1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU

Subject: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 11:24 AM

This Sunday, June 18, I will be presenting highlights from the 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival on WFDU-FM's TRADITIONS.

In April of 1963 a two-day folk festival was held at a high school in Mountain View, Arkansas. One of the festival organizers, and emcee for the event, was Jimmy Driftwood. The festival celebrated music and heritage by presenting local musicians and members of a folk music club. A few names, such as Alameda Riddle, would gain national recognition but overall the festival was a well-attended celebration of local folk music, held in what was then one of the poorest counties in Arkansas and the country.

Another guiding light behind the organization of the festival, was folklorist John Quincy Wolf, Jr. Wolf documented much of the music of his native Arkansas, and he played a role in exposing Jimmy Driftwood, Alameda Riddle and others to folk circles beyond their region.    Wolf also brought a reel-to-reel recorder to the festival, set it up on a chair on stage, and recorded 4 hours of music from both nights of that first festival.

Upon his death, the tapes were given to Lyon College (then Arkansas College).   Last year, Lyon College released a two-CD set that allows the listener to re-experience that first festival. (The annual Arkansas Folk Festival continues to this day!)

I came across a copy a few months ago and was astounded by not only the superb quality of the recordings, but the magical spirit that was captured in the performances.   It is a look back at a time when folk music was more than something we listened to. It was a time when the music was part of the fabric of daily life in an area that was still maintaining rural traditions. It is a wonderful reminder of the importance and pure joy that music can bring.   I would also hope that it might remind some of us how a festival should be organized!!

For this weeks show, we will step back in time with our "tour guide", Dr. Brooks Blevins of Lyon College, who produced this magnificent CD set.   Brooks will give us insight into the lives of the performers and share some of the most captivating music I've heard in years.

Please join us. If you are in the NYC area you can listen in at 89.1FM, or you can tune in via the internet at www.wfdu.fm

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 12:39 PM

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 01:03 PM

Thanks for that, Ron. Sounds like a first rate show. I am sure that Brooks will entertain you with stories from that era, now long gone, though we are trying to keep the spirit of those times alive.

I got my copy of the CD when it first came out. Some of those people are still with us. I have many favorites, but I especially like the Blairs and the Leslie Band ~~ don't forget to mention that Benson Fox is playing the jawbone of an ass if you use one of those!

People interested in this music can order their own copy from http://www.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/blurb.html

The Lyon Site has MP3s of some of the things left off the CDs here http://www.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/festival.html

Worth a visit. While you are there, check out the other offerings from the John Quincy Wolf collection

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 01:23 PM

I should have mentioned that the BEST way to get your own copy is to visit the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View, Arkansas where you can also go to a musical show celebrating our musical heritage.

This weekend's special guests are the St. Louis Irish Arts, with shows on Friday night and Saturday afternoon and evening. Glenn Ohrlin who is on that 1963 festival recording will also be on Saturday night's show.

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 01:25 PM

Ah, a mental slipup ~~ I knew better. Glenn IS on this Saturday, but the St. Louis Irish Arts will not be there until NEXT week, June 23 & 24.

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: GUEST,Arkie
Date: 14 Jun 06 - 01:48 PM

Ron, I am sure pleased to see you do this. The quality of music was surprisingly good back in 1963 considering that Jimmy was the only professional if Almeda is discounted.   Martha Hollister, wife of Doc Hollister at the time, was offered a recording contract but declined.   Though Jimmy was a primary organizer of the music part of the Arkansas Folk Festival (there was also a big craft show) Doc Hollister was the one who had been getting the local musicians together that provided the main core of performers for the festival. Back in the 60s and 70s a lot of folk came to the Festival from Chicago and other midwestern cities.   From this festival came the initiative to establish a center for preserving the folk music of the Ozarks and the Ozark Folk Center opened its doors as an Arkansas State Park in 1973. The Arkansas Folk Festival is still an annual event and falls on the weekend with the third Saturday in April. Brooks was doing a first rate job with the Ozark Heritage program at Lyon and is now a faculty member at Lyon. He will make an excellent guide for the program.   He has done extensive research from which you will certainly benefit.

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 09:51 AM

Thank you Dale & Arkie for the kind words and information. The program has been recorded and Brooks touches on many of the items that you have mentioned (although I think we forgot to discuss the jawabone of an ass as an instrument on the cut we played!) The program will begin at 3pm Eastern and the portion about the 1963 Festival will take up most of the first two hours of our program.

In the final hour of the show, we will be looking at a "modern" festival - a preview of the upcoming Old Songs Festival with my guest - Andy Spence.   

I think the discussion and music of the two festivals really paints a unique picture of the evolution of folk music and festivals, and the role of traditional music.   I am looking forward to presenting this show!

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 01:18 PM

Here is the blue clicky:

www.wfdu.fm

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: Arkie
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 02:27 PM

I do not know where the concept came from, but some jawbone players here in the Ozarks in the early 70s referred to their instrument as the Jackassaphone.

