All they needed was a campfire. The Folk Reunion concert Thursday at the Reynolds Performance Hall at the University of Central Arkansas took many of us back to another era of music — one that has been buried by modern technology but still manages to tug at tender memories.
The Brothers Four, the Limelighters and the Kingston Trio, all pioneer bands in the "Hootenanny," American folk music thrust a half-century ago, were all featured during the homecoming segment of the UCA Public Appearances Series.
It was a pleasing toe-tapping, hand-clapping, sing-a-along session among an almost full house in which the prevailing hair was gray or none at all.
This was a concert for those who can remember typewriters, juke boxes and black-and-white TV.
It took us back to simpler days when someone just grabbed a guitar and a bunch of friends followed to a dorm, house or campfire and harmonized in a sing-a-long.
Jerry Biebesheimer, who directs the public appearance staff, set this one up especially for the post-45 crowd and his group should be commended.
Homecoming is for the alumni as much as it is for students, and it should have events appealing to both. Biesbesheimer arranged the concert with a nod toward the Class of '59, which celebrated its 50th anniversary during the weekend. The three groups performing Thursday trace their roots to the late 1950s and made regular appearances at colleges and universities in the '60s and '70s. Much of their music is embedded in the minds of those who went to college in that era and listened to juke boxes.
"For you younger people, a juke box is a giant iPod," said George Grove, the longest-tenured member of the Kingston Trio.
All three bands are the only continuing original folk bands on the active concert circuit. Bob Flick of the Brothers Four is a founding member of that group. The other musicians trace their links to their groups over several years in continuing the tradition. Bill Zorn of the Kingston Trio is much recycled, having started with the New Christy Minstrels and also serving as a former member of the Limelighters.
The neat part of the concert was its simplicity.
It's interesting. My son traveled to Oklahoma City last weekend to watch Bono perform on a high-tech, glitzy stage converted into a model spaceship that thought it was absolutely awesome. U2 is also one of my favorites of the modern rock bands.
Thursday night, there were no sets, no pyro, no fancy sound systems, nothing glitzy, nothing flashy, no eye-popping costumes, no dancers and no upscale electronically enhanced instruments.
There was a plain black stage, a few amplifiers, a few microphones, a few bottles of water on platforms and the performers playing acoustical string instruments and engaging in simple and melodious harmony.
This was music at its core — good instrumentation and good, clear harmony. It was music in which the music and the sound was more important than the volume.
The performances resonated on simple purity.
It was the ultimate in portable live music. It could be done in a concert hall, on a mountaintop, by a stream or in a den or dormitory room.
To the music palate, it was what made-from-scratch biscuits and gravy is to the taste buds.
There were so many old favorites, from the Brothers Four's haunting "The Green Leaves of Summer" to the Limelighters humorous satirical stuff that poked fun at their own genre to the Kingston Trio's big hits "Scotch and Soda" and "Tom Dooley."
What the artists described as the American Songbook went down a warm-and-fuzzy memory lane.
And the concert ended the only way it could end.
All the groups came on stage and joined together in the iconic folk anthem, "This Land is Your Land" as the audience clapped and sang along.