
These "practice sessions” began in March 1963 in preparation for the music and crafts show that was planned for April 19 and 20, 1963. They became a Friday night tradition held in the courtroom well into the Seventies. Once the outdoor stage was constructed for that first festival the music moved mostly outside that hot, non-airconditioned courtroom, only to return upstairs to the courtroom with cold weather.
There was no pay for performing, no charge for admission, and no electronic devices except for the microphone. It was simply a desire of people to play and listen to good old mountain music. The sessions were sponsored by the Rackensack Folklore Society.
For this special event Saturday night, there will be around 60 musicians performing in the style of the old time Hootenanny with organized groups scheduled to play sessions about every 15 to 20 minutes. It will include a tribute to Jimmy Driftwood and to many of the original performers
including Tommy Simmons who will be reflecting on those first Friday night musicals.
This event has been organized by Junior Fulks, Lynda Lawson Swafford, and Pam Simmons Setser, all early participants in those Friday night musicals. It is a Sesquicentennial Event sponsored by the Stone County Historical Society.
Come by and stay awhile. Enjoy the folk music representative of that practiced by those early pioneers. And, like those early days, no charge for admission, though donations will be accepted to benefit the Stone County Museum.
This informal gathering with folk music and sometimes dancing will be in celebration of the venue that led to the creation of the Arkansas Folk Festival sixty years ago and the Ozark Folk Center that is celebrating its first fifty years, their Jubilee this year.
These "practice sessions” began in March 1963 in preparation for the music and crafts show that was planned for April 19 and 20, 1963. They became a Friday night tradition held in the courtroom well into the Seventies. Once the outdoor stage was constructed for that first festival the music moved mostly outside that hot, non-airconditioned courtroom, only to return upstairs to the courtroom with cold weather.
There was no pay for performing, no charge for admission, and no electronic devices except for the microphone. It was simply a desire of people to play and listen to good old mountain music. The sessions were sponsored by the Rackensack Folklore Society.
For this special event Saturday night, there will be around 60 musicians performing in the style of the old time Hootenanny with organized groups scheduled to play sessions about every 15 to 20 minutes. It will include a tribute to Jimmy Driftwood and to many of the original performers
including Tommy Simmons who will be reflecting on those first Friday night musicals.
This event has been organized by Junior Fulks, Lynda Lawson Swafford, and Pam Simmons Setser, all early participants in those Friday night musicals. It is a Sesquicentennial Event sponsored by the Stone County Historical Society.
Come by and stay awhile. Enjoy the folk music representative of that practiced by those early pioneers. And, like those early days, no charge for admission, though donations will be accepted to benefit the Stone County Museum.