I am hoping to be able to listen to the program. The final hour also looks very interesting. I have been on the Old Songs mail list for quite a few years and have kept my hopes alive of attending some day.

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: GUEST,Bill D
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 10:42 AM

Is WFDU on the air now? That is, is it live on the WWW? I have 6-7 devices that are supposed to play streaming Windows Media, but I get nothing except a brief ad for 'Replay radio'...and I can't always get that.

The link is not in a standard streaming format. What is the secret and why does it have to be so complicated?

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 10:58 AM

Just to be sure, I have played one of my local stations, WAMU in 2 different formats, using 3 different applications...using links like the following.
http://www.wamu.org/audio/wamu.asx
http://www.wamu.org/audio/wamu.m3u

I really would like to be ready to listen to the program later this afternoon on WFDU, but the link I get is
http://www.warpradio.com/popTuner.asp?id=12065, which is not a 'format', but some sort of a re-direct. (I have tried 3 different browers)

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 01:27 PM

Bill, it works for me. The station comes on AFTER that short ad for replay. My main computer is down at the moment, so this older Pentium 2 with Firefox 1.5.04 and (you can tell I don't use it much) Windows Media Player 6.4 is working just fine with a dialup currently at 44.

I only recently installed the Firefox when I saw I was going to have to use this machine for a while. I had been using Netscape 4.7.

Of course I won't be able to DO anything else but listen for fear of the dreaded rebuffering. Right now it has been on for over 11 minutes without dropping out.

As far as the redirect goes, it looks like the address on my ancient WMP is stream.asp-1.asx

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 01:38 PM

Hi Bill,

I'm not sure what happened when you tried earlier, but I just went on and it works. Be sure to go to our homepage and click on the link at the top right of our homepage - www.wfdu.fm . There is an ad for Replay radio and then the stream started without problem.

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 01:40 PM

(that was me above)

I have used Warpradio stations before, with no problems.

Have you checked in at Lyon for the extra songs I mentioned on 14 Jun 06 - 01:03 PM? While they are the leftovers, there is still much of interest there.

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: wysiwyg
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 01:41 PM

Sound on my computer is down, techie coming Wednesday. If anyone can share....

~Susan

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: Ron Davies
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 01:42 PM

Sounds like a great show. Congratulations!

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 02:00 PM

ok, gonna try again

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 02:26 PM

I think I got it, but it is amazing what I had to go thru to get it. I got nothing using Opera, so I opened Firefox...I clicked on the banner, got the ad, then a blank page. I did a "view source" on the blank page, which showed me some code and references to javascript....I noticed at the bottom of the blank page in Firefox an unusual orange arrow I hadn't seen before, so clicked IT....got a little popup window which said "one embedded object" and an option to copy THAT to the clipboard. Did so...got this:

http://www.warpradio.com/new/player/stream.asp?id=12065&streamType=&streamRate=&gatewayID=66

pasted that into my Media Player and the ad played, then the program started. THEN, I clicked on 'file' 'properties' in Media Player and got this:

mms://64.92.199.75 .....which is the actual address of the stream that media playing applications use.

Now, why the station can't make that address clear up front, I am not sure. Why the usual click didn't work for me 'may' be a function of firewalls or something, but I have configured those to allow the various players to allow 2-way freedom....

Anyway, I seem to be in now......

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 03:05 PM

I'm not sure what happened Bill. All I do is click on the icon and I'm connected. I haven't heard of any problems like this before. We will check it out.

Thanks for going through all the trouble to listen!! I really appreciate it!

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 04:20 PM

it's been playing just fine, but it just stopped....seems the stream is down..

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 04:24 PM

(as to why it was such a problem, I'm not sure. I do NOT use IE, preferring to use Opera & Firefox, but the default player is Media Player Classic, and it brings it up, but does not connect. I used the tricks noted above to find out what the actual working link was. Perhaps going thru the browser stalls it at the ad...*shrug*).

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 04:25 PM

Hi Don, I just happened to check Mudcat (since this show is recorded I have free time!) and saw your note. I checked on our laptop and the stream is still going strong.

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 04:32 PM

well, I went back to the beginning and reloaded the entire stream, including the ad....it re-started, but I missed maybe 10 minutes..

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 05:28 PM

well, it's been a nice program, Ron...I am glad I worked thru the technical stuff...

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: GUEST,Dale
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 05:43 PM

Yep, enjoyable even though I had already heard all of the music previously. I do suspect that Ron went back and added the jawbone of an ass reference!

Glenn Ohrlin stopped in and visited with me for a bit on Saturday, and we commented on the fact that though there are a good number of people from that 1963 festival still alive, he is the only one still performing regularly. I suspect that some are still playing for their own enjoyment though, which is really the whole point of playing and singing, don't you think?

Thanks again, Ron, Brooks and WFDU.

Subject: RE: 1963 Arkansas Folk Festival - on WFDU
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 08:05 PM

Thanks for the kind words. I enjoyed presenting this show.

Yes Dale, your mention of the jawbone ass started me thinking! I was planning on airing a few additional cuts after the interview portion ended so I had to add that cut! Thanks again!!