The Ozark Folk Center State Park in Mountain View, Arkansas will be celebrating Cowboy Weekend September 21-22, 2012. Join us for a look at the past as seen from the saddle. This weekend will feature celebrity concerts both nights. On Friday night, The Charlie Daniels Band will be performing. Charlie Daniels was born on Oct. 28, 1936, in Wilmington, N.C., and raised on a musical diet that included Pentecostal gospel, local bluegrass bands and the rhythm & blues and country music from Nashville’s 50,000-watt radio stations WLAC and WSM. He graduated from high school in 1955. Already skilled on guitar, fiddle and mandolin, Daniels formed a rock ‘n’ roll band and hit the road.
While en route to California in 1959, the group paused in Texas to record “Jaguar,” an instrumental produced by the legendary Bob Johnston, which was picked up for national distribution by Epic. It was also the beginning of a long association with Johnston. The two wrote “It Hurts Me,” which became the B-side of a 1964 Presley hit. In 1969, at the urging of Johnston, Daniels moved to Nashville to find work as a session guitarist.
Among his more notable sessions were the Bob Dylan albums of 1969-70 Nashville Skyline, New Morning and Self Portrait. Daniels produced the Youngbloods albums of 1969-70 Elephant Mountain and Ride the Wind, toured Europe with Leonard Cohen and performed on records with artists as diverse as Al Kooper and Marty Robbins.
Daniels broke through as a record maker himself with 1973’s hit hippie song “Uneasy Rider.” His rebel anthems “Long Haired Country Boy” and “The South’s Gonna Do It” propelled his 1975 collection Fire on the Mountain to double-platinum status.
On Saturday night, the quintessential Cowboy singer of all time, Mr. Don Edwards will be in concert at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. Don Edwards (born March 20, 1939 in Boonton, New Jersey) is a cowboy singer and guitarist who plays Western music. He has recorded several albums, two of which, Guitars & Saddle Songs and Songs of the Cowboy, are included in the Folklore Archives of the Library of Congress.[1] Edwards also recorded the album High Lonesome Cowboy with Peter Rowan and Tony Rice. In 1993 he appeared on Nanci Griffith’s Grammy Award winning album “Other Voices, Other Rooms” on which he accompanied Griffith on a Michael Burton song entitled “Night Rider’s Lament”. Edwards played the character Smokey in Robert Redford‘s The Horse Whisperer. Edwards also performs the song “Coyotes” that plays during the final minutes of the documentary Grizzly Man.
In 2005, Don Edwards was inducted into the Western Music Association Hall of Fame.
In addition to the concerts, the weekend will feature crafts such as leather work and gunsmithing in the Craft Village. Cowboys were drawn to the Ozarks in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s by cheap land, low taxes, abundant water and good grass. When they came, they found their neighbors had a rich tradition of songs and ballads similar to the cowboy songs and poetry from the West. Famous cowboy balladeers such as Glenn Ohrlin, Jim McElroy and Hubb Willis have called the Stone County Arkansas area home.
In honor of this tradition, and to discover the new cowboy poets of the Ozarks today, The Ozark Folk Center State Park is hosting a Cowboy Poetry Contest on Saturday, September 22nd at 2:00 p.m. in the White Oak Auditorium. This contest is low-key and fun.
So, pick up a rhyme, jingle your spurs and try your hand at wrangling a bit of history. Cowboy poetry is an oral tradition, so you must perform your own original poems, or bribe your friends to perform your poetry for you. Only original works are eligible to be judged. Judging will be done by a team of mule skinners, horse traders and trail riders. Winners will receive lots of applause.
Tickets for Charlie Daniels are $45.00. Tickets for Don Edwards are $20.00
